Television/Video Preservation Study: Volume 1:
Report
ISBN: 0-8444-0946-4
[Note: This is a plain, ASCII version of the report. Eventually,
this document will be converted to html format and footnote text will
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TELEVISION AND VIDEO PRESERVATION 1997
A Report on the Current State of American Television
and Video Preservation
Volume 1
October 1997
REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS
TELEVISION AND VIDEO PRESERVATION 1997
A Report on the Current State of American Television
and Video Preservation
Volume 1: Report
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
October 1997
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Television and video preservation 1997: A report on the
current state of American television and video
preservation: report of the Librarian of Congress.
p. cm.
þThis report was written by William T. Murphy, assigned to
the Library of Congress under an inter-agency agreement with
the National Archives and Records Administration, effective
October 1, 1995 to November 15, 1996"--T.p. verso.
þSeptember 1997."
Contents: v. 1. Report --
ISBN 0-8444-0946-4
1. Television film--Preservation--United States. 2.
Video tapes--Preservation--United States. I. Murphy,
William Thomas II. Library of Congress.
TR886.3 .T45 1997
778.59'7'0973--dc 21
97-31530
CIP
Table of Contents
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Preface by James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress .
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
A. Origins of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. Scope of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
C. Fact-finding Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
D. Urgency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E. Earlier Efforts to Preserve Television . . . . . . .
F. Major Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. The Materials and Their Preservation Needs
A. Films Made for Television and Kinescope Recordings
B. Videotape Recordings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. Television and Video Preservation in Practice in Corporate
and Public Archives
Corporate:
A. Major Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. Television Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . .
C. Public Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Largest Public Archives:
A. Library of Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. UCLA Film and Television Archive. . . . . . .
Specialized Public Archives--A Selection:
A. National Archives and Records Administration.
B. Public Affairs Video Archives . . . . . . . .
C. Political Commercial Archive. . . . . . . . .
D. New York Public Library Collections . . . . .
E. Awards Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Broadcasting Museums:
A. Museum of Television and Radio. . . . . . . .
B. Museum of Broadcast Communications. . . . . .
4. Local Television News Archives. . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Video Art and Independent Video . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Access
A. Educational Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. Obstacles to Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7. Current Funding for Preservation. . . . . . . . . . . .
8. A National Plan: Recommendations for Safeguarding and
Preserving the American Television and Video Heritage.
Appendices (not in this Internet version)
A. Federal Register Notice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. A Selective Chronology of Events Relating to
Television and Video Archives . . . . . . . . . . .
C. Holdings of Television and Video Materials in Public
Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
D. A Report on Television Commercials . . . . . . . . . . .
E. Recommendations Submitted by Witnesses . . . . . . . . .
F. International Federation of Television Archives, Draft
Recommended Standards and Procedures for Selection For
Preservation of Television Programmes (September 1995) .
G. A Sample Duplication Rate Sheet from ABC News. . . . . .
H. A Suggested Manufacturer's Label for Video Cassettes to
Encourage Proper Handling and Storage. . . . . . . . . .
I. List of Television and Video Databases . . . . . . . . .
J. Letter Concerning Off-air Recording from Steve Bryant,
National Film and Television Archive, London . . . . . .
K. Chronological History of Videotape Formats (courtesy Jim
Wheeler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LIST OF FIGURES
Table 1: Videotape Storage Recommendations. . . . . . . . .
Table 2: Videotape Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Table 3: Selected Analog Videotape Formats. . . . . . . . .
Table 4: Digital Videotape Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Table 5: Studiosþ Average Storage Conditions. . . . . . . .
Table 6: Some Studio Statistics for Television Materials. .
Table 7: ABC Film and Videotape Inventory . . . . . . . . .
Table 8: CBS Film and Videotape Inventory . . . . . . . . .
Table 9: NBC Film and Videotape Inventory . . . . . . . . .
Table 10: National Public Broadcasting Archives:
Videotape/Kinescope Inventory . . . . . . . . . .
Table 11: WGBH Media Archives and Preservation Center
Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgements
The writer of this report--William T. Murphy--would like to
thank the many organizations that have provided highly
relevant information and the many individuals who provided
written materials, shared their ideas, and made thoughtful
recommendations. In addition, the writer would like to thank
Steve Leggett, Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division, Library of Congress, for lending his valuable
organizational skills to the project and for his timely
assistance when most needed.
Edie Adams
Peter Adelstein Image Permanence Institute
Gray Ainsworth Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Rebecca Bachman Walker Arts Center
Jim Baggett Birmingham (AL) Public Library
Erik Barnouw Professor Emeritus, Columbia
University
Laurie Baty National Historical Publications and
Records Commission
Roger Bell Fox, Inc.
William Boddy CUNY, Baruch College and Graduate
Center
Lisle Brown Marshall University, Morrow Library
Robert Browning Purdue University Public Affairs
Video Archives
Steve Bryant National Film and Television
Archive/British Film Institute
Frank Burke University of Maryland, College of
Library and Information Science
John Caldwell California State University, Long
Beach, Film and Electronic Arts
Department
John Cannon National Academy of Television Arts
and Sciences
Elizabeth Cardman University of Illinois Libraries
Kitty Carlisle Hart New York State Council for the Arts
Paolo Cherchi-Usai George Eastman House International
Museum of Photography and Film
Kathy Christensen CNN
Glenn Clatworthy Public Broadcasting Service
Kenneth Cobb New York City Municipal Archives
Nancy Cole NBC News
Edward Coltman Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Thomas Connors National Public Broadcasting Archives,
University of Maryland
John Craddock Home Box Office
Judy Crichton WGBH
Thomas Cripps Morgan State University, Department
of History
Pia Cseri-Briones Visual Studies Workshop
Steven Davidson Louis Wolfson II Media History
Center
Don Decesare Crossroads Communications LLC
Dan Den Bleyker Mississippi Dept. of Archives and
History
Karen DeSeve Eastern State (WA) Historical Society
Ernie Dick Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Thomas Doherty Brandeis University, Film Studies
Program
Dan Einstein UCLA Film and Television Archive
Harrison Ellenshaw Walt Disney Company
Richard Engeman University of Washington Libraries
Wayne Everard New Orleans Public Library
Richard Fauss West Virginia Division of Culture and
History
Raymond Fielding Florida State University, School of
Film and Television
Sally Fifer Bay Area Video Coalition
Paul Fleckenstein Sioux City (IA) Public Museum
Maxine Fleckner Ducey Wisconsin Center for Film and
Theater Research
Stephen Fletcher Indiana Historical Society
David Francis Library of Congress, Motion Picture
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division
Michael Friend Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, Academy Film Archive
Steven Gamble University of Georgia, WSB Television
Newsfilm Archive
Peter Gardiner Warner Bros.
Martin Gaston The News Library
Gerald George National Historical Publications and
Records Commission
Linda Giannecchini National Academy of Television Arts
and Sciences (Northern
California Chapter)
Douglas Gibbons Museum of Television and Radio
Gerry Gibson Library of Congress, Preservation
Research and Testing Division
Charlene Gilbert Noyes Sacramento Archives and Museum
Collection Center
Douglas Gomery University of Maryland, College Park,
College of Journalism
Allan Goodrich John F. Kennedy Library
Jane Greenberg University of Pittsburgh, School of
Library and Information Science
Ray Greene Boxoffice
Robert Haller Anthology Film Archives
Rosemary Hanes Library of Congress, Motion Picture
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division
John Hatfield New Museum of Contemporary Art
Kathleen Haynes University of Oklahoma,
Political Commercial Archive
Robert Heiber Chace Productions, Inc.
Judi Hoffman Library of Congress, Motion Picture,
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division, National Digital
Library
Kate Horsfield Video Data Bank
William Humphrey Sony Pictures Entertainment
Barbara Humphrys Library of Congress, Motion Picture
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division
Mary Ide WGBH
William Jarvis WETA-TV
Joyce Jefferson The Weather Channel
Margaret Jerrido Temple University, Urban Archives
Mona Jimenez Media Alliance
Catherine Johnson Dance Heritage Coalition
Leith Johnson Wesleyan University Cinema Archives
Greg Jones A&E Network
Bill Judson Carnegie Museum of Art
Karen Kalish NT Audio
Fay Kanin Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences
Joel Kanoff ABC News
Lillian Katz Port Washington (NY) Public Library
David Kepley National Archives and Records
Administration
Grace Lan Bay Area Video Coalition/National Alliance
of Media Arts and Culture
Michael Lang ABC Broadcast Operations and
Engineering
David Lavoie
Fred Layn Quantegy
Dan Leab Seton Hall University
Lynda Lee Kaid University of Oklahoma, Political
Commercial Archive
Graham Leggat Media Alliance
Alan Lewis National Archives and Records
Administration
Lawrence Lichty Northwestern University, Dept.
of Radio/Television/Film
Grace Lile CNN New York Bureau
David Liroff WGBH-TV
Barbara London Museum of Modern Art
James Loper Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences
Patrick Loughney Library of Congress, Motion Picture
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division
Gregory Lukow National Center for Film and Video
Preservation, American Film
Institute
Karen Lund Library of Congress, Motion Picture,
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division, National Digital
Library
John Lynch Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Scott MacQueen The Walt Disney Company
Shaner Magalhþes State Historical Society of Iowa
Madeline Matz Library of Congress, Motion Picture
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division
Dick May Turner Entertainment Co.
Roger Mayer Turner Entertainment Co.
Charles Mayn National Archives and Records
Administration
Allan McConnell Library of Congress, Motion Picture
Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division
Betsy McLane International Documentary Association
Annette Melville
Dara Meyers-Kingsley Andy Warhol Foundation
Sara Meyerson Strawhat Productions
Sherry Miller Hocking Experimental Television Center
Phil Murphy Paramount Pictures
Gerald Newborg State Historical Society of North
Dakota
Madeleine Nichols New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts, Dance Collection
Maureen O'Brien Will Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America
Cary O'Dell Museum of Broadcast Communications
Bill O'Farrell National Archives of Canada
Bob O'Neil Universal City Studios
Eric Paddock Colorado Historical Society
Ellie Peck New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts, Dance Collection
Louise Pfotenhauer Neville Public Museum of Brown County
(WI)
Marge Ponce ABC Entertainment
Francis Poole University of Delaware Library
Kenn Rabin
Joe Rader University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Libraries
Charles Rand University of Oklahoma, Political
Commercial Archive
James Rhoads Western Washington University, Center
for Pacific Northwest
Edward Richmond UCLA Film and Television Archive
Barbara Ringer Library of Congress, Register of
Copyrights Emeritus
Robert Rosen UCLA Film and Television Archive
Joanne Rudof Yale University, Fortunoff Video
Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
Diane Ryan Chicago Historical Society
Robert Saudek
Peter Schade Turner Entertainment Co.
Fay Schreibman McGrew Multimedia Trading Company
Eric Schwartz Smith and Metalitz, L.L.P.
Mary Schwartz University of Baltimore, Langsdale
Library
Ruth Schwer News Hour with Jim Lehrer
Wendy Shay Smithsonian Institution, National
Museum of American History
Milt Shefter Miljoy Enterprises
Barry Sherman University of Georgia, School of
Journalism
Debbie Silverfine New York State Council on the Arts
Scott Simmon
Lynn Spigel University of Southern California,
School of Cinema-Television
George Stevens, Jr.
Michael Stier Cunningham Dance Foundation
Laura Street LSU in Shreveport, Noel Memorial
Library
Linda Sue Hagood
Dan Sullivan CBS Television City
Elizabeth Sullivan CNN, Washington Bureau
Sam Suratt
Harry Sweet
Winston Tabb Library of Congress, Associate
Librarian for Library Services
Linda Tadic University of Georgia, Peabody Award
Archive
Francine Taylor Alaska Moving Image Preservation
Association
Edwin Thanhouser Thanhouser Company Film Preservation,
Inc.
