Archivists from some of the most prestigious media organizations in Europe, including INA, RAI, BBC, and Israeli T.V., gathered as Justin Davila, the SAMMA Systems Architect, presented the SAMMA product line including the SAMMA robotic system, SAMMAClean, SAMMASync, and the newly developed SAMMA Motion JPEG2000 real-time audio-video lossless encoding card. Many of the attendees were familiar with SAMMA as a result of Media Matters’ involvement with EU’s PrestoSpace consortium. PrestoSpace aims to build “preservation factories” that will provide affordable services for all types and sizes of audio-visual collections so they can be preserved, managed and accessed. SAMMA will migrate videotapes economically, quickly, and with a high level of quality within this framework.

In explaining the need to move videotapes to the digital domain in order to take advantage of the opportunities available through digital technology, Mr. Davila explained that there is no magical solution and by migrating the material manually, costs are high, production is slow, and quality is questionable. The automated SAMMA system was presented as a practical solution to these problems. To meet the high standards of preservation quality output, several of SAMMA’s internal components had to be modified or built from scratch. Media Matters’ staff demonstrated the components including SAMMAClean, the first computer controlled tape cleaning and inspection system and SAMMASync, a multi-standard TBC/Frame Synchronizer with SDI output and drop out compensation. Also shown was the SAMMA Motion JPEG2000 capture card was also demonstrated, the first real-time audio-video encoding hardware that provides mathematically lossless compression using wavelet-based algorithms.

Developed by Jim Lindner, Managing Member of Media Matters and internationally respected authority on the preservation and migration of magnetic media, SAMMA’s design, along with the various subsystems, is based on extensive experience with archives, physical media, system integration, and a broad awareness of technology innovations in these areas. The modular, portable system is installed on-site and integrates robotic tape handling systems with proprietary tape cleaning and signal analysis technologies. No specialized knowledge is needed to operate the system. SAMMA’s intelligent quality control system ensures that videotape media is migrated correctly, without human intervention. The final product is a re-mastered cassette and a file copy of each master tape at preservation quality plus metadata that details the quality of the original master.

The International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA) is a professional association established to provide a means for co-operation amongst European television archives, multimedia and audiovisual archives and libraries concerned with the collection, preservation and exploitation of moving image and recorded sound materials and associated documentation - still image and other materials.

About Media Matters LLC
Media Matters LLC has over a dozen years of expertise with media migration, and is dedicated to taking traditional migration strategies into the 21st century by researching, developing, and deploying cutting-edge digital media technology focused specifically on the needs of archives and the challenges of magnetic media..

For further information:
Contact Steve Kwartek at steve.kwartek@media-matters.net
Phone: 212-268-5528 X113
www.media-matters.net