SRR Romania
Dating back to the 1950s, SRR’s collection includes more than 125,000 hours of sound stored on almost 600,000 carriers - including ¼-inch magnetic tape, DAT tape, vinyl and rubber records, and CDs - and full migration is expected to take about 10 years. To accomplish it, SRR’s mediARC™ system has deployed six NOA Ingest Line devices with a concurrent license model of NOA Record , MediaLector and CD Lector system, supporting a total of 28 concurrent audio paths.
“Because of the mediARC system we are able at last to surmount what had been the overwhelming challenge of preserving our valuable archive for future generations,” said Dan Barabas, Golden Fonoteca project manager for SRR. mediARC makes both the process of migration and ongoing management of the collection easier while at the same time greatly improving its transparency. We also appreciate NOA’s commitment to continually improving its product. mediARC ’s new Autocut™ feature, which automates the merging of analog files, is a big time saver, while MediaButler™ not only supports the most popular current formats but also those that are gaining popularity for the future. Moreover, the new document attachment extension contains data deduplication and supports the most common document formats with simple but effective rights management, all this now comprised in a fully enabled mediARC™ UNICODE version means we can confidently tackle the ongoing challenges of the preservation process.”
NOA’s mediARC™ is a powerful tool for cataloguing, indexing and managing audio content and associated metadata within a workflow. Once content has been ingested, mediARC™automatically encodes both high quality 96 kHz 24-bit .wav and browse-able MP3 copies of each file, including Waveform representation and track markers. When a file is requested, mediARC™ exports and transfers it according to user-customized instructions, with the optional inclusion of using NOA’s integrated CEDAR Declick or Dehiss functions to improve sound quality. System transparency enables users to see at a glance what has been exported or, at the click of a mouse, to move media assets and their metadata to the Radioman production system or to specified user groups.
The mediARC™ system in place at SRR incorporates NOA’s new MediaButler transcoding, which performs simultaneous file transcoding of eight of the most widely used audio file formats -- including wav, MP3, flac, and ac3 -- at speeds up to 8 times faster than its predecessor Wavebutler. Because MediaButler bases all transcoded duplicates on the first-generation high-resolution 96 kHz 24-bit.wav file, their quality is assured.
The SRR mediARC™ also includes NOA’s Autocut™ , which works in the background to automatically align and link the disparate elements of an analog recording into a single, seamless file – merging, for example, each of the several audio tapes required to create a symphony. Autocut™ bases its identification on two common portions of signal information as short as 30 seconds then automatically cross-fades between them to make a seamless connection. Using Autocut™, it is possible for a user to stop ingest in the middle of the process – to clean the recording heads, for example – then rewind, knowing Autocut™ will smooth out the rough spot in the resulting digital file. This feature saves significant time over manual methods.
“SRR’s venerable audio collection contains priceless historic and cultural content,” said Jean-Christophe Kummer, NOA managing partner. “Our mediARC solution helps to ensure its preservation for the future and also makes it easier for SRR to use it — and listeners to enjoy it — here in the present. My colleagues Sebastian Gabler, Cosmin Frentiu, Daniel Strut, Peter Kuhnle and the complete SnT team really did an excellent job to make this complete project happen within the given timelines - NOA can be proud of the achieved work.”
More information on NOA products is available at www.noa-archive.com and via e-mail at office@noa-archive.com or by telephone at +43 1 545 2700.