Toni Treadway International Center for 8mm Film and
Video
Larry Urbanski Moviecraft, Inc.
John Van Bogart National Media Lab
Jac Venza WNET-TV
Jos‚ Villegas New Mexicoo State Records Center and
Archives
Stephen Vitiello Electronic Arts Intermix
Les Waffen National Archives and Records
Administration
Gloria Walker Deep Dish TV Network/Educational
Video Center
Duane Watson New York Public Library
Dean Watts Warner Bros.
David Weiss Northeast Historic Film
David Wexler Hollywood Vaults
Helene Whitson San Francisco Bay Area Television
Archive, San Francisco State
University
Bonnie Wilson Minnesota Historical Society
Pam Wintle Smithsonian Institution, Human
Studies Film Archives
Ken Wlaschin National Center for Film and Video
Preservation, American Film
Institute
Lisa Wood University of Kentucky, Margaret King
Library
Ed Zeier Universal City Studios
Task Forces Members:
"Preservation" Task Force:
Deirdre Boyle Associate Professor, The New School for
Social Research
Peter Brothers President/Managing Member, SPECS BROS.,
LLC
David Chilson Manager, Systems Planning, ABC Broadcast
Operations and Engineering
James Lindner President, Vidipax, Inc.
James Wheeler President, Tape Archival and Restoration
Services
"Access" Task Force:
Janet Bergstrom Associate Professor, Department of
Film and Television,
UCLA, and representing the Society
for Cinema Studies
Grover Crisp Director of Asset Management, Film
and Tape Operations, Sony
Pictures Entertainment
David Culbert Editor, Historical Journal of Film, Radio,
and Television; Professor of History, Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge
Michael Curtin Director, Cultural Studies Program,
Indiana University
Doug McKinney Director of Archives, CBS News
Deanna Marcum President, Commission on Preservation and
Access
Stan Singer Manager, NBC News Archives
"Funding" Task Force:
Mary Lea Bandy Chief Curator, Dept. of Film and Video,
Museum of Modern Art
Robert Batscha President, Museum of Television and Radio
Dan Curtis President, Dan Curtis Productions
Lynda Lee Kaid Director, Political Communications
Center/Political Commercial
Archive, Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman
James Loper Executive Director, Academy of
Television Arts and
Sciences
Preface by:
James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress
Television affects our lives from birth to death. Most
Americans inform and entertain themselves through it, and we
use it to distract our children by providing (to paraphrase a
famous quote) þchewing gum for their eyes.þ Sadly, we have
not yet sought to preserve this powerful medium in anything
like a serious or systematic manner. At present, chance
determines what television programs survive. Future scholars
will have to reply on incomplete evidence when they assess the
achievements and failures of our culture.
The 1992 National Film Preservation Act directed me, with
advice from the National Film Preservation Board, 1) to
prepare a study on the state of American film preservation and
2) then to design an effective program to improve current
practices and to coordinate the preservation efforts of
studios, archives and others. With cooperation from the film
community, the Library of Congress completed the study and
plan, and is now implementing the planþs recommendations. The
plan called for a similar initiative involving television and
video.
The 1976 Copyright Act established the American
Television and Radio Archive in the Library of Congress.
Since then we have acquired a treasure house of television
programs in the form of copyright deposits or gifts. We have
the entire output of National Educational Television and its
successor, the Public Broadcasting System; all of NBCþs extant
entertainment programs; the main network evening news
transmissions-- through an arrangement with Vanderbilt
University; tapes of floor proceedings from the U.S. Senate
and House of Representatives, and much more. The Act also
gave us a modest annual budget to enhance, preserve, document
and make available the archive of American television.
The Library has prepared this report in just a little
over a yearþs time under the leadership of William Murphy of
the National Archives and Records Administration. Hearings in
Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. enabled a wide
variety of interested parties to testify in person. Nearly
100 individuals and institutions submitted written statements.
The academic community stressed both the importance of
television as a source material for the study of history, and
the difficulties in gaining access for educational use to
programs which have survived. Production companies and
network executives suggested innovative ways to make news
programming available to the academic community.
Television artists are rightly sensitive about living
life in the shadow of cinema. Their achievements should be
honored in their own forum, and individual donors should be
able to direct their generosity toward safeguarding the
television and video heritage just as they do for cinema.
Lack of resources is a major problem identified in this
report: and the plan presents some innovative fund-raising
proposals to help protect our television and video heritage.
I thank the members of the National Film Preservation
Board for their help, counsel and testimony. I also commend
the Association of Moving Image Archivists, an organization
that has succeeded shown over the last few years in uniting
under a single banner preservationists in the industry and
nonprofit archives, in order to help us implement the
recommendations in this report. The Library of Congress has
invested considerable resources in preparation of this report.
We are therefore encouraged to know that the community that
will benefit from the planþs ambitious ideas has volunteered
to help bring them into reality.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The American television and video heritage is at risk. Early
television was broadcast live, kinescope or film copies were
made selectively, other programs were deliberately destroyed,
and videotapes were erased and recycled, still an unfortunate
practice in the production of local television news.
Television film and videotape vulnerability to deterioration
further imperils this rich heritage, and additional videotape
recordings may be lost to posterity if archival programs do
not address format obsolescence.
That this heritage is worth preserving is a major theme of
this report. Archival holdings of television and video
materials have enormous educational and cultural value, as
recognized in the American Television and Radio Archives Act
(1976) and expressed in the testimony of educators who
participated in Library of Congress's public hearings. Public
archives are obliged to preserve television materials because
of the popularity of television in American society and
because of educational interests that focus on television's
interactive role in numerous social and political processes.
Our heritage would be diminished if this vast record of our
culture is allowed to vanish. Inaction will eventually take
its toll.
The scope of the report includes television and video
materials in all their major dimensions: entertainment,
nonfiction, news and public affairs, public television, local
television news, video art, and independent video. Motion
picture film made for television is included because film
along with videotape has played a fundamental role in
television production since its earliest days. Just as the
Library of Congress spearheaded the initiative to assess the
general state of American film preservation in 1993, it is
appropriate that the Library, the home of the Congressionally-
authorized American Television and Radio Archive (ATRA),
assume a similar leadership role in assessing the state of
American television and video preservation. Two key
objectives of the report are to lay down a factual foundation
for understanding the issues confronting the preservation of
American television and video, and to recommend a national
plan of action based upon a broad consensus of the archival
community.
Major Findings
Educational access remains largely unattainable for
a variety of reasons, including underfunding in
public archives, lack of descriptive cataloging and
reference copies, copyright interests and very
restrictive usage policies.
Scholars best qualified to judge the long-term
research value of television and video materials are
generally not given ample opportunity to participate
in decision making in public and corporate archives
on what will be saved and made available.
Consequently scholars do not believe archives can
always act in their best interests. The academic
community, however, is not prepared to put funding
into film preservation to ensure the availability of
the programs it needs for teaching and research
purposes.
Few television programs held by the major studios
and networks are destroyed as a result of deliberate
decisions or policies. The growth of the cable
industry, video cassettes, multimedia, and overseas
sales has encouraged the preservation of television
and video materials. Each of the eight major studios
that have produced extensive prime time programming
has an assets protection program that includes film
and television inventories. Past programs are
protected rather than destroyed since they represent
the real asset value of the corporations. Studios
have been able to implement strategies for the
preservation of videotape as part of managed
programs.
The network news divisions have the greatest
preservation difficulty because of the sheer
quantity of film footage and videotapes they
produce. The network archives are focused on the
daily production needs of broadcasters, constantly
posing a danger that precious images so important to
the collective memory of the American people will be
lost, altered, or destroyed. Every group that has
studied the selection of television for preservation
has concluded that all news programs should be
retained and preserved as aired. The major networks
have recently sought to improve storage conditions
and set up programs for the conversion of obsolete
or deteriorating videotapes.
Public television has always faced financial
uncertainty, relegating preservation to a low
priority. Yet, in the aggregate, public television
programming has recorded the rich cultural history
of the United States, especially in the performing
arts. The preservation provision of the Public
Broadcasting Act of 1967 has not been carried out,
and it is only with the signing of the 1993 PBS-
Library of Congress Agreement that there is a
systematic means for assuring that these programs
will be preserved.
The most devastating losses have already occurred
among news film and videotape files of local
television stations across the United States. These
losses were prompted by the switch from 16mm film to
3/4-inch U-matic for Electronic News Gathering in
the mid-1970's. Some 25 years (covering
approximately 1950-75) of American state and local
history were destroyed. Less than 10% of the news
film libraries survive in public archives. Even
today local news tapes are rarely kept more than a
week before they are recycled. About 20 states have
no local television news collections in public
archives, and very few libraries or archives take
advantage of the right to make and retain off-air
copies of daily newscasts. The Vanderbilt University
Television News Archive is the only archive to do so
at the network level.
The works of video artists and of independent video
producers also face a precarious existence. Few
productions have found their way into traditional
archives. Researchers find it difficult to
understand what was produced and what still exists.
Many of the earliest open reel tapes made on the
consumer format EIAJ have already decayed. No
comprehensive effort has been made to list, catalog,
or document, let alone preserve this remarkable
record of American history and culture.
Funding of television and video preservation has
been, in a word, inadequate. Foundations have
rejected video preservation grant applications
because of a perceived inadequacy of videotape as a
preservation medium. However inadequate funding for
motion picture preservation may appear, television
and video archivists look with envy at the programs
that have been set up to preserve American cinema.
Advocates of television and video materials feel
that their second-class status is no longer
justified.
Recommendations
The final part of the report constitutes a national plan of
action in four critical areas: preservation, access, funding,
and public awareness.
Preservation:
Promotes the concept of a shared responsibility for the
American television and video heritage, and calls for
public and corporate archives to rationalize and
coordinate their preservation programs to avoid
unnecessary duplication and ensure that no significant
portion of this heritage (held in collections throughout
the nation) is endangered.
Provides a working definition of video preservation as
part of a total management system and proposes
appropriate considerations and strategies with respect to
technological obsolescence of video formats, restoration,
and storage.
Reiterates the importance of the 1993 motion picture
study as guidance for safeguarding and preserving film
and addresses specific technical issues relating to
television film.
Defines the role of film and videotape in preservation
copying.
Recommends the establishment of a Video Preservation
Study Center to collect bibliographic materials,
manufacturersþ literature, and obsolete equipment.
Access
Encourages public and corporate archives to seek the
advice and guidance of scholars and educators to
establish appraisal standards and determine appropriate
selection guidelines.
Urges the identification of important television programs
and coverage of events each year to encourage prompt
availability in a public archives.
Urges local television stations to work closely with
advisory boards and local archives to halt further
destruction of local news coverage.
Recognizes the importance of video art and independent
video production and calls for increased efforts to
stimulate their collection.
Urges the support of public policies that encourage the
widespread dissemination of information through the
Internet and other sources, and asks for a national union
listing, a network of publicly shared databases, and a
comprehensive catalog of American television programs by
decade.
Suggests ways for increasing the physical availability of
television materials, minimizing regional or economic
barriers.
Urges the Library of Congress to use its current
authority under the Copyright Act of 1976 for off-air
taping to the fullest extent possible, and encourages
other libraries and archives to establish off-air
recording projects as authorized by the Copyright Act for
daily newscasts.
Identifies steps to make it easier for scholars and
educators to use television and video materials in their
research, writing, and teaching, and calls for interested
parties to intensify discussions (through conferences,
informal channels and other means), regarding copyright
and educational access to television and video archives.
