FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2024

Details on how to attend TBA.

What is the legacy of television archives in Eastern Europe today? How does this legacy position these institutions as part of national and European cultural heritage and collective memory?

The workshop aims to raise questions that are relevant for broadcast archives across Eastern Europe, a region that has been recurrently defined through its communist past and approached by those within and outside the region primarily through its differences to Western archives.

In this workshop, good practices and challenges related to the re-use of TVR’s archival material and the clearing of rights of archival material will be discussed in order to rethink what constitutes the public value of television in the region, how television archives can stay relevant and how they can play a role in futureproofing public broadcasting.

These discussions will be contrasted with broader questions on how TVR and TVR archives can re-assert their role in collective national and European memory without being reduced to their communist past. Do broadcast institutions from the former communist Eastern Europe, such as TVR, still carry with them the stigma of past political regime and if so, how and by whom is that stigma maintained? How can the (re-)use of television archives offer solutions to help surpass limiting beliefs and reductionist understandings, which to the present day still guide the dialogue with and about public television and television archives in the region?

Through hands-on exercises and activities, this workshop invites attendees to think along of the unique positioning of television archives from the region as part of European cultural heritage. Attendees will also be invited to (self-)reflect on the prejudices and stereotyping that are recurrently brought to the table when engaging with broadcast institutions and broadcast archives from Eastern Europe and recognize the urgency with which such practices need to be rendered visible and addressed.

The presentation will focus on how the propaganda machinery and disinformation-saturated media landscape that characterised Ceausescu’s totalitarian regime in communist Romania constructed a specific epistemic positioning of individuals that undermined, weakened or obliterated their disposition to make reliable judgements about whom, what and when to trust. While histories of media in (former) totalitarian regimes have paid ample attention to propaganda and censorship, less – if hardly any – attention has been paid to how such mechanisms of disinformation have worked to compromise the epistemic autonomy of people who have lived through such political regimes. This overlooked element in the anatomy of propaganda, namely the epistemic positioning of people in an environment where - as Hannah Arendt (1951) would describe it - “everything was possible, and nothing was true”, can offer insights into the most urgent casualties and liabilities in today’s struggles against disinformation.  

Using oral testimonies, Securitate files and press clippings from the time, I will illustrate how under Ceausescu’s totalitarian regime, the effectiveness of propaganda consisted primarily of people’s disbelief of the regime’s lies, while simultaneously believing that nothing and no one could be trusted and everything was possible. This compromised epistemic autonomy has been a lingering after-effect in post-communist Romanian society. It is this persistence to the present day of a compromised epistemic autonomy rooted within a history of propaganda and disinformation, a persistence that goes on despite the present-day pluriform, independent and alternative systems of information, which is most interesting in understanding the finest mechanisms of how disinformation affects people’s reliance on others in the pursuit of truth and how disinformation ultimately relies on compromised basic social relations.

This article explores an innovative approach to the long-term preservation of documents housed in the Folklore Archive of the Romanian Academy, examining the concept through three distinct metaphors: the zoo, the seed-bank, and guerrilla gardening. It proposes that each metaphor offers a unique perspective on preservation strategies.

The "zoo" metaphor emphasizes the idea of reintroducing previously captured research materials back into the wild, allowing for a more dynamic interaction with the public. The "seed-bank" metaphor positions the archive as a living database, serving future generations by preserving the genetic material of cultural heritage. Lastly, the "guerrilla gardening" metaphor suggests the use of "seed bombing" tactics to combat the erosion of intangible cultural heritage, proposing a proactive and dispersed approach to preservation trough small memory boxes. This boxes should be highly customized gifts for the communities from where the recordings were captured.

The analysis critically reflects on these metaphors, which were introduced a decade ago, to assess their viability and impact on contemporary preservation practices. The discussion will be enhanced by the presentation of an updated working model of a small memory box, a wooden encased device that plays old Transylvanian audio recordings.

The Timisoara Revolution Memorial Association was founded on April, 1990. Within the association operates the National Center for Documentation, Research and Public Information about the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Our institution has been declared an entity of national interest. By Decree No. 445/2019 we received the Order "Cultural Merit in the Rank of Knight", Category E - awarded by the President of Romania, Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis.

Over the course of 34 years of activity, we have erected 14 monuments in memory of the martyr heroes of December 1989, founded a publishing house through which we have published over 50 volumes and a biannual scientific journal. We managed to build a vast and unique database in Romania that includes several sections: oral history, mass media, documents, statements, press collections and photos.

The main purpose is to honor the memory of the martyr heroes of 1989, restore the historical truth, and to promote the culture of local remembrance through local, national and international exhibitions (permanent and temporary), book launches, theater performances, workshops and conferences, talk shows, lectures, film screenings, award ceremonies, particularly aimed at the young generation, schoolchildren and students. We consider it a priority mission to present the historical truth primarily to the younger generations as a legacy in the culture of memory. In order to extend our collections and enrich our educational work we are now adding archive moving footage from other countries to our exhibitions, for example archive from the Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation.

