Video/TV

With the introduction of the video recorder 50 years ago, the audiovisual family was expanded by an independent medium. Television pictures were then able to be recorded on magnetic tape and played back as they were initially broadcast.

Several old video players, which operated with open spools of varying widths and were not compatible with each other. Photo: Johannes Gfeller, AktiveArchive / Hochschule der Künste Bern
Several old video players, which operated with open spools of varying widths and were not compatible with each other. Photo: Johannes Gfeller, AktiveArchive / Hochschule der Künste Bern

Since then, video has long freed itself from the isolation of the TV studio and has had an enormously broad effect. Professional productions for companies or research institutions fulfil important communications and recording tasks, artists have used the medium for their projects since the end of the 1960’s, and private individuals replaced Super8 film with video by the 1980’s at the latest.

Difficult Preservation of Video Documents

The youngest audiovisual medium poses a large preservation problem, however. If tapes are stored incorrectly, the signal information on them becomes difficult to read after only a few years, which means difficult restoration work needs to be done in some cases. And high-speed technical development results in new devices quickly becoming museum pieces. Innumerable formats have appeared and disappeared from the screen within a short period of time. What remains are enormous inventories of orphaned tapes that can only be played or transferred to a new format by a handful of specialists and their well-maintained collection of devices.

Despite the promises made by the digital world, there is still no patent solution in sight for the long-term preservation of videos; on the contrary, the introduction of high-density (HD) video formats brings with it a completely new set of preservation problems.

Memoriav Activities in Video/TV

  • Memoriav initiates and promotes projects for the preservation and availability of TV and video recordings in Switzerland. In collaboration with institutions that own video collections and the video competence network, selection criteria, transfer procedures, cataloguing methods and access forms are determined for each project.
  • Memoriav advocates better access to video inventories, so that, for example, television productions saved with the help of Memoriav may be made available to the general public. Of special interest are education and research institutions dependent on easy access to audiovisual recordings.
  • Memoriav sensitises interested parties and professional circles to the problems of video preservation through training courses and the presentation of saved recordings.
  • With the creation of a video competence network, Memoriav is filling a void in Switzerland’s framework of audiovisual institutions. The network tackles the contextual and technical aspects of the long-term preservation of video recordings. Thanks to the inclusion of different experts, the competence network serves as a contact point for video preservation issues from all areas.
    The network has also published the "Recommendations for the Preservation of Video Recordings" (in French / in German / in Italian).

Quick Links VIDEO/TV

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