Only through such dialogue can these difficult issues be
fully addressed and perhaps solved.
Funding
Recommends the establishment of an independent nonprofit
organization in the private sector to raise funds for
television and video preservation, to recognize through
an awards program individuals and organizations in this
endeavor, and to keep television and video preservation
at the forefront of the national archival agenda.
Urges public archives to build a consensus around the
principles of television and video preservation and make
them understandable to funding organizations, which
should then be more responsive to the needs of television
and video archives.
Asks federal agencies to improve coordination of their
much valued funding efforts.
Proposes discussions (among all affected parties) be held
regarding possibility of two new avenues of funding: a
dedicated sales tax and a share in future FCC auctions of
broadcast spectrum.
Asks the CPB to establish a preservation grants program
pursuant to the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.
Recommends direct public appeals for donations through
appropriate archival programming.
Proposes the Library of Congress use off-air recordings
as a possible substitute for copyright deposit copies, if
such an operation could be funded by the industry.
Increasing Public Awareness
Recommends the creation of a National Registry of
television and video treasures at the Library of
Congress.
Encourages professional and industry organizations to
advance the cause of preservation through awards and
grants.
Identifies the need for a documentary about the problems
of television and video preservation aimed at general
audiences and potential funders.
Urges the inclusion of video art and independent video in
all public awareness campaigns.
This report marks only the beginning of a process to safeguard
and preserve the American television and video heritage.
Developing an implementation plan is the next crucial step, a
plan that will assign lead responsibility for each
recommendation to appropriate institutions and organizations.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
A. Origins of Study
The origins of this study are interwoven with the history of
the film and television preservation movement in the United
States. It was in fact a film preservation study conducted by
the Librarian of Congress, under the National Film
Preservation Act of 1992, in consultation with the National
Film Preservation Board, that provided the particular impetus
to begin a study of the preservation status of American
television and video materials.(1) A key recommendation asked
for "a national study on the state of American television and
video materials." The Librarian decided to conduct the study
under the framework of the American Television and Radio
Archives(2) (ATRA) legislation incorporated into the 1976
Copyright Act. The recommendation emerged from the Library's
earlier study, Film Preservation 1993: A Study of the Current
State of American Film Preservation, which described the most
important problems facing film archives such as nitrate and
acetate film deterioration, color fading, and the need for
improved storage conditions. The earlier report and plan
included a full range of archival issues relating to moving
images relevant to the present discussion.
This report also re-defined film preservation, taking into
account the practices of the major studios and larger film
archives, and the accumulated experience and knowledge of
preservationists. For television and video preservation it is
not so much a question of re-definition as it is defining
preservation for the first time. Among the many reasons that
a cohesive, nationwide effort to safeguard and preserve
American television and video has yet to be organized is the
absence of an archival paradigm that could include the
impermanence of videotape with all its formats, the massive
volume of generated material, and the decentralized and
fragmentary nature of production processes in the United
States compared to those of other countries. Preservation, to
be sure, is central to the discussion, but whatever success
the archival community has been able to achieve has been in
the absence of an agreed-upon definition of television and
video preservation and a comprehensive archival view. Thus,
the overall purpose of the study is to lay down a factual
foundation for understanding the issues and problems facing
the preservation of American television and video materials,
and, based upon this information, to develop a national plan.
Just as the Library of Congress spearheaded the initiative to
assess the general state of American film preservation in
1993, it seems even more appropriate that the Library assume a
similar leadership role in this endeavor. The Copyright Act of
1976 gave the Library the awesome responsibility for
establishing the American Television and Radio Archives which
would house a permanent record of the television and radio
programs which are the heritage of the people of the United
States and to provide access to historians and scholars
without encouraging or causing copyright infringement.(2A)
Twenty years have elapsed since the passage of this historic
legislation, and remarkable changes have taken place since
then that make some general re-assessment necessary. Among
these changes are a university curriculum increasingly focused
on the inter-relationship of media and society; broadcast
industry expansion; and technological innovation. The
audiovisual archival community itself has changed
significantly in the last twenty years, in its numbers and its
degree of professionalism, increasingly willing to articulate
its genuine needs in competition with other national funding
priorities. Such changes inevitably influence the shape and
character of archival programs.
B. Scope of Study
This report concentrates on the preservation status of
television and video created over the preceding fifty years
of American history. Radio broadcast materials, important in
their own right, are not included in the present discussion
but may be the focus of another archival report. American
television includes all programs regardless of their delivery
or distribution systems; entertainment, documentary, news and
public affairs, commercial programs, public broadcasting
programs. For news and documentary, the scope includes
unedited footage, or outtakes and trims, what some have called
the raw materials of history. The scope also includes national
as well as local programming. Local television news is
represented in numerous collections throughout the nation.
Video materials made only for video display and not
necessarily for broadcast are also an important part of the
audiovisual heritage; these include video art, works conceived
in the context of video display and fixed on videotape;
independent or community video, productions made outside the
mainstream media and used in the struggle for social and
political change; and video as documentation, such as used by
Federal agencies to record important events in our collective
history as a nation. All this discussion of video and
videotape makes it easy to overlook the importance of film as
part of the American television heritage. From television
broadcasting's earliest days to the current era, motion
picture film has played a fundamental role. Thus films made
primarily for broadcast are included in the scope of this
report.
C. Fact-finding Process
Information and comments were invited relating to television
and video preservation nationwide. A notice was published in
the Federal Register on January 3, 1996 (See Appendix A).
Copies of the notices, along with a survey questionnaire, were
mailed to over 700 institutions and individuals inviting their
contribution or participation. In addition, a number of site
visits, interviews, and presentations were made to obtain
relevant information and stimulate interest in this research
project.
The core of the information presented in this report is based
on the statements and discussions made in three day-long
public hearings conducted by the Library of Congress in 1996:
Los Angeles, March 13; New York, March 19; and Washington,
March 26. Altogether 73 "witnesses" (not actually deposed and
sworn in) addressed many of the key issues and concerns,
described their own experiences in the field, and made
numerous thoughtful recommendations for improvement in basic
areas like preservation, access, training, public awareness,
and funding. (See Appendix E.) To the extent possible these
recommendations take into account the needs of public and
corporate archives and have been adopted and consolidated in
the "national plan," which forms the final part of this
report. (See Chapter 8.)
In each city a panel of Library officials and distinguished
representatives from different fields heard the statements and
led the discussions. Presentations were organized according to
affinity groups such as educators, major studios, network
television, public broadcasting, and public archives. Every
person who requested to make a statement before a panel was
accommodated. Due to time constraints, however, witnesses
could not always present their entire written statements.
However, both the oral and written statements have been
published elsewhere in this report. (See volumes 2,3,4 and 5.)
D. Urgency
In an ideal world television and video materials are recorded
on a durable preservation format and carefully managed and
stored from the first day of production. They are fully
described in comprehensive catalogs and databases within reach
of the nearest Internet connection, reference copies of the
programs themselves are as ubiquitous as books, and
restrictions governing nonprofit, educational use are few.
Unfortunately the real state of television and video
preservation is just the opposite of this ideal picture.
Videotape is at best a medium-term storage format whose
usefulness is shortened by adverse storage conditions and
technological obsolescence. Cataloging is scarce, limited to a
few institutions or selective parts of collections, making it
difficult to know what existed, what still exists, and where
it may be found. Access to television and video materials for
educational purposes is severely limited for a variety of
reasons, the most important being copyright ownership .
Archival access means a researcher's ability to consult
records or documents together with the ability to reproduce
them. The copyright owner has exclusive rights of
reproduction, exhibit, or display except for specific
limitations on exclusive use that Congress created for
archives and libraries with respect to daily newscasts and for
instances of "fair use."
It is important to view these limitation in the context of the
history of television, much of which has already been lost.
Early commercial television, roughly dating from the late
1940's, was live television, although recordings were made on
film, called "kinescopes," and used sparingly for repeats,
time-delay broadcasts to the west coast, and syndication in
other markets. Ampex introduced professional recording
videotape in 1956, an expensive 2-inch open-reel format used
selectively, and often erased and reused.
As the first witness at the Los Angeles public hearing,
television star Edie Adams described her difficulties when she
tried to obtain kinescopes and videotapes of the television
shows of comedian Ernie Kovacs, her husband who had died
suddenly in 1962. After his death she embarked on a search and
found it difficult to confirm inventories and titles; she
learned that the programs he did for the DuMont network were
dumped in a bay. She deposited what she found in UCLA's Film
and Television Archive. In the history of television many
important transmissions were not recorded or copies have been
lost.
Losses from Early Television History
þ Opening of the World's Fair in New York,
showing President Roosevelt with David
Sarnoff, April 20, 1939; the first
commercial broadcast.*
þ President Truman's address, September 30,
1947; first televised address from the
White House.
þ Opening nights from the Metropolitan
Opera broadcast by ABC in 1948 and 1950.
þ All television coverage of the 1948
presidential election.
þ Jackie Gleason's Cavalcade of Stars,
1950-1952.
þ I Love Lucy pilot, 1951. [Found!]
þ The first episode of CBS Evening News
recorded on videotape, November 1956.
þ The first Super Bowl recorded on
videotape and subsequently erased,
January 15, 1967.
þ Milton Berle's Texaco Theater, many
episodes lost.(3)
þ Soupy Sales programs during the 1960's.
þ The first ten years of the Tonight Show
were erased or destroyed, including the
television singing debut of Barbra
Streisand.(4)
þ Network copies of You'll Never Get Rich
starring Phil Silvers, who fortunately
saved some episodes and donated them to
UCLA.
þ Patsy Cline performances during the
1950's on local Washington, D.C.
television.
þ Hullabaloo and Shindig, early rock and
roll shows.
þ The complete version of The Twelve Angry
Men.
þ Only 26 episodes of Big Town survive.
þ CBS broadcast of Cinderella, a musical
speciality written for television by
Rogers and Hammerstein starring Julie
Andrews, March 21, 1957. Only the sound
*This and many items listed below are from a flyer distributed
by the Museum of Television and Radio(formerly the Museum of
Broadcasting)
Few early soap operas survive. There were few television
newscasts saved prior to August 1968. Many local television
news film libraries, some representing four decades of
regional and local history, were destroyed by the truck load.
Through sales, some copies of American programs and more
footage ended up in foreign broadcasting organizations or
archives, but no systematic survey has been undertaken to
ascertain what may survive.
E. Earlier Efforts to Preserve Television
Needless to say, extensive and irretrievable losses have
occurred in the past. Some of the losses can be attributed to
the limitations of technology and short-sighted commercial
practices. Part of the blame can be placed on the lack of a
preservation sensibility for television, a need not clearly
articulated by public archives until the last few decades. The
Library of Congress accepted copies of television programs for
copyright purposes as early as 1949, but television
preservation was not identified as a separate program apart
from its other activities. In 1965 the Academy of Television
Arts and Sciences established a national television library at
UCLA, which has evolved into the second largest public
archives of its kind in the United States. In 1976 UCLA
changed its name to the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Also, in the same year the Peabody Award Archive of broadcasts
was established at the University of Georgia.(5)
From 1967 to 1971 the William Paley Foundation commissioned
Dr. William B. Bluem to study the possibility of creating a
master collection of broadcast programs. The Bluem report
found that "there is an urgent and vital need to create a
master plan and a centralized collecting institution to
prevent destruction and loss."(6) This and subsequent actions
carried out by the Paley Foundation led to the founding of the
Museum of Broadcasting in 1976 in New York.
The impetus for the preservation of network news started not
with the networks but with the Television News Archive of
Vanderbilt University founded during the tumultuous
presidential election campaign of 1968.
