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  It's
probably the best-known engineering problem — and most
stations do nothing about it: the limited life span of videotape.
Until recently, only major networks and studios could justify
the time and expense of backing up old content or storing
the originals off site. But the explosion of licensed video
sites and the fast-growing market for documentary footage
have created new opportunities for stations to monetize old
footage. That is, for stations who can locate and transfer
their footage on demand.
But when it comes to videotape, age both giveth and taketh
away. By the time old footage achieves nostalgic and historic
market value, it has probably suffered physical deterioration.
Too often, potential profits have already evaporated. Or more
accurately, flaked away.
"Magnetic recording tape was never designed as a long-term
storage medium," says Peter Brothers, founder of SPECS
BROS, a magnetic tape restoration facility in Lodi, N.J.
"Most tapes have not been stored properly," says
Brothers. "Just like any other material, video tape decays
when exposed to harmful environments."
Unfortunately, that describes any environment that includes
heat or cold, which expand or contract the tape, causing gradual
stretching and structural damage. An even worse culprit is
humidity.
"Moisture causes a chemical reaction called binder hydrolysis,
which breaks down molecules in the recording and backing layers
of the tape. This leaves a sticky residue, which can foul
tape machine play heads or physically jam altogether during
playback," says Brothers.
Brothers ought to know. He's been studying the problem for
25 years and helped establish industry standards for tape
preservation and restoration for SMPTE, the American National
Standards Institute and others.
Videotape fares best in cool temperatures at 30 percent humidity,
which occurs naturally in underground salt mines, such as
those maintained by Iron Mountain. But even under ideal conditions,
tapes begin to deteriorate after 20 to 25 years.
"Each tape format presents its own challenges for how
it decays over time," says Doug Warner, the Director
of Engineering for the Paley Center for Media (formerly the
Museum of TV & Radio) which maintains in-house equipment
to play back most major videotape formats, including two-inch
quad, one inch, and all videocassette formats.
"The majority of our collection came in as 3/4-inch
sub-masters," says Warner. And because the 3/4-inch U-Matic
tape format is nearly 40 years old, Warner's staff has been
working for years to create digital backups of the collection,
an ongoing task that might literally never end.
Of course, to be duplicated a tape must first be playable.
And tapes over 30 years old very often require physical restoration.
That's the focus of Video Interchange, the company Bob Pooler
launched in 2002 in Waldoboro, Maine, where Pooler lovingly
maintains a dizzying assortment of fading or defunct magnetic
media players.
A lifetime of broadcast engineering experience plus more
recent trial and error has made Bob Pooler a master of tape
restoration. Among his favorite techniques is tape baking,
the craft of baking magnetic tape to stabilize its layers
long enough for one safe ride past the play heads.
Brothers helped to invent and perfect tape baking and other
restorative methods described on his Web site. Although Pooler
and Brothers have never met, they agree that repairing mere
moisture damage is the easy part.
In addition to a wide range of domestic accidents, including
countless dog-chewed cassettes and toddlers armed with lethal
jelly sandwiches, Pooler's greatest challenge was restoring
tapes damaged in during Katrina flooding.
"Most of the tapes were exposed to nearly every known
contaminant, including some disgusting ones. For our own health
and safety, we had to disinfect the tapes without compromising
the binder layer."
"Sewage is no fun," agrees Brothers who likewise
considers Katrina damage his major challenge, alongside the
restoration of videos damaged during military action, the
nature of which he's not at liberty to discuss.
Because a "restored" master tape remains highly
fragile, that first playback is usually the only one. It's
routinely double-recorded for safety's sake.
"The new digital technology could not have come at a
better time," says Bob Pooler. "Previously, we could
only back up tapes analog to analog. And every tape generation
meant an additional loss of quality."
 Whatever
new technologies lie ahead, says Pooler, "we'll be able
to make lossless transfers to the new media, say, every 30
years or so."
Peter Brothers agrees, but notes that the arrival of digital
technology presents new problems. "For over 20 years,
two-inch analog tape was the only standard, so the biggest
challenge was keeping the old machines in working order. But
there's no clear consensus in digital. So it's not just the
machines that become obsolete, but also a wide range of underlying
technology such as codecs and other software."
There's also the matter of destination storage media. Although
Pooler has restored and copied entire archives for professional
clients, he says that the bulk of his business is "vintage
family video and audio." His clients are satisfied to
receive ordinary DVDs, which are estimated to last for up
to 80 years.
DVDs won't work for broadcasters, says the Paley Center's
Warner. "Consumer DVDs only hold 4.7 gigabytes of data,
so the video must be highly compressed. Our files are stored
uncompressed for maximum quality. Most of them take at least
80 gigabytes."
In addition to Paley Center hard drives, the backup medium
of choice is Sony's Digi-Beta tape. The same goes for SPECS
BROS, which counts the Paley Center among its frequent clients
for restoration services.
"Properly stored, Digi-Beta tapes should be good for
20-25 years," says Peter Brothers.
Despite the industry migration to digital, a surprising number
of professional clients continue to request analog playback,
most often on Sony's Beta SP or consumer Mini DV.
Both Brothers and Pooler are old enough to at least think
about retirement. And both are worried that when they do,
their expertise will leave the industry with them.
"It took me decades to acquire the necessary skills,"
says Pooler, whose services are booked weeks in advance. I
hardly have time to teach anyone how to use a scope and nobody
is teaching vacuum tube theory. Maintaining this old equipment
will soon be a lost art."
Brothers is only a little more optimistic. "I do what
I can. I've taught seminars on restoration and preservation
for the Smithsonian and even NASA. There are schools, like
NYU, which teach media preservation, but there really is no
training in physical restoration."
"But the good news is that once you transfer from analog
to digital, the hard part is done," adds Brothers. "The
digital file contains all the metadata for a perfect transfer
so future transfers can be done automatically."
By Arthur
Greenwald and Glenn Przyborski
www.tvnewsday.com
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