“By nature and necessity, public broadcasting is a hodgepodge of media types and formats. A documentary might include moving and still images, speeches and voice-overs, sound effects, or a song. Children's programming might include a combination of live action, cartoons, musical numbers, and kaleidoscopic effects. Source material for any of these production elements might be analog (a strip of film, a track from a 78-rpm phonograph record) or digital (panoramic portraits, credit rolls, logos). In whatever manifestations these objects previously existed, they become bits and bytes before they reach the public eye. That is an enormous amount of digital information to manage over time. As we move into the increasingly complex digital world, those charged with preserving our television heritage have the opportunity to develop and establish better coordinated and standardized preservation policies and practices to ensure what television programs and related assets survive.”

In a relatively rapid period of time, digital technology has radically transformed the nature of television program production -- from a linear, sequential analog process, to a non-linear, random access, totally digital environment. Consequently, standard preservation practices that have served (and continue to serve) to protect analog productions on videotape no longer apply.

The public television institutions participating in this project are responsible for producing more than 60% of the program content aired on public television, and they are currently working together on several projects related to shifting from analog to digital program distribution methods.

But they have not yet come to terms with the technical standards, content selection criteria, and operating structures necessary to design and operate a repository for program preservation. This project, grounded directly on work that has already been done, will help public television take the next steps necessary to save our digital productions well into the future.