The American Film Institute, which in 1972 decided to include
television in its preservation interests, through the speeches
and writings of its first director, George Stevens, Jr.,
articulated a need to preserve television programming. The AFI
formed a coordinating committee and encouraged the Ford
Foundation to develop guidance on acquisition, selection and
preservation issues. Despite the work of three committees
working under Ford sponsorship no final report was ever
issued. Nevertheless, the AFI helped to establish regular
lines of communications among television archives, at first
through small informal groups, and then through the Television
Archives Advisory Committee (TAAC), which subsequently merged
with the Film Archives Advisory Committee (FAAC). The combined
FAAC/TAAC re-constituted itself as the Association of Moving
Image Archivists (AMIA) in 1990. Since then AMIA has served
as an important forum for the regular exchange of information
between public and corporate archives that share a mutual
interest in moving-image preservation and other related
subjects.
The Library of Congress activities in this area have stemmed
from its responsibilities under the copyright law and the
donations of various individuals and organizations. The
Copyright Act of 1976 significantly increased the number of
television registrations. In 1977 the Library hired the
eminent media historian Erik Barnouw as a consultant to
establish policies for ATRA; subsequently, he became Chief of
the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division. A year later, the Library hosted a large meeting of
institutions involved in collecting and preserving television
materials.
Another important trend in public archives leading up to this
report was the increase in local television news archives,
prompted by the broadcast industry's switch during the 1970's
from film to videotape in news gathering. Many institutions
such as state historical societies and media centers began to
receive donations of news film libraries but without the
resources or experience necessary for managing large
television film collections. This generated demand for
information and technical training. The National Historical
Publications and Records Commission funded a request from the
AFI National Center for Film and Video Preservation to hold a
local television news archives conference in 1987 in Madison,
Wisconsin, the first opportunity for representatives of these
collections to coordinate their efforts and share their
experiences. The creation of these new television archives
dramatically increased the need for resources. NHPRC has been
the only federal agency to provide major assistance. It is
important to note that the introduction of so many new
archivists into television archives in the 1980's has changed
the character of the profession by linking the management of
news film to traditional archival theory.
F. Major Issues
The following chapters of this report center around the main
sources of broadcast production since World War II; for the
vast majority of programs, these include the television
networks, the major motion picture studios, public
broadcasting, and local television news. The most important
issues to emerge relate to educational access, divided
responsibilities between public and corporate archives, the
preservation of television film and videotape, local
television news, and independent video.
1. Archival holdings of television and video materials have
enormous educational and cultural value as recognized in the
American Television and Radio Archives Act and underscored by
the testimony of educators who participated in the public
hearings. Public archives are obliged to acquire more and
more television materials because of televisionþs pervasive
influence in contemporary American society and because of
educational interests that frequently focus on television's
interactive role in numerous social and political processes.
Yet full access, as defined by a researcher's ability to
survey, consult, copy, and use the audiovisual record, remains
largely unattainable. The reasons are varied and complex, but
most relate to the continuing underfunding of public archives,
the isolation of scholars from archival issues, and copyright
interests.
Educators who described a compelling need for access to the
American television and video heritage for research and
teaching also cited numerous obstacles that prevent real
access, including significant losses, restrictive network
policies, unavailability of original sources, expense of
purchasing copies and electronic equipment, and lack of
regional or local access. Educators believe that an
insufficient amount of programming is being recorded off-air
and saved by public archives. As a group, they would like to
see ATRA's authority increased to enable the Library of
Congress to record programs off-air completely at its
discretion. Others also believe that the "fair use"
provisions of the copyright law are too restrictive, and
should therefore be revised to allow more non-profit
educational usage. The Vanderbilt University Television News
Archive and the network news departments or archives appear
locked into an adversarial relationship that may be
unwarranted. Broadcast organizations like NBC News are not
registering their news programs for copyright, leaving a gap
in the public record for some of the most important and
influential news broadcasts.
2. The television and video heritage represents an important
part of the collective experience and memory of the American
people, yet much of the public record--as it were--is retained
in the custody of private corporations whose policies are
subject to the ebb and flow of the market place. For the last
few years the growth of broadcasting and media markets has
been the driving force behind preservation projects in
corporate archives. Unlike in past horror stories, virtually
no programs are now deliberately destroyed. Television titles
have also benefitted from film preservation projects at the
major studios. Given the huge quantity of film and videotape
in network archives and the growing demand for educational
access, a partnership with public archives seems requisite and
inevitable. Corporate and public archives share
responsibility for television and video preservation. Yet the
likelihood that corporate let alone public archives will
transfer news film to film for preservation is remote, to say
the least. The alternative to not copying the film at all is
certain destruction, although proper storage can delay the
outcome.
3. Television archives are typically a mixture of film and
videotape holdings. One of the virtues of the Library of
Congress' report on the status of American film preservation
was that its recommendations addressed not only theatrical
films but film documents in all forms, fiction and nonfiction.
But aside from the major studios and several public archives,
most public and corporate archives have not implemented the
report's recommendations. In some ways the future of
television film is even more doubtful than videotape's.
4. Considering the extensive amount of television film,
particularly news and documentary, including field footage, to
what extent can videotape offer a practical and cost-effective
substitute for film-to-film copies? Supervised film transfers
made on modern scanners yield excellent results. The main
disadvantages of film-to-videotape copying are a reduced life
expectancy of the new copy, compared to film, and the
inadequacy of such transfers to meet the future needs of
advanced television systems.
5. The accumulated practical experience of videotape
technicians as it relates to the longevity of videotape seems
fairly inconclusive. Many 30-year-old 2-inch tapes are still
playable, and thus, in theory, capable of being re-formatted.
The scientific literature, however, indicates an inherent
potential for deterioration, something already observed in
television or video collections or in the work that passes
through videotape laboratories. In view of the deleterious
effects of elevated temperature and humidity and pollutant
gasses, archives have expressed a renewed interest in
improving storage conditions and in the possibility of shared
or regional storage. There is insufficient experience with
the new digital formats. Many variables such as compression,
miniaturization, tape thinness, and almost microscopic
recording tracks suggest that digital formats may not be a
complete panacea. The use of disk-based technology, however
promising, is viewed by archives as only experimental. A
general consensus exists, however, that the preservation of
videotape is less a question of preserving an artifact and
more one of possessing the resources to transfer videotapes
due to format obsolescence. Equipment, requisite technical
skills, and copying capacity are therefore central to any
discussion of videotape preservation. Public archives cannot
be self-sufficient; they need the cooperation of equipment and
videotape manufacturers and of video laboratories.
The preservation of videotape itself may not be the real
archival issue compared to that of format obsolescence. In
this context video preservation is not an end product but a
process of archival management that requires re-formatting and
copies, and quality control. Based on this system, a tentative
definition of video preservation may be ventured.
Video preservation, regardless of image source, is
an archival system that ensures the survival in
perpetuity of the program content according to the
highest technical standards reasonably available.
There are three major facets of video preservation:
(1) safeguarding the recording under secure and
favorable storage conditions, (2) providing for its
proper restoration and periodic transfer to modern
formats before the original or next generation copy
is no longer technologically supportable, and (3)
continuing protective maintenance of at least a
master and a copy, physically separated in storage,
preferably in different geographic locations.
"Videotape possesses a special challenge to archivists, librarians,
historians, and preservationists. As an information storage medium,
videotape is not as stable as photographic paper film or paper. Properly
cared for, film and paper can last for centuries, whereas most videotapes
will only last a few decades." Dr. John Van Bogart
6. The creation of numerous local television news archives
during the 1980's, including the off-air recording of news,
assures that some programming will be saved despite enormous
losses brought about by the disposal of many news film
libraries and the recycling of videotapes. Less than 10% of
the local news film libraries still survive--in an uneven
patchwork across the United States that excludes many major
metropolitan areas.
7. Media artists and community activists were in the late
1960's and the 1970's among the first to use 1/2-inch EIAJ
tapes and other formats for experimental artistic expression
and for documentary production outside mainstream media. The
tapes are now held in a variety of places and circumstances--
in archives, in non-profit distribution services, and in
garages, closets, and attics. Their continued existence has
reached a critical stage due to format obsolescence and tape
deterioration. With the notable exception of highly
capitalized programs like the Andy Warhol Foundation, few
resources are being made available to restore and re-format
these tapes. Works by media artists and community activists
attract interest across the United States although many
videotapes have not been cataloged nor described in union
lists or on-line finding aids.
CHAPTER TWO:
THE MATERIALS AND THEIR PRESERVATION NEEDS
2. THE MATERIALS AND THEIR PRESERVATION NEEDS
A. FILMS MADE FOR TELEVISION AND KINESCOPE RECORDINGS
(1) Extent of use of film-based materials
Motion picture film plays a key supporting role in the
preservation of television materials. In the first place,
videotape as a technology was not available commercially until
the end of 1956, yet by 1950 107 television stations were
already broadcasting throughout the nation.(7) Broadcasters
used film in several critical areas. First, cameramen used
16mm footage to cover news events in the field, and
subsequently editors selected and cut the footage for use as
clips or inserts in newscasts. Something akin to this process
was also used for the production of documentaries. Major
documentary productions like CBS's Air Power and NBC's
Victory At Sea were produced on 35mm film. In addition,
broadcasters also purchased news film from newsreel companies
and news film services.
Second, broadcasters used motion picture film to make copies
of television programs. Called kinescopes, these recordings
were made from a bright television image on to 16mm film,
negative or positive, with composite or separate optical and
magnetic sound. The kinescope process, first made available in
1947-48, enabled a film camera to record a television image in
synchronization; the image, however, had a flat, low contrast
appearance which was never quite satisfactory when compared to
the television broadcast. Color kinescopes, available in the
1970's, were even less satisfactory for broadcasting. The
kinescopes surviving today are for the most part 16mm black
and white. Broadcasters took advantage of kinescopes for
repeat broadcasts, in particular, time-delay broadcasts to the
west coast. Television producers or sponsors took advantage of
them to syndicate programs in other broadcast markets.
Third, even to this day the major studio producers for prime-
time television entertainment programs like miniseries,
sitcoms, television feature films continue to shoot on 35mm
film or super 16mm film, edit on computer systems, and
transfer the final copy to videotape. In more and more cases
the film originals are not "conformed" but "edit decision
lists" are retained so that in theory at least the films can
be subsequently edited to match the final production; in
practice, the television producers rarely edit the original
film. A gradual shift to original videotape production for
prime-time programs is taking place.
Ampex's introduction of a practical videotape system in 1956
should not be taken too literally as a clear demarcation
between the era of film and that of videotape. Film as
kinescopes continued to play a vital role until the early
1970's when the cheaper, more convenient 3/4-inch video
cassette sparked the real beginning of the end of film in the
world of television. The Bluem report indicated that for the
period 1948-1951, NBC had accumulated 1,270 kinescopes and by
1970 there were almost 17,000. NBC later donated these
programs to the Library of Congress. 2-inch tape was used
relatively sparingly to record programs permanently and was
often then erased and recycled for broadcast.
Film continued to be used in news and documentary production.
The most popular format from about 1950 to the mid-sixties was
16mm black-and-white news films in an original negative
composite sound format. 16mm color reversal film was used in
news production well into the 1970's, primarily, Ektachrome in
combination with magnetic sound stripe or a separate full-coat
magnetic sound track.
Film as an original recording medium is still the format of
choice in many instances where it is necessary to reproduce
scenes with high contrast ratios and render greater detail
than is possible with video.(8) In sum, film continued to be
used as a regular part of television production side by side
with videotape, and thus much of the early period that
survives, above all in news, has been recorded on film.
