The importance of audio archive material cannot be underestimated. Think of Edward VIII announcing his abdication or the wartime speeches of Winston Churchill, even though actor Norman Shelley spoke them, and the power of a sound-only artefact, crossing the years, is undeniable. Despite this, the same lack of understanding that is sometimes applied to audio in general can be seen when broadcasters more concerned with visuals approach the subject. Transferring material to a digital storage medium is a time-consuming and potentially costly operation, particularly if the data is damaged in some way and requires restoration. But audio is perceived to be a more expensive proposition, especially if some degree of restoration is necessary. The alternative is to leave the hundreds of thousands of hours of sound material held by broadcasters as it is. This is impractical for a number of reasons, one being the fact that the top ten European broadcasters - including the BBC, RAI and ORF among them - hold 14.5 million hours of material on quarter-inch tape alone.
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