FIAT/IFTA CONFERENCE AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY, PARIS
- SOME PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS

On a highly selective personal basis, the following issues seemed to me significant for the future development and success of television archives and the organisations they serve.

Policy and management

The ownership of the programme material, its preservation and exploitation are the key to the longer term success of broadcasting organisations. The many unresolved rights, technical and access issues ran through the whole programme of the conference.

Business principles and heritage responsibilities - are they compatible? The high costs of preservation, storage and documentation, together with the capital investment necessary to reap the benefits of new technology, do not sit easily with the drive to reduce production costs found in most television organisations.

It is essential that archives operate in the most business like and cost effective way possible. However, it is not in the best interest of either television organisations or society in general that only the short term view should be taken. Very recent history demonstrates the folly of wiping and junking programme material that now would have both commercial and cultural value. In order to expand the range and quality of retained material and control costs, national and international collaboration is essential.

It is not helpful to organisationally group or directly compare archives with resource departments such as post production or studios. The functions and values are very different in nature and time-scale. A close relationship with the programme origination process is essential to ensure that the archive relates to the needs of that core part of the organisation and derives the maximum benefit from it. Several sessions described the benefits of closer collaboration between archives and production departments.

Many organisations have already grouped all their archive related activities into one department or plan to do so. This should eventually produce greater efficiencies and ensure that consistent standards and policies are developed. The relationship between programme material and programme documents is particularly important.

Technical and technology issues

Obsolescent formats, how to preserve, restore and transfer them remains unresolved or incomplete in many organisations. The cost is rising, the equipment and know-how is declining and the choice of the best options is by no means obvious. The coverage of compression issues and the long term effects on the quality, survival and accessibility of programme material in several sessions did not appear to offer definitive solutions. This is an area where collaboration in provision of facilities and expertise could offer the most effective solution.

Mass digital storage may well be the long term solution but in the meantime the increasing array of tape formats need to be both protected and accessible. The large collections of film in many of the longer established organisations also require considerable maintenance and preparation before transfer can be achieved.

Documentation and access

One of the main purposes of documentation is to permit access and retrieval of the material. There is increasing demand for archives to provide direct access for users to both information and the actual material. This highly desirable objective is being pursued again very sensibly through collaborative projects, some of which were presented in the sessions.

Protection of rights, browse or broadcast quality and compression are important in this area. The long standing questions of how customers should be charged for these services and the potentially conflicting demands of academic and research users are highlighted by the improved technological possibilities.

The ever increasing speed and processing power of direct access systems are not a substitute for professional documentation standards. The rapidly growing size and complexity of the data increases their importance. However, these systems must ensure that all relevant data is collected and analysed wherever it is originated in the production cycle. The user friendly systems required by direct access users ideally should conceal a controlled and structured information system managed by the archive.

Training

As frequently, last but certainly not least. There is still much work to be done on establishing standards and communicating them as widely as possible. The technical expertise literally dying with experienced practitioners needs to be collected, passed on and incorporated into training programmes. Countries with shorter traditions and experience in television production and broadcasting particularly require training material and facilities which the Training Commission is developing.

Future of FIAT

The acceptance at the General Assembly of the proposed changes and future plans was most encouraging. Increasing fragmentation and de-regulation within the television industry places even greater emphasis on the role FIAT can play in establishing and promoting standards for the preservation and exploitation of programme material and in providing advice and services to both existing and potential members.

Anne Hanford

The Conference visiting the BNF