(2) Preservation problems
The archival issues central to the preservation of American
motion picture film have been discussed in the Library of
Congress's earlier report, Film Preservation 1993: A Study of
the Current State of American Film Preservation, 4 vols.
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1993). This report
described three overriding preservation concerns:
nitrocellulose film, cellulose acetate film deterioration, and
the impermanence of color film. The first major preservation
concern can be dismissed, because, happily, nitrate film, a
chemically unstable and highly inflammable film stock last
manufactured by Eastman Kodak in 1951, had little or no impact
on television. Nevertheless, acetate deterioration and the
impermanence of color film are germane to any discussion about
the preservation of television film materials.
a. Acetate film deterioration
Extant television film consists primarily of safety-based
cellulose triacetate or earlier forms of cellulose acetate
with lower acetyl content that continued to be manufactured in
a 16mm format into the 1960's. Film workers often confused
hypo staining or the result of excessive sodium thiosulfate
with film deterioration. But film archives have been aware of
the potential deterioration of this class of acetate-based
film since 1987, and subsequent studies have clarified the
roles of temperature, moisture or humidity, air pollutants,
and various types of containers in causing or accelerating
acetate deterioration. In archival parlance, this
deterioration has become known as the "vinegar syndrome," due
to the emanation of acetic gases that produce the familiar
odor of household vinegar. Film with a history of poor
storage conditions is especially vulnerable to the onset of
vinegar syndrome.(9) As a support base material, polyester or
PET (which not incidentally is the substrate for videotape)
has proven to be more impervious to adverse ambient storage
conditions.
b. Color film
The Library of Congress report also discussed the instability
or dye-fading of color film emulsions.(10) This is pertinent
to television news film primarily from the late 1960's through
the 1970's, even later for documentary production, and to
prime-time programs made by the major studios. Whereas the
major studios used Eastman color negative, starting in 1966-
67, news broadcasters used Kodak's Ektachrome film, a color
reversal film even less stable than the Eastman color which
was the main target of Martin Scorsese's criticism toward the
end of the 1970's. In response to this very public criticism
from directors and archivists, Kodak in the early 1980's
introduced its line of "low fade" emulsions with improved
color-dye stability, but there is no evidence that
broadcasters took advantage of this more expensive stock.
Color film from the 1960's and 1970's that has not been placed
in cold storage is probably already faded beyond 30%. As the
least stable, yellow dye is first to fade beyond recovery.
(3) Cold Storage
What acetate film deterioration and color-dye fading have in
common is the need for cool and dry storage conditions that
decelerate the chemical changes that ultimately destroy the
film base and image. Accordingly, the Library of Congress in
a subsequent report recommended "the improvement of storage
conditions as the cornerstone of national film preservation
policy and an integral part of federal funding programs."(11)
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) maximum
extended-term storage standards for silver-gelatin black-and-
white and color film are: 70øF/20-30% RH; and 35øF/20-30% RH,
respectively.(12) Yet few of the public archives that
responded to the storage survey carried out in conjunction
with this report have long-term storage facilities that meet
this standard. For the most part, the networks have
inadequate cold storage facilities for their color film. The
major studios and several public archives have storage
facilities meeting or exceeding this standard, with some
exceptions.
Even if these goals are not met, research by the Image
Permanence Institute and Eastman Kodak demonstrates that
lowering temperature and relative humidity by as little as ten
degrees and 10% RH can increase film life expectancy and color
stability by many years.(13) Providing good storage
conditions, while not entirely a panacea, is the single most
important step an archives can undertake to protect its
holdings.
(4) Other Preservation Problems
There are other preservation problems associated with
television film archives that make the prospect of long-term
survival problematic at best.
Black-and-white and Ektachrome reversal emulsions, rarely
employed by the major studios, were widely used in television
news and documentary production, and they are less stable than
negative/positive emulsions. Moreover, due to the immediacy of
broadcast deadlines, the chemical processing of these films
was seldom carried out according to the manufacturer's
specifications; film was improperly washed leaving excess
amounts of residual hypo, which stains the film's surface and
increases the rate of color-dye fading.
Film sound poses a problem for television preservation because
of the widespread use of magnetic sound on film, which was
never copied to optical sound. Many television documentaries
shot and edited on film were directly transferred to videotape
for broadcast; the preprint exists as film negative or
original reversal accompanied by a separate magnetic sound
track, unfortunately often stored in the same can. A magnetic
stripe sound track on Ektachrome is essentially a thin
coating of ferrous oxide. Over the years the oxide peels or
separates from the film base. In separate tracks, striped or
full coat, the same process can be observed. Moreover, a
study by Manchester Polytechnic in the United Kingdom
indicates that as the film sound track ages, the oxide gases
act as a catalyst in the process of acetate deterioration.(14)
Copying separate magnetic sound tracks has understandably
become a priority at the major studios, but not at other
archives that cannot afford to make the transfers. The
existence of separate sound tracks poses an extra equipment
burden on the smaller archives, because working with them
requires the purchase of more expensive and technically
sophisticated double-system editing machines.
In addition to the above concerns, television news film
collections invariably consist of poorly arranged numerous
short rolls of 16mm film. For broadcasters, films in this
state of disrepair were too difficult to access and certainly
too difficult to integrate with ENG techniques and procedures.
This is one of the main reasons why broadcasters decided to
dump their news film files or donate them to a public
archives. To bring these rolls under archival control it is
necessary to devote thousands of work hours to such activities
as arrangement, inspection, splicing, repairing, and cleaning.
Few local television news archives are sufficiently staffed to
carry out this necessary but painstaking work.(15)
For these reasons, then, motion picture film represents an
integral part of the television and video heritage with its
own array of physical vulnerabilities and preservation
priorities. Whether in public or corporate archives, most
television collections consist of film and videotape which
have little in common physically and technically save for
their ability to record moving images and sound.
(B) VIDEOTAPE RECORDINGS
(1) General Introduction
Videotape, as Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said
at the first public hearing, has proved to be both a blessing
and a curse. Unfortunately there isn't enough space in this
report to describe all the ways videotape has benefited
American civilization in science, education, entertainment,
industry, government, and culture. Film served as video's
predecessor since the turn of the century, leaving a enormous
legacy of American life and culture despite extensive losses
in the wake of deterioration, disasters, neglect, and
indifference; regrettably, a continuing process to this day.
In comparison with video, though, the use of the film camera
or projector was always a special event. Film never achieved
the ubiquity of videotape, the ever-present ability to record
almost every facet our society in a fixed and tangible form,
cheaply and conveniently if one desired, or as extravagantly
as the latest technology allowed. The possibilities are
essentially without limit.
Whether by design or default, the collective memory of our
precious images has been entrusted to videotape for some forty
years, 1956-1996. But videotape was never engineered to be a
permanent record, and no professional society recognizes it as
a permanent recording medium. Next to nitrocellulose film,
videotape is probably the next best medium for a society which
did not wish to be reminded of its past. Prolonging the life
of videotape is a complex task dependent upon numerous
variables, some of which are beyond the archives's control.
Having completed several intermittent years of research and
development, Ampex in 1956 demonstrated its Mark series of
videotape recorders for CBS broadcast executives, and in less
than one year Ampex was overwhelmed with orders. The first
broadcast utilizing videotape occurred on November 30, 1956,
when CBS Television City in Los Angeles re-broadcast "Douglas
Edwards and the News" from New York.(16)
Well before the years of the silicon chip, the first recorders
were free-standing boxes about the size of a washer and
dryer. The player/recorders were designed to transport large
open reels of 2-inch-wide magnetic tape that weighed as much
as 25 pounds and operated at speeds of 15 inches per second.
Due to its expense and technical complexity, 2-inch recording
had little impact outside the broadcast industry. For the
first few years, players were not even compatible with one
another, further localizing use.
(2) Basic composition
Videotape is a layered product composed of a number of
different elements.(17) Although the first audio tapes were
acetate-based, the underlying support of videotapes consists
of a fairly durable polyester film (polyethylene teraphthalate
(PET)). A back coating added to professional tapes eases
transport through the tape drives and improves overall
reliability. The magnetic particles, iron oxide or chromium
dioxide, are contained in a polyurethane binder coated to the
film substrate. The binder is a complex compound including
many different elements such as lubricants, dispersing agents,
resin-type materials, plasticizers, anti-static agents,
protective additives, wetting agents, polymers, and
adhesives.(18) The exact formulations are closely guarded
secrets which vary from one manufacturer to another.
Moreover, since there are no industry standards for the
formulation of videotape the chemical composition of newly
manufactured tape is subject to change at any time.
With the introduction of digital videotape in 1987, the
industry has shifted to a metal particle tape because it can
retain far more data than oxide tape.(19) Barrium ferrite is
also available for some advanced applications.
(3) Deterioration and obsolescence
Many things can go wrong with videotape that will prevent
completely successful playback or, in the worst case, result
in catastrophic failure. Causes are often traced to careless
or indifferent handling or poorly maintained equipment, in
other words, problems that can be corrected through training
and implementing more appropriate procedures.
These problems, however, pale in comparison to the
overarching issues of inherent deterioration and technological
obsolescence of video formats and their related equipment.
These are fundamental concerns for archives that make the
preservation of videotape far into the next century a
difficult and perhaps unattainable goal; however, a carefully
managed plan with sufficient financial support can minimize
potential losses to the American television and video
heritage.
Although an electronic medium, videotape possesses a physical
dimension that makes it vulnerable to deterioration. Its
physical properties consist of organic materials that degrade
under the influences of heat, moisture, and pollutant gases.
In archives, control of storage conditions has, rightfully,
become a core strategy to prolong the life of videotape. As
an electronic medium, the manufacture of videotape follows the
dictates of the market place with its demands for cost-
effective, smaller, and higher performance formats,
improvements that may lack any relationship to longevity. As
video production formats, 2-inch quadraplex and 3/4-inch U-
matic were viable for about 15 years; now formats seem to
change every four or five years with a bewildering array of
incompatible options. Given the rate of technological
evolution since 1956, a clear consensus exists among
archivists and technical experts that the real problem of
video preservation is how to cope with technological
obsolescence. This phenomenon has reached acute proportions
in respect of the copying of 2-inch tapes and open-reel 1/2-
inch EIAJ tapes, for which it is already difficult to locate
and maintain appropriate equipment and technicians experienced
with these formats.
(4) Longevity of the magnetic signal
From an archival standpoint one of the comforting features of
videotape is its relatively stable magnetic signal. Most
problems attributed to videotape are physical rather than
electronic. Modern magnetic coatings, according to guidance
from the 3M Company, can retain the recorded information for
an indefinite period of time unless altered by erasure or re-
recording or removed by a magnetic field.(20) The coating's
coercivity or its power to resist demagnetization has steadily
increased with the introduction of new formats. Extreme heat,
however, basically from a fire, can demagnetize tape.(21)
Magnetic performance is not really an issue under most storage
conditions.
Factored over many years, however, the particles will begin
to demagnetize. Referring to metal particle videotape, one
Ampex vice president estimated it would take some 90 years
under normal storage conditions before losing sufficient
magnetization that would create noticeable degradation.(22)
Destruction from stray magnetic fields on the order of
magnitude needed to alter videotapes is unlikely to be found
in archives. The gauss output of most electric motors is too
small to pose a danger.(23) Nonetheless, as a precaution it is
advisable not to store tapes near motors.
Tape's ability to be erased and re-recorded is a genuine
concern. This can happen accidentally or deliberately by the
flip of a switch unless procedural safeguards are enforced.
(5) Chemical stability of videotape
As videotape ages, it begins to break down chemically until it
reaches a point where it is no longer capable of being tracked
for satisfactory playback and transfer to another format. How
and when this occurs depend on several factors, the most
important being time in storage and exposure to heat,
atmospheric moisture, and pollutant gases. The earliest
videotapes, lacking protective cassette housings, are the most
vulnerable to damage and deterioration.
