What is the Object of the project?
ERT has proceeded to various upgrading processes for its audiovisual system and Digital Documentation Centre, so that it can continue to operate under current standards and with a view to future expansion to more advanced technologies. Through the current upgrading of the Audiovisual Material Management System that the ERT Archive Division has and operates, the Broadcasting Archive will meet the great demands of the new material but, above all, it will continue the preservation and safeguarding of the old material that is cultural heritage. This project will meet requirements arising from new digital formats, the distribution media through the Internet and the file based formats that ERT has now adopted for the production and distribution of audiovisual archival content. At the same time, the retrieval and disposal to the public of the radio archive will be launched. The workflow-annotation that already works will not be disturbed but additional properties and features will be added through the proposed upgrading. Also, given that the infrastructure of the existing system cannot cope with modern requirements (High Bandwidth & Resolution), it is required to upgrade and expand the existing operations without interrupting the current operation and turnover of the Archive. The architecture of the proposed upgrading will take into account the workflow-annotation of the existing infrastructure.
What are the expected benefits of the project?
ERT S.A. with the implementation of the “Preservation of ERT’s Digital Archive” Project and this project “ERT Digital Preservation Centre”, expects:
- the expansion of its extroversion and the dissemination of its digital audiovisual archive;
- the enrichment of its available digital cultural heritage, through the retrieval, recovery, documentation and digitisation of a greater proportion of its archives;
- the securing of the digitised material through the operation of a recovery centre
What are the purpose and objectives of the project?
This project aims mainly at the quality improvement and extroversion of the services of the ERT Archive, but also at the acceleration of the retrieval, digitization and promotion of rare material. The items to be procured for each PART of the project will be added to the existing ERT architecture, taking into account modern interoperability techniques, making the overall infrastructure more flexible, faster and modern. At the same time, the existing architecture of the Archive will be extended in terms of material handling and the introduction of new workflows. The overall management of audiovisual material and its metadata at all stages of audiovisual production will be improved, among other things. From the stage when the audiovisual document is identified, archiving it to the stage of its disposal. The production and transmission of digital audiovisual material in an IT environment entails significant changes, mainly related to its recording and storage, processing, archiving and searching.
Upon completion of its development, the system is expected to include all the required applications, tools (software and hardware) and technologies for the management of audiovisual material (recording, classification, processing, archiving, searching, retrieval) with its associated metadata. Integrated content management requires the control of all applications and workflows that use and modify the content, as well as the existence of strategies for the identification, tracking, collection and management of all metadata created during the processing of the material, the use of which is key to the effective exploitation of ERT’s Digital Media Assets.
The important advantage of the system’s tools is the direct and fast access to the material by all potential users. The correct classification of the material is also of primordial importance for the smooth workflow, in order for its search and retrieval to be easy and fast. The proposed upgrading will enable the development of new services such as voice and image search for multi-channel content delivery, while ERT will develop full hybrid services for the delivery of archival content to users through its appropriate modern platforms.
An important component of the project under development is the implementation of a digital recovery centre in a specially designed area of ERT, where Disaster Recovery services will be developed for its Archive, thus increasing not only the availability but also the preservation rate of the digitized wealth of Greece’s Broadcasting heritage. The offered system will be a modern smart modular data centre that will ensure structured, easy and quick installation and operation. It will allow for extensibility based on future requirements, making full use of the installation space while offering optimal security, flexibility and energy management. It will meet ASHRAE’s TC9.9 requirement for an enclosed cold and hot aisle by incorporating Rack aisle containment, while significantly reducing energy consumption and noise levels in the space. It will include all the cabinets (Network/IT), power supply and power distribution system including overvoltage protections, cooling system, supervision/management system, wiring system and fire extinguishing system in a compact structure.
