UC3 – Preservation of audio heritage for RTS


At RTS (Radio Television Suisse), keeping their valuable heritage is a key point. A service was created to manage the transition from tapes/cassettes to files for the archives of the company. It was done on several phases over the last 10 years and Vectracom took part in some of them. The last that RTS takes care of is an audio archive of about 80 000 hours that are recorded on classic open reel ¼ inch. After consultation of a number of companies, RTS requested offers and finally selected Vectracom to do the job. It is supposed to be a 4 years project but this time frame may vary with volume and budgets.

Vectracom installed a 8 ATRs system for parallel ingest with a Quadriga automation system from Cube-Tec to supplement the existing similar platform equipped with NOA automation system that Vectracom has been using for 5 years now.

Vectracom pick-up tapes at RTS in Lausanne every quarter or so and bring them in Paris at the main office of Vectracom. The tapes are delivered back in Lausanne at the same frequency. Final files are delivered on HDD on a regular basis roughly every month and they will be ingested in the MAM at RTS by RTS engineers. The delivery is done on BWF files with headers including a set of metadata describing the content and its container. Before the digitisation, the tapes are cleaned and some tapes will receive a special treatment as required. Tapes with vinegar syndrome and tapes with moistures are part of that.

New with this project, Vectracom will give access to RTS representatives to the measures that are done on a regular basis on the ingest channels/ATRs that are used for the project. That way, Vectracom guarantee to RTS the quality of its digitisation channels.

As usual, as we digitise the tapes that may be used for the last time, we also scan their boxes and any paper or tape sheet that may be included in their boxes. Delivered files are pdf/A.