The chemical breakdown of videotape binders due to hydrolysis
has been well documented.(24) The binder's hygroscopic
tendency to absorb atmospheric moisture releases acids and
alcohol, products or catalysts that hasten the tape's
destruction. Aged tapes are more hygroscopic than newer tapes.
Elevated humidity in combination with warm temperatures
accelerates the process while drier and cooler conditions slow
it down. Videotapes kept in hot and humid climates have little
chance of long-term survival unless placed in carefully
controlled storage conditions. Hydrolysis weakens the binder
causing oxide shedding, dropouts, and the eventual loss of the
tape through severe degradation.(25) Peeling oxide and the
evaporation and migration of lubricants in the form of white
crystal powder causes tracking problems and leads to magnetic
head clogging. The National Media Lab's work on
instrumentation data tape, 1978-1981, for EROS (Earth
Resources Observations Systems) is a good illustration of the
sticky tape syndrome. All tapes were capable of being
reproduced after very slow baking at 130 degrees F, however.
When the tape was run on a tape transport or
winder/cleaner, the heat of friction melted the tape
coating components. Adhesive in nature, these
components collected on the stationary elements in
the tape path, such as magnetic tape drive heads,
tape guides, and wiping stations. When the tape
motion stopped the material cooled and "stuck" to
the stationary elements, stopping the ply of tape
and damaging the tape and the tape transport.(26)
High humidity--besides increasing the rate of moisture
absorption and binder deterioration--has other deleterious
consequences. It can cause further damage by increasing tape
pack stresses, distortion, tightness, and dropouts from debris
and exudations.(27) High humidity results in clogging, sticky
shed syndrome or "stiction," scoring, and head wear. One tape
can contaminate another if machines are not carefully cleaned
between plays. In combination with warm temperatures, high
humidity will encourage the growth of fungus which attacks the
organic compounds in the tape's binder.
Condensation on the tape edge causes "spot hydrolysis,"
gluing the edges together and causing the tape to tear if
played in this condition without treatment, especially in the
newer and thinner tapes.(28)
High temperatures can also cause damage such as increased tape
tightness, pressure, distortion, dropouts from wound in
debris, layer to layer adhesion, changes in dimensions, all of
which promote tracking errors. High temperatures will also
have a tendency to separate the substrate from the backing
since they shrink at different rates.(29)
(6) Air pollutants
Traces of acid produced by air pollution accelerate
hydrolysis. Sulphur dioxide, according to NIST, forms strong
acids in humid air.(30) Other common gases are nitrogen
dioxide, ozone, acetic acid, and formaldehyde. Videotape
restorers see the worst damage stemming from hostile storage
environments
(7) Common magnetic pigments and tape longevity
The most common magnetic pigments are iron oxide, metal
particle, and evaporated metal, each differing in stability;
chromium dioxide has been used less frequently. Iron oxide
and cobalt-modified iron oxide are the most stable, but metal
tapes have the ability to record a higher signal output, a
capability which makes them desirable for improved
professional performance and greater packing or concentration
of data. The single homogenous metal alloy evaporated on to
the substrate in 8mm formats consists of a very thin magnetic
coating that is not very durable.(31)
In 1991 Sony's best estimate of longevity for these materials
was about 15 years. 3M indicated that its research was
consistent with Sony's. Maxell declined to predict any life
expectancy for its tape products, and a TDK representative
indicated he knew of no published data on tape life expectancy
by his company, BASF, and that 15 years was a good guess.(32)
Evidently manufacturers have been reluctant to provide any
assurance for the extended life expectancy of their videotape
products. Since the first metal particle pigments were
unsatisfactory, several tape manufacturers collaborated in
laying to rest nagging concerns about the durability of D-2, a
metal particle tape that has become the principal recording
format for the broadcast industry since its introduction in
1988. Tests indicated a 14-year minimum durability of the
pigment before serious signal loss could occur under average
conditions; basically, a computer environment.(33) Sony
plotted much longer durability for the pigment; 24 years for
one type and 96 years for another.(34) It is important to
note that these tests relate to the pigment or coating
stability, and do not solve the problem of binder hydrolysis.
Any tape, regardless of coating, can potentially turn into a
sticky goo in extended storage at elevated temperatures and
humidities.(35) In recent years most manufacturers have
changed to more stable binders, but comparisons remain
difficult if not impossible. Tape manufacturers will not
divulge the composition of binders or pigments.(36)
(8) Other problems
Videotape is associated with a host of other problems that can
interfere with playback and result in the tape's utter
destruction.
a. Edge Damage
One of the most common problems is tape edge damage typically
caused by misaligned transports. Physical damage (stretching,
nicks, and dents, etc.) cause mistracking as the tape moves
through the guide paths.
b. Shedding
In addition to the shedding that results from chemical
breakdown, shedding can be caused by poorly maintained
equipment. Many tapes manufactured up to the early 1970's are
notorious for their shedding due to difficulties inherent in
the relatively weak bond between the binder and the substrate.
By 1970 3M, Ampex, and Memorex had developed more reliable
techniques for binding the magnetic layer to the polyester
base.(37) The shedding seen in later tapes is the result of
binder breakdown or poor operating conditions. Nonetheless,
the older tapes are larger and they shed more. A one-hour 2-
inch Quad tape has 108,000 square inches; a one hour 1/2 inch
VHS at standard speed has only 2,360 square inches.(38) The
older tapes were designed for more tape-to-head contact and
thus produced more friction.
c. Fungus
Contamination of videotape by fungus or mildew is fairly
common. Warm and humid conditions encourage fungus, which
attacks the organic materials in the binder. Tapes or
cassettes exposed to water or moisture from floods or
sprinklers are prone to fungus, especially if moisture becomes
trapped inside the cassette.
d. Dirt
Dirt and other debris can destroy a tape or impede its ability
to be tracked. Dirt from any source can become embedded in the
binder emulsion. Static electricity will attract dirt.
Evidently dirt is all pervasive, and like motion pictures,
restorers recommend cleaning all tapes before re-mastering if
they have a history of poor storage conditions or have
detectable signs of deterioration. Foreign broadcast archives
that have done a lot of 2-inch copying, routinely clean all 2-
inch tapes before copying rather than risk damage to expensive
and hard-to-replace magnetic heads.
e. Containers
Little research has been conducted on containers or cassettes
for videotape, but they are also a factor in longevity. Open-
reel recordings are far more vulnerable to damage than those
protected by cassettes. Some cassette housings are not dust
proof in the locked position. Many are made from relatively
inert polyethylene, but some are fabricated from recycled
plastics with high acid content which can distort at high
temperatures. Interior components can degrade, such as
springs and rubber materials from the moisture trapped inside.
Hinges can wear out. Standard VHS cassettes contain more than
30 parts in assembly. In a pilot study, NIST observed that
many cassettes showed mechanical problems after accelerated
aging or after five years of natural aging.(39) As for the
worst cases, sleeves and cassettes can be changed but not
without increasing the cost of preservation and
processing.(40) A damaged cassette, if not detected, can
result in irreparable tape damage.
(9) Storage
As John Van Bogart has pointed out, earlier storage guidelines
for videotape were a compromise to allow playback, and not
ideal for preservation.(41) Significant differences between
playback and storage areas require videotape to acclimate
before it can be played, but complete re-humidification or re-
moisturizing can take days or even weeks depending upon the
size of the tape, though such extreme measures are rarely
employed. Temperature equilibration can take place after
several hours. Failure to allow sufficient warm up time can
result in undetected condensation on the tape edge, while
failure to re-moisturize causes stress in the tape backcoat.
Recommendations for the long-term storage of videotape are
moving toward cooler and drier conditions, which although not
unreasonably low, are unavailable to many archives.
The storage issue represents something of a dichotomy between
broadcasters and archives. On one side, broadcasters who need
fairly quick access to the materials have said low-humidity
storage is a waste of money because the technology that
supports the videotape format will be obsolete in only a few
years, and that the money would be better spent on re-
formatting rather than constructing and maintaining expensive
storage conditions. On the other side, archivists have argued
that we have insufficient funding for re-formatting, we are
uncertain about the new formats, and our goal is to safeguard
and preserve the original videotape as long as possible
because it is all that exists. Unfortunately there are no easy
answers for the questions this issue raises. Few dispute the
likelihood that videotape will outlast the equipment intended
for playback. Archivists can only compromise based on an
understanding of the benefits of storage at specific stages,
measured against format obsolescence and projected resources
for re-formatting copies. Film archivists can consult the
Image Permanence Institute Storage Guide, but no comparable
guide is yet available for videotape.
Table 1: Videotape Storage Recommendations
Source Temperature (F) Relative Humidity(RH)
National Archives and
Records Administration (NARA) 65 30%
National Institute of Standards
and Technology Report
(for NARA) 30-40%
SMPTE RP103 (draft version) 63+/-4 30%+/-5
ANSI,IT/9, 1996 version 68 20-30%
59 20-40%
50 20-50%
Ampex(42) 68 30%
Peter Adelstein, IPI(43) 50 20-30%
(10) Shelving
Metal shelving, widely used for storing videotape, does not
appear to be a problem provided the shelves are properly
grounded. Certain paints and finishes may be a problem if they
continue to off gas after tapes have been shelved. Wood is not
acceptable for archival storage of videotape because of acid
vapors emitted from wood or wood finishes. In addition, wood
shelves are a factor in spreading flames in a fire emergency.
(11) Security and Fire Protection
Security is the first line of defense for the protection of
archival holdings--as a means to safeguard against theft and
other unauthorized access. Almost all the respondents to the
survey reported the availability of secure vaults or
buildings; some even had 24-hour guards.
Like most archival materials, videotapes are susceptible to
water damage from fire emergencies and sprinkler accidents.
Many fire protection systems, therefore, have dry-pipe
sprinklers with heat-activated sensors that provide good fire
protection but localize the effects of water spray. Some fire
protection systems employ Halon gas or other gaseous agents
which at least eliminate potential water damage from sprinkler
accidents.(44) Water damage frequently occurs from basement
floods and from storage areas located in a flood plain.
Additional security protection can be obtained by storing
multiple copies in different locations. However, only the
major studios and very few public archives have been able to
practice a policy of "strategic dispersal" on a geographic
scale.
(12) Copying, Transferring and Restoration
It bears repeating that imperfections develop in magnetic tape
primarily from inherent deficiencies such as poor layer
adhesion in the early formulations, from the ravages of poor
storage conditions, and from physical problems such as
creases, edge damage, poor winds, and embedded dirt. Dirt is
all pervasive, observed one video restorer. "There is
sufficient debris on every single tape we have examined to
interfere with some degree of signal retrieval."(45) To a
great extent and depending upon the degree of damage, a
certain amount of recovery is possible. To be sure, the
techniques used for recovery, some of which are proprietary,
are designed to allow successful playback in order to be able
to re-record the damaged original. They do not necessarily
extend the life of the original videotape. Some techniques
even accelerate its destruction.
It is important to distinguish between copying, transferring
and restoration. Copying is the straightforward dubbing or
duplication of a tape, as in making a reference copy for
routine use or to service another format. Transferring, re-
mastering, or re-formatting involves converting the original
to an updated format. Restoration implies a deliberate effort
to make a complete and error-free copy from the best available
original, minimizing all imperfections, while transferring the
tape to a new copy. Cleaning the tape beforehand is part of
restoration. In theory, digital technology allows some
improvement even beyond the original through error-correction
and signal enhancement. Generally restoration entails time-
consuming and painstaking steps, which drive up the cost of
preservation.
