World Day for Audiovisual Heritage - podcast from Radio Sonder Grense on 27 October #wdavh2015

The following package was compiled by the afternoon team of Radio Sonder Grense on Middag op.

Karen du Toit, Afrikaans archivist in the SABC Radio Archive, have selected one of the soundtracks for today. Jan Beukes, one of the first African broadcasters in 1937 on the African service, are relaying anecdotes about the first African broadcasts on radio. It was recorded on October 18, 1955. The soundtrack was originally recorded on acetate record and was digitized on a CD by a sound engineer. Unfortunately, we have many formats in the Archives which are perishing because we are not digitizing fast enough. It is a global problem in all audiovisual archives! "

The podcast translated from Afrikaans:

"The theme for the celebration of this year World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2015" Archives in Danger - Protecting the world's identities! "

SABC Media Libraries are part of archives worldwide highlighting the importance of preserving our audiovisual heritage in the SABC Radio archives. Our audiovisual heritage do not only allow us to look and listen with apperciation to our audio-visual collections, but what is more important, it also shows us who we are!

The Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Association (CCAAA) encourage everyone to participate in the campaign to protect man's AV heritage. The world's audiovisual heritage of sound recordings and moving images are extremely vulnerable due to factors ranging from neglect, natural decay due to technological obsolescence, as well as deliberate destruction.

Accordingly, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) made it part of its mission to create public awareness with the the Global Audiovisual Heritage celebrations annually.

All the world's audiovisual heritage is endangered. Therefore, the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and the Memory of the World program are the two most important actions identified by UNESCO to help preserve this heritage! The task is on professionals in conservation to help preserve this heritage for future generations, despite the many technical, political, social, financial and other factors that threaten AV survival.

UNESCO encourages everyone to share in the celebrations on October 27 by putting the emphasis on their precious collections to ensure that present and future generations will still be able to enjoy our shared audiovisual heritage. "

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2013 - Eventifier created #wdavh2013

The most recent World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is archived at Eventifier.
The photos that are shared on Instagram about the SABC Radio Archives are also included in this archive of social media interactions about audiovisual heritage.

Eventifier is a great way to archive all the social media stories and to keeping it together. Social media stories get "lost" or it becomes inaccessible as time goes by. This is a great way to archive a social media event that was categorised by a hashtag.

Unfortunately only the first request is free for an Eventifier to be created. Posts can also only be deleted, and nothing can be added after the Eventifier has been created. This option could have added to the quality of the archive of a hashtag.

A screen print of the Eventifier for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage looks like this:

Related posts:

- SABC Media Libraries' Instagram photos for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2013 #wdavh

- World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on 27 October #wdavh2013


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

SABC Media Libraries' Instagram photos for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2013 #wdavh2013

The SABC Media Libraries share on Instagram some of the formats and play back equipment that are part of  the collections of the SABC Radio Archives.
The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2013 on 27 October inspired the most recent photographs on the photography social media sharing site.

The SABC Media Libraries account on Instagram can be found here: SABCMediaLib on Instagram, with more photos from the archives. It can be located under the hashtag #wdavh2013



Related posts:

- World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2013 on 27 October #wdavh2013

- World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on 27 October 2012


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Drama students at the SABC Radio Archives

Third year drama students at the University of Pretoria, doing a course in Radio, visited the SABC Radio Archives on Friday.

The tour was organised by their lecturer, Anna-Marie Jansen van Vuuren.

More of the photos of their visit can be seen on the SABC Radio Archives Facebook page.

They were shown the different analogue and digital audio formats which are being archived and handled in the SABC Radio Archives on a daily basis.

Although the audio equipment and the audio formats are not being manufactured or used on a massive scale any more, the archives are still in need of the skills of capable technicians who look after the equipment.
It is also the task of the archivists to look after their collections of  different audio formats, and to identify the need of collections becoming obsolete because of the formats disintegrating, such as the mini-discs.

Reel-to-reel Studer tape recorder 

The reel-to-reel-tape machine was demonstrated, as well as how the format of reel-to-reel tapes was one of the much safer and robust audio carriers, even than more recently released and recorded audio formats.

Reel-to-reel tape from 1979

Related post:

UP Students in Radio visiting SABC Radio Archives 

Facebook photos:

Drama Students visiting from UP


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Wordless Wednesday - Intern with mini-disc recording

Wordless Wednesday in the SABC Radio Archives

Report about the British Library Audiovisual Archiving Training Workshop at the SABC

The British Library has received support from the World Collections Programme to run a course on sound and audiovisual archiving in South Africa. Participants for the programme were drawn from the SABC Regional branches and from broadcast archives in other southern African countries.
                    - (Dr Janet Topp Fargion, Lead Curator, World and Traditional Music of the British Library)

Report by Elizabeth Mate, Archivist, SABC Radio Archives, who had the privilege to attend the workshop.

The British Library Audiovisual Archiving Training Workshop started from the 28th 0f March to the 1st of April 2011, in the M5 studio of the SABC. 

The first two days was with Will Prentice (Head of Technical Services, Sound and Vision) where we focused on the brief history of analogue audio and a few processes of digitization. He spoke about the qualities of audio (mav, mp3, vma) whereby he advised us, as archivists to always consider the original. In this case it will be wav, for it is not compressed like mp3 which throws out a lot of data.  We were showed how to clean the tape and cassette machines and how to demagnetize the machines. He said it was a standard thing for every archivist before recording and cataloguing material every day.  We spoke about the actual storage areas of audio. It was agreed that space is a very huge problem for all archives.  We spoke about things which can be of great damage to our work such as air conditioning and water.  We also spoke about LP’s, CD’s reel-to-reel tapes and different types of analogue carriers.  We were shown how to adjust the pitch of sound on the cassette play back.