In its strive for opening up its collections the ORF Multimedia Archives is always keen to provide its footage for interesting projects. Memorialul Revolutiei 1989 perfectly meets the criteria for a fruitful cooperation. Ruth Stifter-Trummer (ORF) shows some unique clips of the Rumanian Revolution from the ORF-archives which enhance the rich funds of the Memorial Association.

In 2022, Studio Silverback, Britain's leading natural history producers, proposed creating an online library of world-class footage of our changing planet for use in non-commercial climate and environmental projects and communications. The goal was to build a high-quality, scientifically accurate, and globally accessible collection of video assets, to be named "Open Planet", and make it available for free. This idea stemmed from frustration with broadcasters and streamers tightly controlling the rights to Silverback's documentary content, including unused rushes material, restricting its use by others.

Following a rapid project timeline which addressed investment, corporate structures, technological, rights and media management requirements, the beta library was launched in Autumn 2023 and has already made a significant impact. Footage has been used by a mix of audiences – from scientists and educators, to NGOs, activists and filmmakers – in multi-channel communications campaigns and events, including major global conferences such as COP28, the UN General Assembly and the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting.

The full global launch of Open Planet is scheduled for Spring 2024. In this presentation, Rights and Archive consultants from Northbound will explain the construction of the library and its current reach. Topics will include:

• Technology procurement and system build 
• Media management and metadata model 
• Rights negotiations and unlocking 
• Usage and impacts of the library 

Film archives safeguard and preserve physical media and digital files. However, the ecological impact is considerable. Today, in the midst of climate turmoil and uncertainty, we wonder about the balance between preserving the audiovisual memory of our species and mitigating its environmental impact, particularly in the Global South.  

The approach to two of the most consolidated institutional archives in Mexico and Colombia, has allowed us to learn more and compare the various economic and social factors that face the challenge of preservation and sustainability in our times. At the same time, it has allowed us to have more in depth knowledge of diverse Archive Managers’ perspectives on possible ecological strategies related to preservation.

Thus, we ask ourselves, to what extent film preservation strategies can be modified in relation to their environmental impact. Should the loss or non-rescue of certain films be assumed as a strategy of ecological care, in view of a future increasingly threatened by climate change? Can a more democratic access to film archives justify their carbon footprint, beyond the importance of safeguarding historical memory?

With these questions, we aim to delve into the grassroots innovation practices of film archives in relation to new preservation and dissemination strategies in response to climate upheaval and uncertainty. Thus, to reflect on the historical and colonial responsibility of the Global North towards the Global South, as well as on the decision-making process of these institutions in relation to smaller archives, pondering the ethical place of audiovisual memory preservation and its balance with ecological heritage conservation.

TBA

The presentation is two part of 30min each.

Data Scientist, Data engineer, Community manager, AI Project Owner, Web editor, Digital Storyteller, Podcaster… Job offers with new job titles seem to pop up every day in the Archives world, and sometimes leave us perplexed.

The ultra-fast development of AI, yesterday analytical, today generative, the need to always create new contents to be visible and reach all audiences, the environmental challenges, the permanent renewal of uses and the technological transformations, create ever-new skills needs.

There is a growing convergence between archive, IT, journalism… It is an ongoing challenge for archive professionals, who must stay up to date, hire the right profiles, develop new professional cultures to dialogue with their colleagues and take - or keep - their place in this changing landscape.

What are these new jobs? How do they relate to the jobs we know? Will they replace them? How do they co-exist and collaborate? How do these new kinds of teams and work organisations work?

Part 1: Will they replace archivists and documentalists? Feedback of 2 professionals (AI product owner, Data Analyst…)

Part 2: Have they a place in archives? Feedback of 2 professionals (Officer for sustainability, Web editor or Community manager...)

Part 3: Exchanges Come and exchange with these new jobs professionals, share your experience, your challenges and your vision of the future during this interactive workshop.

In January 2024 the Van Rijn report was published by the Dutch government. “Nothing seen, nothing heard, nothing done”, is the title of this investigative report into the Dutch public broadcasters, the culture and social safety within the organisations. In the years leading up to this report there has been a lot of upheaval about the public and commercial broadcasting organizations in the Netherlands.

Powerplay, intimidation, discrimination, sexual harassment, verbal violence and insecurity about employment were and are common in this industry. The setting of producing creative content with strict deadlines in a complex power system enabled and still enables this. Victims have been speaking up for a while and the report has opened this Pandora’s box. And not only in the Netherlands- in many more countries in Europe there has been much ado about #metoo, misuse of power and socially unsafe situations.

After publication of the Van Rijn report, this will presumably go on for a few more years. Directors and managers of public broadcasting organizations have had to leave. So much so that right now, there are a lot of vacancies and questions about who will take the responsibility of changing the system.