A system of triage is necessary in order to establish
priorities for copying, restoration, and maintenance. The
overall priorities in common use are (1) obsolete formats,
which will be discussed in more detail below; and (2) unique
or single copies. For other archives, priorities might be
determined from a physical examination of representative
tapes.
Physical inspection includes a more or less automated or
manual evaluation of the tape, examining for imperfections
visible to the laboratory technician such as exudations of
white crystal powder, shedding, stiction, scratches, or fungus
and deformities in the tape pack such as creases, cracking,
stretching, uneven wind, or edge damage. Some of the physical
defects such as edge damage, wrinkles, and creases can be
identified through the use of electronic cleaning/inspection
machines. These machines will also measure dropout according
to preset standards. In reality these machines are both
inspectors and cleaners, designed for use with pre-recorded
tape. They are designed to remove dirt, dust and loose
particles that cause dropouts. Most of the machinery is aimed
at the video cassette rental industry or at broadcasters who
recycle and re-record tapes. The value in an archival setting
is not apparent. Indeed the wrong application of an automatic
cleaning or burnishing device to remove loose oxide,
particularly to a creased tape, can have disastrous
consequences.(46)
Video restoration labs have developed sophisticated techniques
for removing or minimizing the effects of tape faults.
Archives have little objective guidance on the evaluation of
these techniques and equipment since they are proprietary.
In comparison to film archives where basic repairs and
cleaning can be done within the archives, public archives
depend on outside vendors if they have sufficient funding.
Before transferring, the cleaning of the tape's loose oxide
and other debris is necessary. Most of this is accomplished
with cleaning blades or burnishing points or dry paper wipes
or even washing with water. One innovative archives devised
its own 1/2-inch cleaner by attaching a microscreen shaver and
vacuum pump to clean the recording as it played for re-
recording.(47) Another technique used in the worst
circumstances is that of baking the tape at relatively low
baking temperatures for several hours or longer; the
temperature of the tape must be ramped up and down at a slow
rate. This serves the purpose of fixing the loose oxide so
that successful playback can be accomplished. None of these
techniques yields permanent results; tape deterioration will
still continue.
The use of Time Base Correctors (TBC) will tend to compensate
for many of the video signal problems in transferring or re-
formatting tapes. Unfortunately some of the earliest open-reel
tapes had nonstandard signals where TBC's will not provide
much assistance.(48) In such cases copying from the earliest
generation will be extremely important.
For the foreseeable future copying of videotape for re-
formatting or re-mastering will be done in "real time"--i.e.,
the recording time--plus the time for set up and quality
assurance. A ratio of 1.5 to 2.0 work hours to every 1.0 hour
of recorded time is not unreasonable. Two or three recording
stations could be operated simultaneously though it implies
some reduction in quality assurance. For 1-hour, 2-inch tapes,
2.0 to 3.0 hours are generally needed.(49) On such conversion
projects both digital and analog copies have been made. High
speed video duplicators--four brands available at last count--
were engineered for the video duplication industry and not the
studio or broadcast industry. The copies are accomplished by
means of "contact printing," in which the oxides are placed in
contact and a transfer takes place from a mirror master.(50)
Archives having thousands of hours of original video
recordings can only be discouraged by the overwhelming
prospect of re-formatting obsolete videotape formats.
Another dimension of restoration is aesthetic or ethical.
Digital technology allows such an extensive manipulation of
original images in terms of content, image and sound values,
colorization, and signal enhancement that the archivist's
ideal of preserving the aesthetic or documentary integrity of
originals can be lost if sufficient safeguards and standards
are not implemented. In addition, converting an analog tape
to digital can modify the original image in unexpected ways,
such as toning and softening details and the appearance of
image artifacts.
(13) Rewinding
The periodic rewinding of videotape as part of an archival
maintenance program (although accepted in principle) is
generally ignored in practice as too time consuming and labor
intensive. The reasons for rewinding are basically to relieve
stress in the tape pack in order to prevent deformities such
as layer-to-layer adhesion ("blocking"), and pack slippage
("wavy pack"), and print through. The backcoating helps to
minimize such deformities in storage. Cooler temperatures and
lower RH help to reduce the need for period rewinding. Thus
backcoated tapes in good storage conditions, according to Jim
Wheeler, should be rewound every ten years.(51)
(14) Major Formats for Archives
From 1956 to the present more than 100 fundamentally
incompatible video formats have been introduced into the
market place.(52) (See Appendix J) From an archival
viewpoint, it is fortunate that only about a dozen were or
continue to be viable commercially.
More than a dozen formats alone were introduced for the
industrial and educational markets such as CBS's short-lived
Electron Video Recording system which utilized a filmed-based
color video cartridge. Other failed formats include
Cartrivision or Cartridge Television, Selectavision, Kodak
Supermatic Video, and, though a well engineered product, the
infamous Betamax.(53) Except in very specialized
collections, these short-lived formats are not expected to
have much of an impact on archives.
The formats of greatest archival concern are those that were
the most popular from 1956 to 1996 in broadcasting,
industry/education, government, and the consumer markets.
These formats are listed below.
Table 3: Selected Analog Videotape Formats*
Format Coating Nominal Width Major Market
2-inch Iron oxide 1.4 mil 2-inch Broadcasters/Studios
1/2-inch
open reel Iron oxide 1/2-inch Independent Production
1-inch
Type A Iron oxide 1-inch Government/Studios
3/4-inch
U-matic Cobalt- 1.1 mil 3/4-inch ENG/Independent Production
modified
iron oxide
3/4-
Umatic
SP Cobalt- 1.5 mil 3/4-inch ENG/Independent Production
modified
iron oxide
Beta 1/2-inch Consumer
Betacam Cobalt- 0.8 mil 1/2-inch ENG/Independent
modified iron Production/Government
oxide, chromium
dioxide
Betacam SP Metal particle 0.55 mil 1/2-inch ENG/Independent
Production
M-II Metal particle 0.55 mil 1/2-inch ENG/Broadcasting
1-inch Cobalt- 1.1 mil 1-inch Broadcasting/Studios
Type C modified
oxide
8mm, Hi8 Metal 0.8 mil 8mm Consumers/ENG/Government/
particle, Independent Production
Evaporated
metal
VHS Cobalt- 0.8 mil 1/2-inch Consumers/Government
modified
oxide,
chromium
dioxide
S-VHS Cobalt- 0.8 mil 1/2-inch Independent Production/ENG
modified
oxide
*In addition to the NTSC versions, there are also PAL and
Secam versions, though these are less likely to be found in
American public archives.
Granted this listing may be considered arbitrary, but these
formats represent the most commonly used gauges and probably
represent more than 95% of the analog videotapes recorded in
the last 40 years that need to be preserved. Each was
manufactured for a particular segment of the market place. It
wasn't the format itself that limited its use but the cost,
complexity, and size of its ancillary equipment.
Since two-inch tape was designed for broadcasters, there was
little use of 2-inch tape outside the broadcast industry.
Even the Department of the Defense and the U.S. Information
Agency employed it on a relatively limited basis for original
video productions. Moreover, 2-inch was basically a studio
format rather than one that could be used conveniently for
shooting in the field. Cameras still had to be tethered to
relatively large recorders.
Sony's 1/2-inch EIAJ open-reel videotape introduced in 1969
was marketed as a consumer format. However, it quickly found a
niche in education and among community activist groups and
video artists. It was the first time that such groups had
cheap and convenient access to video recording technology.
Using port-a-packs, they pioneered the use of portable video
for news and documentary production and paved the way to ENG
(Electronic News Gathering).
The 3/4-inch, U-matic format, made available in the early
1970's, spread the video revolution even further by making
professional quality videotape recording economically
accessible to a wide spectrum of users, including broadcasters
who used it for ENG and for recording complete programs; it
was used by industry and government for a myriad of purposes;
and by documentary groups and video artists. Refinements in
tape composition, cameras, recorders, and editing equipment
helped to maintain the format's viability as a production
medium for almost 15 years. Although no longer used as a
production medium, there are hundreds of thousands of U-matic
cassettes stored in a variety of organizations throughout the
nation. The continued availability of players seems assured
for some years to come, though much of the ancillary
production equipment is no longer manufactured.
As the first high-quality videotape recorder, one-inch Type C
developed jointly by Ampex and Sony and marketed in 1978
became the mainstay of the studio recording industry,
replacing the two-inch format and several other short-lived
one-inch formats. This format was used as a studio format to
record complete programs for later broadcast or reuse.
Sony's Betacam, and its subsequent SP version, has grown in
popularity since the late 1980's. They essentially replaced
3/4-inch U-matic in ENG and documentary production because of
their comparatively superior resolution. However, the
relatively high cost of Betacam equipment discouraged use
outside the broadcast industry. CBS News and ABC News adopted
Betacam as a uniform format as did many local television
stations throughout the United States. NBC News adopted
Matsushita's M-II format, which was Betacam's main competitor,
but subsequently switched to Betacam SP. NBC has recently
adopted the use of Panasonic's D-3 format, also developed by
Matsushita.
The dominant consumer format since the late 1970's was 1/2-
inch VHS, and since 1990 it has had competition from 8mm or
Hi-8 formats composed of metal particle or evaporated metal
pigments. VHS and Hi-8 nonetheless gave individuals the
opportunity to record the world around them, including the
most important events in their lives such as weddings, family
vacations, and the occasional unanticipated news event. VHS
and Hi-8 have also been used for scientific and ethnographic
research. It is difficult to describe all the potential uses
just as it is difficult if not impossible to estimate their
number or how many consumer-produced videotapes might possess
sufficient value to warrant preservation in an archives.
Never intended as a production format, VHS is satisfactory for
viewing purposes but the image resolution significantly
degrades when copied to another generation. S-VHS format and
its equipment at three or four times the price provide
superior resolution thanks to its fine grain ferrous oxide
binder. It is worth noting that S-VHS and Hi-8 have
obliterated distinctions between consumer and professional
formats, chiefly because they deliver high resolution with
relatively moderate equipment costs. For example, military
camera operators routinely use S-VHS and Hi-8 in their
activities. CNN and CBS News employed the Hi-8 format in their
coverage of the Gulf War. Further, in 1992 the Fox
Broadcasting Company made a policy decision to use S-VHS for
its ENG operations, affecting some 150 stations.(54) For many
professional uses Hi-8 is typically "bumped" up to a standard
professional copy for editing and retention.(55) Television
news organizations that had previously used Hi-8 (e.g., Video
News International) are now beginning to switch to
professional/consumer digital formats.
Until now in this survey of common formats, 1956-96, the video
signal systems all have been analog. The television industry
is presently in the process of converting to digital recording
and production systems. Among the advantages of digital
recording are higher resolutions, error measurement and
correction, the ability to record--or clone, as it were--
copies without generational loss, and, for postproduction,
nonlinear editing. Two digital recording formats have been
available to the industry since the late 1980's, D-1 and D-2.
D-1, an iron oxide tape, has been primarily used for
postproduction; major studios retain long-form programs in D-
1, an expensive format beyond the means of public archives.
The D-2 format was an appropriate vehicle to ease the
transition from analog to digital, because it is compatible
with some analog systems and thus did not require a complete
and expensive studio equipment change. D-2 has been used
extensively to record and save completed programs by producers
and studios.(56) First generations of Sony's D-1 and D-2
equipment are already obsolete in production environments.
