On 23-24 April, the EBU in cooperation with Croatian public service broadcaster HRT organised a workshop titled "Audiovisual Archiving in the Balkans: Challenges and the way ahead". The workshop was part of the EBU's Members assistance programme and prepared in collaboration with the EBU Technology and Innovation department.
Challenges and solutions
21 chief archivists from EBU members in Albania (RTSH), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT), Macedonia (MKRTV), Kosovo (RTK), Montenegro (RTCG), Serbia - (RTS and RTV) and representatives of the EBU, the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA), the International Federation of TV Archives (IFTA), Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) and Austrian public service broadcaster (ORF) participated in the event, exchanging experiences and innovative solutions for the archiving challences these organisations are faced with.
Saving historical productions
On the initiative of HRT an operational regional coordination group was established with representatives of HRT and RTS. The group will take the lead and coordinate the network created during the meeting. The group will also lead the development of a project to create a blueprint for archiving former Yugoslavian historical productions of great cultural value. The idea for such a blueprint came from Christoph Bauer (ORF).
According to Dr Hans Hoffmann (EBU), the event showed the large potential of this type of cross-Member collaboration and the importance of defining the archive as an integrated part of the production chain. He also noted that interoperable formats and interfaces, the consideration of workflow aspects, and guaranteeing an evolutionary development approach, will play a vital role in the utilisation of archives and the related digitalisation process.
EBU Archives event
A related EBU activity on archives worth mentioning is the two-day Archives workshop planned for 28-29 October in Geneva, which will be organised by the EBU"s Strategic Programmes on Quality Control (QC) and Integrated Media Production Strategies (IMPS) . This event will include special focus on how to guarantee quality in archive digitalisation processes. For more information, please contact: Hans Hoffmann (EBU).