Digital Preservation Strategies: the cost of risk of loss

The mass digitization of analog archive holdings and the transition to tapeless production for new content mean that audiovisual (AV) archives now face the prospect of file-based archiving solutions using information technology (IT) storage methods. However, many important factors in this process remain unknown. What is the long-term total cost of ownership (TCO) of these systems, which file formats should be used, what storage technologies make sense, what are the risks involved, what is the additional cost of managing these risks, and what new software approaches can be applied? These issues are being explored by major broadcasters, national archives, and technology specialists in the PrestoPrime and AVATAR-m projects.