Matsushita's D-3, based on a 1/2-inch format, lends itself to
studio recording, because its resolution exceeds D-2's and is
portable for ENG.(57)
The last few years have seen the introduction of a plethora of
new video formats, including D-5, D-6, DCT, Digital Betacam,
DV, DVC, and Digital-S, and probably several more in the
offing.(58) One hopeful sign is the introduction of some
compatability between Panasonic and Sony "prosumer" formats,
DVPRO and DVCAM.(59)
Table 4: Digital Videotape Formats
Format Signal Coating Nominal Width Major Users
D-1 Component Iron oxide 0.5-0.6 3/4-inch Studios
(Sony)
D-2 Composite Metal Particle 0.5 3/4-inch Studios/
Broadcasting/
Government
D-3 Composite Metal Particle 0.4-0.55 1/2-inch Broadcasting/ENG
D-5 Component Metal Particle 0.43 1/2-inch Studios/Production
D-6* Component Metal Particle 0.54 1-inch HDTV
DCT Component Metal Particle 0.5 3/4-inch Studios
compressed
BetacamSX Component Metal Particle 0.57 1/2-inch Broadcasting
compressed
Digital Component Metal Particle 0.54 1/2-inch Broadcasting/ENG
Betacam compressed
Digital-S Component Metal Particle 0.57 1/2-inch ENG/
compressed Independent Prod.
DVCAM Component Metal Particle 0.33 1/4-inch Consumers/ENG/
compressed Independent Prod.
DVC/ Compressed Metal Particle 0.33 1/4-inch Consumers-DVC/
DVCPRO ENG/Ind. Prod.
(D-7*)
* Not yet SMPTE official designations
This overview of videotape formats suggests several trends
taking place. One is the move toward compactness and reduced
tape consumption in newer formats.(60) Another is the use of
thinner tapes. For example, D-2 videotape is about half the
thickness of 1-inch type C. Thinner tape is more vulnerable to
physical damage. There is also a trend toward more densely
packed recording tracks. Video compression is also a hallmark
of some of the newer formats, e.g. DCT, Digital Betacam, and
DVC. New formats are being introduced with more frequency and
presumably will have a shorter period of commercial viability.
Cheaper products as measured by performance and equipment
costs are driving out the more expensive ones following a
time-honored law of the market place. Since preservation is
not a market-driven issue, industry provides little guidance
to archives on the suitability of new formats; some are
definitely inappropriate for archiving.
The aging properties of magnetic tape is a field that requires
more research. There is no agreed upon system for evaluating
tape formats. Adhesion, friction, and hydrolysis have been
proposed as physical tests for standard evaluation and
accelerated age testing, but Japanese tape manufacturers would
not cooperate with industry efforts to create and implement
standardized tests. Three American companies who were
participating have all but ceased their activities in this
area. There are currently no standard methods for
determining life expectancies of videotape, making it
difficult if not impossible to compare data from different
manufacturers.(61)
(15) Obsolescence as the Key Technical Issue
To ensure retrieval of recorded information in the future, a
3M product memo advised users to pack a tape player, manuals,
and schematics along with the tape(62), a theme repeated by
several witnesses at the public hearings. Such advice may
have been given tongue in cheek, but begs the question of how
to cope with evolving technologies and the obsolescence of
others, surely a strategic question for industry and archives.
For industry it means a considerable investment in re-
equipping production and broadcast facilities and re-
formatting programs retained for re-broadcast or sale to other
markets. These changes closely parallel the choices faced by
public archives in their need to ensure that their videotapes
can be transferred to new video systems. Although archives are
not a leading force in the video market place, they are deeply
influenced by trends in format sales and video technology.
Archives have no control over the formats they accession or
inherit that become problems for the future. But they can
exercise some judgment about the formats they use for off-air
recording and for re-formatting projects.
The video manufacturers will not support a specific technology
beyond its commercial viability. U-matic, a format more than
25 years old, is something of an anomaly due to the sheer
number of recorded cassettes that remain in public and private
inventories. As the era of 2-inch and 1/2-inch EIAJ has been
over for some years, machine parts are no longer manufactured.
Transferring these formats has become an understandable
priority in archives because the technology is on the verge of
extinction. It is difficult to locate players in working
condition. Parts must be cannibalized. Transferring has become
increasingly a specialized skill.
In order to complete a large 2-inch transfer project, CBS
Television City found it necessary to induce some of its
retirees to return to work to help in re-formatting. CBS
achieved an excellent transfer rate with thousands of tapes
that had been stored in less than desirable conditions. They
had as many as ten 2-inch players in operation with six others
set aside for parts replacement, probably the largest
concentration of such equipment available in the United
States. Nonetheless, as the project manager observed, the
machines are dying, and in three to five years even CBS will
not have the capability to transfer large amounts of 2-inch
tape.(63)
Some of the short-lived formats from the 1970's and 1980's
have been hopelessly beyond recovery for years due to lack of
players in working condition. It is important to look at
these changes not in isolation but as part of an inevitable
trend that will characterize video evolution with more and
more frequency.
Re-formatting as a means of converting obsolete videotape
holdings poses two major dilemmas for the archival world: the
lack of an ideal video format and the growing volume of
material to be copied. Beyond the need to go to a digital
format to avoid generational loss, absent from the archival
field is anything remotely approaching what might be called
an ideal format or a "preservation copy." Until an ideal or
universal preservation format is introduced, video
preservation should be viewed not as a tangible product but a
continuing process aimed at protecting information that can
migrate from one technology to another as the need arises.
The current merger of video technology and computers suggests
that the ideal format in the future may not be videotape but
bitstreams of compressed data recorded on disks. It is
probable that video programs will have to be copied several
times over the next twenty or thirty years if current
technological trends continue.
Hovering over obsolescence as a preservation issue is the more
prosaic need of large archives to be able to copy tens of
thousands of hours of videotape before the supporting
technology disappears from the market place. The federal
repositories of the Library of Congress and the National
Archives and Records Administration have original analog video
holdings exceeding 200,000 hours, which will have to be copied
to another format early in the next century if the program
content is to survive. Other large collections like the
Vanderbilt University's Television News Archive and New York
Public Library's Dance Collection will face a similar dilemma.
Additionally, these are not static collections but growing
dramatically in direct proportion to the expansion of video
programming brought about by the increase of broadcasting
outlets and the other uses of videotape as a form of
documentation. If the volume of material continues to exceed
archival resources, re-formatting will no doubt become a
highly selective process which implicitly risks additional
losses to the American television and video heritage.
CHAPTER THREE:
TELEVISION AND VIDEO PRESERVATION
IN CORPORATE AND PUBLIC ARCHIVES
TELEVISION AND VIDEO PRESERVATION IN PRACTICE
IN CORPORATE AND PUBLIC ARCHIVES
Corporate:
A. Major Studios
Introduction
Hollywood major studios have produced the vast majority of
entertainment programs for the first 45 years of American
television history. Seven or eight studios by themselves or in
partnership with other companies have produced most prime-time
entertainment programs as well as daytime drama series known
as "soaps" or "soap operas." To cite a few familiar examples,
Sony/Columbia has produced Days of Our Lives, The Young and
the Restless, and Maude; Disney has produced numerous
television programs directed at children as well as sitcoms
such as Home Improvement and Golden Girls; Paramount has been
responsible for successful series like All in the Family, Star
Trek, and Entertainment Tonight. Through its acquisitions,
Turner controls Medical Center, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,
C.H.I.P.S., and Gilligan's Island; through subsidiaries, it
produces Seinfeld and original feature films for television.
While the general public identifies these programs with the
networks that broadcast them, the studios in fact produced
them, own the underlying rights, and ultimately are
responsible for their preservation.
Each of the eight major studios has an assets protection
program aimed at preserving extensive inventories of
television titles which, like theatrical films, are a
continuing source of potential income. Past programs remain
the life blood of these corporations. New productions alone
are insufficient for economic survival. The studios must be
able to recycle their products in syndication and in ever-
expanding markets represented by cable outlets, video
cassettes sales, and foreign sales. All genres--dramas,
sitcoms, thrillers, even old game shows--have sales potential
domestically and internationally. Past programs are protected
rather than destroyed since they represent the essential
underlying and future value of the corporations for
forecasting income and for insurance, taxes, and potential
sale to another studio or conglomerate. These activities are
the driving force behind their efforts to provide good storage
conditions, geographical separation of copies for security,
and preservation copying. William Humphrey, representing Sony
at the Los Angeles public hearings, outlined a position that
all the studios could accept--basically, that preservation
makes good economic sense.
With the emergence of pay cable, home video, and the demand of
programming for international territories, including our new
Sony Entertainment television network in Latin America and
India, the ability to service clients is dependent not only on
the quality of the product but also on the care and handling
of the assets used to create the product. Continued
accessibility and exploitation of the library helps us fuel
our preservation efforts.
The major studios have preservation/protection programs other
organizations might emulate if they had comparable resources
and could expect a significant financial return on their
investment. For many of the nation's television archives whose
value stems from their historical and cultural content, the
notion of financial returns is not only remote but tangential
to the educational value of their holdings.
Production practices
The use of motion picture film as original source material for
entertainment television production occurs frequently owing to
film's superior resolution and its ability to capture shades
and tones under a variety of lighting conditions. Today 35mm
film is primarily used in the production of long-form programs
like telefeatures and mini-series. Super 16mm is also employed
to save on equipment and film stock costs. Sony/Columbia, for
example, requires producers to deliver an original negative,
plus a D-1 videotape; for series, it requires an original
negative plus a tape with a 16:9 wide screen aspect ratio.
Shorter programs, including those produced on speculation, are
originated increasingly on videotape.
Regardless of image source, productions are pieced together or
created on nonlinear editing systems and then output back to
digital videotape. Nonlinear editing systems, such as Avid
Technology's, form the basis for electronic editing. Described
briefly, nonlinear editing occurs in post-production in which
digital videotape is downloaded in increments, commensurate
with hard-drive storage capacities; through the use of a
computer, images are rapidly and efficiently intermixed or
edited along with graphics, optical effects, and sound
elements in any order, limited only by one's creativity.
Electronic editing has made manual or traditional film
editing--with its cumbersome array of splicers, blades, film
cement, and bins--a dying art.
The use of videotape for originals and nonlinear editing come
to the industry at a time when tremendous pressure exists to
keep production costs low. Television advertisers, who
basically pay the networks for programs through the purchase
of air time for their ads, cannot be taken for granted; there
are more outlets than ever fiercely competing for their ad
accounts. The economics of television production will
therefore gradually minimize the use of motion picture film as
the original element in favor of videotape, a more cost-
effective production format.
This shift in technology will have profound implications for
preserving American entertainment programs originated on film,
because, after the video transfers have been made, technology
relegates the film original to secondary importance if it does
not make it entirely superfluous. The film original is not
always edited or conformed to the finished version, something
which only exists as a videotape; graphics and optical effects
exist only as a datafile output to videotape. In theory, a
film version can be reconstructed based upon data contained in
the Edit Decision Lists (EDL). But several studios have found
that it is too expensive to conform all film originals as a
general practice, especially if the videotape version
satisfies future broadcasting and syndication needs. Studios
nonetheless plan to store film originals indefinitely in
anticipation of a future need to conform them for re-broadcast
on advanced television systems. The lynchpin in this strategy
is the EDL, a proprietary software-dependent datafile whose
physical preservation and future readability cannot be
presumed. The studios now seems divided if not ambivalent on
the issue of conforming film originals made for television
programming.
Preservation policies
The preservation policies from one major studio to another
follow similar principles, operations, and standards. The
following describes the strategy in general; major digressions
or variations are noted.
a. No programs are destroyed as the result of a
deliberate decision. In the studios' view, all program formats
potentially represent some future revenue source. Accordingly,
programs are copied and protected by additional copies but not
necessarily to the same degree, as will be ex |
Library
of Congress >> A/V
Conservation >> National
Film Preservation Board
