
Richard Wright
Coordinator, EC Project Presto
Technology Manager,
BBC Information & Archives Department, UK
Abstract:
Audiovisual Archives are special - they capture the 20th century, with an
immediacy that text cannot achieve. The 20th century was the first to be
recorded (literally). This record is a unique development in the history of
civilisation -- and is in great danger of being lost. Audiovisual collections
are mainly analogue, but their future is depends on digital archive technology.
This paper covers the status of audiovisual archives across the world, the
crisis in preservation, and how digital archive technology (amongst other
technologies) is being applied to preserve this unique record, and make it
available to much wider public access.
Biography:
Dr. Richard Wright was educated at the University of Michigan, USA and
Southampton University, UK. Degrees: BSc Engineering Science 1967, MA Computer
Science 1972, and Ph D in Digital Signal Processing (Speech Synthesis) 1988. He
worked in acoustics, speech and signal processing for US and UK Government
research laboratories (1968-76), University College London (1976-80; Research
Fellow) and Royal National Institute for the Deaf (1980-90; Senior Scientist).
He was Chief Designer, Cirrus Research 1990-94 (acoustical and audiometric
instrumentation). He has been Technology manager, BBC Archives since 1994.
Biographical details:
Richard D Wright
Current employment:
Technology manager, BBC Information & Archives since 1994.
International work:
-
BBC project manager on EC project
Presto-Space (starts 01.02.2004; 40 months, 37 partners; €20M budget);
Presto-Space is about making archive preservation technology affordable and
available to all audiovisual collections, not just large broadcasters
-
Head of European Broadcasting
Union panel on Future Radio Archives (2000-2002)
-
Overall Project Manager for
EC-sponsored project PRESTO (Broadcast Archive Preservation Technology; 24
months; €4.8M budget) (2000-2002); PRESTO established the concept of a
high-quality, high-efficiency ‘preservation factory’ approach to broadcast
archive preservation and digitisation
-
Member of EC(Delos)/NSF Working
Group on Spoken Word Archives (2001-2002)
-
Member of Advisory Committee for
“TRECVID” = annual international video retrieval evaluation exercise (host: US
National Institute of Standards and Technology)
UK
work for JISC
(Joint Information Systems Committee, the providers of technology in the
university sector)
Spoken Word is about using audio archives in higher education
Citizenship:
US and UK
Residence:
lived and worked in London since October 1974;
born
and raised in USA (1946 to 1974)
Education:
Michigan State University BSc Engineering Science 1967
University of Michigan MA Computer Science 1972
Southampton University PhD in Digital Signal Processing (Speech Synthesis) 1988
Previous employment:
-
Worked in acoustics, speech and
signal processing for US and UK Government research laboratories (1968-76)
-
University College London
(1976-80; Research Fellow)
-
Royal National Institute for the
Deaf (1980-90; Senior Scientist)
-
Chief Designer, Cirrus Research
1990-94 (acoustical and audiometric instrumentation)
Main Publications:
-
Signal Processing Hearing Aids,
British Soc of Audiology (publ) 1992.
-
EBU T-3293: Core Metadata for
Radio Archives; this
document has been adopted by the Scandinavian archives, and others, as the
basis for all their broadcast metadata (not just radio)
-
Numerous technical articles; the
most recent is a metadata article for the EBU technical review, which was
selected for its ‘best of 2003’ selection of articles.
-
Numerous technical presentations
Relevant websites:
Presto:
http://presto.joanneum.ac.at/index.asp
Presto-Space:http://prestospace.ina.fr/
EBU
work:
http://www.ebu.ch/tech_32/tech_t3293.html
http://www.ebu.ch/departments/technical/pmc/pmc_bwf.html
http://www.ebu.ch/trev_index-mn.html#Metadata
http://www.ebu.ch/trev_290-wright.html
Recent articles available on the web:
Content management and broadcast archive preservation
http://www.cmfocus.com/xq/asp/sid.0/articleid.357F06F4-A618-460F-B16F-C433C2929CDA/qx/display.htm
Preservation and access to the audiovisual heritage
www.minervaeurope.org/events/ documents/corfu27280603.pdf
Broadcast Archives: Preserving the Future
www.archimuse.com/ichim2001/abstracts/ prg_115000680.html
The Future of Spoken Word Archive Technology
www.iasa-web.org/wright_spokenword.pdf
EC-NSF WORKING GROUP ON SPOKEN-WORD AUDIO COLLECTIONS
http://www.dli2.nsf.gov/internationalprojects/working_group_reports/spoken_word.html
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