Restoring BAFTA's Archive Audio

03 February 09

Assistant Academy Archivist and Audio Project Manager, Gemma Harrison explains how the archive recordings were digitally restored...

What state were the original recordings in?
The original audio recordings of events in the archive up until 2006 are held on C90 cassette tapes. The condition of tapes varied and, in order to assess the quality and work on them, they needed transferring to a digital format. Because of the age and the original format, restoration work is needed on all of the tapes, although some were more in need of this than others. This work is ongoing.

How did you choose the recordings to restore?
Eventually the aim is to digitise all the tapes as part of the process of opening up the Archive content to as wide an audience as possible. We're hoping to publish the most interesting and engaging content although, in some instances, the quality of the tape isn't good enough for broadcast (even after using the restoration software).

What did the digitisation process involve?
Firstly, a tape deck was connected to our computer and then an audio editing program captured the content. This was then saved as a digital file (.wav), as this is master quality for audio. Next, an edit is carried out on a copy of the .wav file so that the original is preserved - this stage removes long silences along with any film clips to avoid copyright issues. Then the file is opened in iZotope RX (a specialist piece of restoration software - see picture, left) and this program removes hissing, humming and any other unwanted noises.

What specific problems were encountered?
Restoring audio which is quite badly damaged can be a painstaking process, so a great deal of time, care and effort is involved. In some cases there are imperfections which cannot be removed or edited, but I hope that these few instances should not ruin the listening experience in general.

How many podcasts are available to download right now?
To begin with, 10 podcasts will be available for download but we will be updated the account regularly with new events as more and more Archive recordings are restored.

• With Thanks to Mark Kermode, Hedda Archbold, Pam Fisher, Matthew Arnold, Mark Claydon, Jonathan Fairey, Joe Suttle and Deborah Spanton.

Access the Archive Audio

You can download our podcasts to your computer or portable device and listen to them whenever you wish. Alternatively, you can sign up to the BAFTA Podcast RSS feed: http://media.bafta.tv/BAFTA_Archive_audio.rss

If you prefer, you can subscribe to podcasts with iTunes. Follow the instructions to download iTunes to your computer. You can then set up a subscription to the BAFTA podcasts and automatically receive podcasts as soon as they are released.

Subscribe to BAFTA podcasts on iTunes (opens iTunes)

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