FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2025

With the disappearance of magnetic tapes and optical discs from digitisation efforts, the archival landscape has undergone a fundamental transformation. As all content now resides within enterprise-scale data centres, the notion of an archive has shifted from a tangible collection to an "invisible" repository. This raises pressing concerns: how can organisations ensure their digital holdings remain accessible, authentic, and safeguarded over time?

The challenge of digital preservation lies not only in maintaining technical integrity but in ensuring awareness and active stewardship. Without the physicality of tapes or discs, archives risk becoming "out of sight, out of mind." To counter this, institutions must establish robust digital preservation policies that define retention strategies, monitoring protocols, and long-term accessibility plans. Implementing these policies requires a blend of automated verification processes, human oversight, and adherence to evolving standards in digital conservation.

The vendor community plays a pivotal role in supporting these efforts. Technology providers must develop solutions that offer transparency into stored data, facilitate auditability, and ensure sustainable preservation strategies. Vendors can also guide organisations in adopting best practices, integrating AI-driven archival management, and maintaining adaptability to future shifts in digital storage technology.

A proactive approach is essential to ensure archives remain not only present but actively usable. By fostering collaboration between archival institutions and technology vendors, the archival world can bridge the gap between the visible past and the intangible future.

SVT’s archive is extensive. We have nearly 1000 square meters of archival facilities filled with film. The oldest film dates to 1897 (re-copied in the 1950s), and the most recent series recorded on film was made in 2011. In addition to this, we had a tape robot, which has now been decommissioned, and during an EU project, we migrated all tapes to low-resolution files. Once that project was completed, we launched the ‘Save the Films’ project with the goal of making the analog archive accessible.

We have over 500,000 hours of film, and initially we used a TeleCine scanner that ran the film in real-time – which would have taken us a lifetime to complete. Instead, we purchased scanners capable of scanning all material at five times the speed. Within five years, we had made 80% of the analog archive available in Full HD. However, there was demand for material in higher resolution and better audio capture, etc., so we invested in new scanners capable of scanning up to 4K and retired the old TeleCine scanner.

Now we have a MAM system filled with files in a mix of different formats and resolutions, and much of it does not meet today's technical standards. With the new scanners, we can rescan films up to 4K, but when the material was originally recorded on tape and has a resolution of only 576 pixels, the challenges are greater.

To help us, we have brought in an AI service that offers digital restoration and cleaning of files, upscaling from low resolution to high resolution, and colorization of black-and-white film.

David, a media technician, will share his experiences not only working with scanning but also supporting many major productions with colorization.

Archives have strived to digitise all their Quadruplex tapes before the format becomes completely obsolete due to lack of equipment and loss of skills. Despite their best efforts, many tapes remain locked in their vault, their content untouched, and the worldwide supply of spare parts and heads is quickly dwindling.

For archives engaging in digitising their remaining quadruplex tapes, many upended questions, with fewer people able to answer them, arise: Who still has the capacity to play back 2inch tapes? How to deal with the multiple sub-types and standards? What would be the cost and resources needed to embark in such a project? Can new digital tools compensate for lack of equipment?

This discussion panel, which aims to be the launching pad of further exchanges, will be led by experts (to be selected) from various backgrounds, such as archive institutions or service providers - all confronted to the challenge of quadruplex obsolescence in different ways.

Amid a global trend for open access to public archives, this study introduces a national initiative to create a digital platform for accessing government-produced audiovisual content held by Korea’s Public Policy Broadcasting Service (KTV). These materials—ranging from public information films to coverage of national events—offer significant historical and cultural value for civic engagement, education, and creative reuse.

The research evaluates South Korea’s evolving digital archive environment, focusing on institutional, technological, and policy strategies to improve public access. It critically analyzes current platforms, such as the KTV NaNuri portal and e-History, identifying limitations in metadata infrastructure, content quality, and user interaction. Drawing on global archival practices and AI applications, the study proposes a roadmap for innovation.

Key recommendations include AI-based metadata enhancement, a dual-track service model for general and institutional users, and phased content release aligned with social demand across sectors such as education, research, media, and cultural institutions (GLAM). Legislative and institutional reforms are also addressed to overcome regulatory and rights-related barriers.

The project concludes with a strategic plan (2026–2028) to foster interagency collaboration and build a sustainable, AI-driven infrastructure for public access. This presentation contributes to international discourse on audiovisual heritage and showcases South Korea’s approach to opening its government media archives for broader public use.