The last session was with Andrew Pearson (Maintenance Repair & Design Engineer, Sound and Vision), who did the introduction to video archiving. He showed us how many times a film move for us to see one picture. We focused on the qualities of video/film; and how colour was added to the black and white films.  He showed us how to adjust the video recorder to get the right colour of different colours on the bars of the TV monitor. We also spoke about sound adjustment; high light means brightness, and other distorting pitches. We dealt with video cassettes, their durability, and the processes it takes when bringing it to digitization. We were even taught how to open a video tape and fix the tape. We also touched on the use of Wavelab. It is a very important tool when it comes to transferring audio from both analogue audio carriers and digital ones.

During the Workshop, we were also advised that technicians from the Technical departments must not just phase away or throw away broadcasting equipment. They must work together with archivists to know what type of audio carriers still needed to be used.

We were advised that materials or audio which are on analogue carriers must be converted or transferred to digital carriers before equipments using these carriers are phased out.  The equipment is being phased out because it is no longer being manufactured.

I think the SABC is on the right track by introducing digitization in its audio and audiovisual archives.

Related post:
British Library Audiovisual Archiving Training Workshop

SABC Media Libraries celebrated UNESCO Audiovisual Heritage Day in the Eastern Cape Region as well

27-10-2010 SABC Media Libraries celebrated UNESCO World Audiovisual Heritage Day in Port Elizabeth as well.

Fikile Potelwa was  afforded  the  opportunity  by  Umhlobo Wenene FM  to  talk on  the  radio  and  explain  the  importance of  the  occasion. He declared it as a great experience.

Old  radio  broadcast   equipment,  records  and  tapes  were  on  display  at  a  designated  venue. Posters depicting the day were visible placed within the building.

They  invited  Librarians  from  the  Bayworld  museum  in  Port  Elizabeth  to  witness  the  day  at  their premises. Fikile Potelwa sketched a brief  summary about the  importance  of  the  Audiovisual  Heritance  Day  to  the  SABC  staff  and  the  invited  guests.

Historical film was shown to the audience.  Popcorn and coke were served during the occasion. It was a huge success! He thanks the interim organising committee for the day.

Photo: Fikile Potelwa / Thoko Thaiteng

How did you celebrate UNESCO World Audiovisual Heritage Day?

SABC celebrating UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage in the regions as well

Meshack Chili

PRETORIA REGION, 27 October 2010
Meshack Chili, the RBF Music Librarian in SABC Tshwane Region, Hatfield, prepared a small exhibition of UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.
Posters of AVH are being put in the Reception area. The exhibition consists of television coverage pictures of September 11, 2001 attack of US World Trade Centre, the Tsunami Indian Ocean earthquake of 26 December 2004 in Indonesia, the first moonwalk that took place on the 20th of July 1969 by a commander Neil Alden Armstrong and the two pilots Michael Collins and Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. using a rocket call Apollo 11.
The exhibition also consists of old SABC audio recording tapes, beta cam tapes, VHS, Cassettes, lps and seven singles.

He explained the meaning of World Day for audiovisual Heritage and why it is important to us.

Transcription Record by Jill Richards (Piano) and Diane Coutts/Marietjie Scoonraad (Piano)

Sabc Audio Restoration transcribed a Transcription Record by Jill Richards (Piano) and Diane Coutts/Marietjie Scoonraad (Piano), Including titles like Tonal Implications for Pianoforte and Prelude, Fugue and Postlude for Piano Duet Op. 17.


The recording was done in M1 Broadcast Centre, March 1986.

Jan de Jong handled the recording, and Daphne Kramers was the producer.

This recording was re-mastered on the 20th of April 2010.

Maryna Barnard, SABC Audio Restoration Section

How long do CD-Rs last?

The manufacturers claim 75 years (cyanine dye, used in "green" discs), 100 years (phthalocyanine dye, used in "gold" discs), or even 200 years ("advanced" phthalocyanine dye, used in "platinum" discs) once the disc has been written. The shelf life of an unrecorded disc has been estimated at between 5 and 10 years. There is no standard agreed-upon way to test discs for lifetime viability. Accelerated aging tests have been done, but they may not provide a meaningful analogue to real-world aging.

Exposing the disc to excessive heat, humidity, or to direct sunlight will greatly reduce the lifetime. In general, CD-Rs are far less tolerant of environmental conditions than pressed CDs, and should be treated with greater care. The easiest way to make a CD-R unusable is to scratch the top surface. Find a CD-R you don't want anymore, and try to scratch the top (label side) with your fingernail, a ballpoint pen, a paper clip, and anything else you have handy. The results may surprise you.

Keep them in a cool, dark, dry place, and they will probably live longer than you do (emphasis on "probably"). Some newsgroup reports have complained of discs becoming unreadable in as little as three years, but without knowing how the discs were handled and stored such anecdotes are useless. Try to keep a little perspective on the situation: a disc that degrades very little over 100 years is useless if it can't be read in your CD-ROM drive today.

By some estimates, pressed CD-ROMs may only last for 10 to 25 years, because the aluminium reflective layer starts to corrode after a while.

One user was told by Blaupunkt that CD-R discs shouldn't be left in car CD players, because if it gets too hot in the car the CD-R will emit a gas that can blind the laser optics. However, CD-Rs are constructed much the same way and with mostly the same materials as pressed CDs, and the temperatures required to cause such an emission from the materials that are exposed would melt much of the car's interior. The dye layer is sealed into the disc, and should not present any danger to drive optics even if overheated. Even so, leaving a CD-R in a hot car isn't good for for the disc, and will probably shorten its effective life.
Marius Oosthuizen (Sound Engineer, SABC Radio Archives)