At a one day workshop in Tunisia this week, the Arab States Broadcasting Union explored the latest trends in digital archiving for radio and television content.
ASBU has also developed a cloud storage and exchange system for its members, and that was also showcased at the workshop.
ASBU Cloud consists of high-security servers on global cloud networks and high-speed Internet connections, offering many applications and services that can be used in the audiovisual and IT fields, including, most importantly content exchanges in the form of live broadcasts or files with editorial information.
A presentation from Australian expert Steve Ahern, showcased the latest radio digital archiving techniques and also exposed participants to the next innovations that are coming to archiving with the introduction of AI to Archiving systems.
Ahern spoke about using archives to promote trust and remind audiences that radio and tv broadcasters have been around long enough to build a legacy of credible content that is real and editorially curated. With so much fake news and disinformation on the internet, audiences need to know which organisations they can believe.
Cloud storage is becoming cheaper and easier to use, but security is paramount to protect valuable historical archives from hacking and manipulation. The ASBU Cloud is a valuable resource for members.
Due to the value of archival content, Ahern urged workshop participants to find safe ways to monetise their content, but to ensure that the provenance of the content can be proven by digital watermarking and other techniques, so that , if it is pirated then the copyright holders can take action to recover payment and reparations for the content theft.
Ahern explained how new AI tools are being added to archiving systems, mentioning various systems such as Media Guru and Vida which he has reported on in conference articles for radioinfo. The same AI tools used to revive John Lennon’s voice for the Beatles song Now and Then are being deployed now in archival systems to clean up old audio and video and make it more usable. With the addition of speech to text and synthetic voice tools, the possibilities for new types of production featuring people who have passed away, is now possible. Ahern warned however, that if sing the new tools for generate synthetic content, it must be fully declared and explained so that audiences do not perceive it as fake content.
Broadcasters are creating the future now of how they can use archival material from the past. “Used wisely it will bring credibility to you as broadcasters and also enrich society by making real moments of political and cultural history available to everyone in your country,” said Ahern.
Organised by the Head of ASBU Radio, Yasser Garrana, the workshop also featured a rundown of current tools used by ASBU Members delivered by Egyptian expert Dr. Mohamed Abdel Majeed (pictured).
Some of the tools are listed in the presentation slides below (text in Arabic).
Other presentations in the workshop included a talk on copyright by Ramzi Al-Qarwashi and showcase presentations from Sudanese, Iraqi and Lebanese Radio.
This story first appeared on RadioInfo.asia