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NHK Archives, one of the world largest data center of historical records and footage, are treasury resource for program-making. [ 03:37 ]
As in every country, Japan’s milestones of modern history were recorded for posterity. The public service broadcaster, NHK, possesses a priceless national cultural asset.
Its archives contain half a century of TV and radio programming, including 3.6 million news reports, and over half a million individual programs.
The challenge was both to preserve this historic legacy for future generations and to devise an efficient digital search facility for programme makers.
Yamamoto :
In the past, you had to go down to a counter, fill in a form, obtain the tape and make a copy before you even started on production.
NHK turned to NEC who designed a database and integrated digital archive system which would digitally preserve Japan’s pictorial legacy while at the same time allowing producers to search, preview and retrieve footage without leaving their desks.
The first step was for NHK and NEC to compile a master database from the monumental collection of clips. Tapes were digitised and the shots logged.
A large scale image database was constructed, digitised in MPEG-4. From any location a producer could now enter a shot description or a date.
The database would then offer a choice of images, together with time, place and copyright information. When the selection is approved the source tape is located in the digital archive. The requested footage is copied and transmitted over an IP network straight to NHK's production and broadcasting headquarters in Shibuya.
The system runs 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
NEC has helped NHK make access to archive footage far easier for their own programme makers.
A process which previously took days can now be performed in seconds, delivering a dramatic improvement in efficiency.
But more than that, the plan is for the public too to have access to this unique digital archive and national treasure.
Yamamoto:
NHK has until now been a broadcaster, gathering information and transmitting it. From now on we need to look at the different ways we can reach our audience, and this is one way NHK will be able to contribute to a ubiquitous society.
NEC helping to communicate Japan’s past for future generations. Empowered by innovation.
Broadcasters have long dreamed of being able to show any program at anytime, anywhere, but that vision has always remained a long-distant prospect.
Right now, NEC is helping to bring that dream sharply into focus.
Japan's public service broadcaster NHK possesses a priceless national cultural asset. It's archives contain half a century of TV and radio programming, including 3.6 million news reports, and over half a million individual programs.
However, bringing this unwieldy heritage into the digital age presented a gargantuan technological challenge. The historic programming collection was stored on 1.7 million individual tapes held in NHK 54 stations across Japan.
What's more, NHK needed a fully functioning facility, not a museum. The archive would have to be easily searchable, and able to release and transmit footage on-demand. And since NHK is one of the first broadcasters in the world to broadcast High Definition TV, a digital archive would have to combine rock-solid reliability and 24x7 availability with increased bandwidth and storage.
NHK placed NEC in overall charge of producing both the database, and the systems integration needed to make a digital archive and distribution system work.
The result: in 2003 NHK succeeded in opening one of the world's largest digital archives. It not only preserves, digitizes and restores programs, but also uses the contents as a "treasure trove" for new production. When complete, over four million hours of programming will be stored as clips on two million supplementary data files; sufficient to provide uninterrupted, unrepeated viewing for four and a half centuries.
NEC designed an integrated mission-critical system which combines powerful servers with an easy to use browser interface. TV producers can search, preview and retrieve what footage they want from NHK's vast archives whilst remaining at their desks. The requested footage is copied and transmitted over an IP network straight to NHK's production and broadcasting headquarters in Shibuya, from where producers can broadcast it directly to130 million Japanese viewers.
A process which previously took days can now be performed in seconds, delivering a dramatic improvement to work processes.
Broadcasting is not the whole story. NHK also wanted this national treasure trove to be a genuinely public asset.
The new NHK archive facility also has a publicly accessible Program Library which gives visitors on-demand access to historic footage and programs.
"NHK has been broadcasting contents for people," says Masahiro Yamamoto, Associate Director of the NHK Archives, "but in the future, we want to use the network to publicize the materials. This is our contribution to the development of a ubiquitous society"
NEC's facility as a total system integrator was crucial to the success of the project, as was NEC's accumulated know-how with broadcasting systems and operations.
As Yamamato puts it succinctly, "NHK has an obligation to use the best technology available. Its archives have to be publicly available for the empowerment of culture and society.”