Since 2022, the FRAME Training programme, organized by INA and supported by EBU Academy and FIAT/IFTA, has a new module for junior audiovisual archive professionals: FRAME Mentoring

Come and meet the two 2024 mentees and discover their projects:

Nevena Popovic, RTS Serbian Broadcasting Corporation - MORE THAN A GAME
Artistic and philosophical approach to the world of archival footage
Working in the archives can become a game and subsequently more than a game and more than a work.
The world of audio-visual archives has endless possibilities.
Possibilities that never cease to inspire and encourage artist to find new ways to express oneself.
Archive, besides being for a long time a means to illustrate past, has over time proven to be a powerful medium in the world of artistic expression.
Different ways of exploring the potential of the footages kept in television vaults, brought them a second life by producing a new and unique piece of art.
Development of an artistic work by adding new music and new voices/narratives to silent videos came out of the idea and desire to break the mold from the current and past offerings in the world of art and archive.
What is the artistic intention?
Breaking away from the constraints of TV formats and social media to bring new experience to "real life" became an imperative, whether in museums, cultural institutions or music clubs.
Creative and experimental approach in the use of archive began as a game to motivate the archivists to be fond of hard and meticulous work.
In time, for all the participants in the process, something inspiring came out of exploration of metatextuality and intertextuality found in the archival videos and metadata.
Working in the imaginative registers led from random words found on old archival description cards to slam poetry and music piece.
Studying hours and hours of silent found footage inspired a variation in the approach and use of old videos: three different narratives are used on a same video which slightly alters with every new narrative. The original video is no longer only an archival video, now it becomes a fiction, a poetry, a drama.
In a word: performance art.
What immerged from the experience?
Previous generations of authors have written for television, new generations use television as a medium to write.

Jakub Hošek, Czech Television - THE REPORTERS PROJECT
The Reporters project, created by the Czech TV Archive in collaboration with the Czech TV cultural website ctart.cz, is being developed with mentorship from the FRAME Mentoring Programme. The series explores the functioning of news services during the communist era in the 1980s. Combining archival footage from TV news with contemporary interviews with former reporters, it aims to provide historical context in an engaging and educational way. Each of the five episodes, lasting around ten minutes, focuses on the story of one reporter, blending archival materials with their narration. The project also examines the specific challenges faced by journalists working under a communist dictatorship. The series will be published online on Czech TV's VOD platform, offering a product that is both informative and entertaining.

In the audiovisual archive of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, speaker diarization systems are used to extract metadata from audio content. These systems can automatically annotate who spoke when in an audio stream, but yet their performance does not match the one of an archivist given the same task. That calls for evaluation. Therefore, as the final project of my traineeship, I have developed an application for testing the speaker diarization systems used in the Bayerischer Rundfunk, introducing scores and error rates.

As of yet, an interactive prototype has been built, showcasing a user interface for the application. Furthermore, it has been laid down how to access the speaker diarization systems via API, and several Python scripts have been written for converting mining results as well as importing metrics from an open-source benchmarking toolkit. This toolkit provides a set of classes to compare the output of speaker diarization systems to perfectly annotated reference data. Finally, a series of tests has been conducted which has proven the concept to be applicable for reproducible testing.

Using the application, single versions of speaker diarization systems as well as different speaker diarization systems can be compared quality-wise. This will make it easier to decide whether to implement said services, and secure the audiovisual archive's data quality.

A Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network (RCNN) is being introduced to rectify inherent flaws in the SECAM format, a system extensively utilised for archiving and production from 1967 to the 1980s in many countries. Videos, preserved on archived magnetic tapes,  like two-inch tapes that encapsulate the full bandwidth of the composite signal, and U-Matic format tapes that conserve colour using a “colour under” scheme.  

These systematic artefacts, originating from past technological choices rather than ageing, were barely perceptible on 65 cm CRT TVs during their broadcast era. However, they are now deemed unacceptable for display on contemporary technology.

In the PAL format, traditional signal processing techniques enhanced the demodulation and separation of luminance and chrominance. Yet, these methods, such as linear filtering with comb filters or FFT domain filtering, are incompatible with the FM modulation of colour in SECAM. To our knowledge, no technology was previously available to enhance the quality of demodulated composite SECAM video. The proposed RCNN tackles systematic imperfections like blurring (resolution loss), mutual crosstalk between chrominance and luminance, 12.5 Hz colour flicker, and chroma and luma noise. The flicker of horizontal lines is a consequence of the unfiltered vertical sampling of chroma in the SECAM standard.

To train the RCNN, a degraded dataset was generated by processing recent videos through a physical SECAM modulator/demodulator chain. The RCNN also transforms interlaced frames into progressive images, thereby enhancing visual quality and rendering them more suitable for further processing by other super-resolution AI techniques. The processing is executed at a rate of several frames per second on a recent GPU on the already demodulated image YDrDb. This enables the treatment of programmes that have already been digitised and compressed, without requiring access to the original composite video.

In addition to being a tool, technology has a transformative power. And in the field of audiovisual information management, traditionally based on a high investment in human resources, the use of algorithms has a substantial impact. After a first phase mainly focused on the use of automatic transcription and facial recognition tools, the ATRESMEDIA Archive is now evolving into the use of new generative AI. A technological project framed in a broader objective such as the transformation of the profile of the professionals who work in the Archive. What will be the identity of this new profile, its survival and its place in the ecosystem of television production, are the main incentive to actively promote and monitor from the Archive itself a technological change that sooner or later will in any case be unstoppable