The BBC takes advantage of the flexibility of 'CEDAR for Windows' to create a unique audio restoration facility for the Digital Archive Project at its Maida Vale Music Studios.
Ignoring (for a moment) its unsurpassed processing power and audio quality, CEDAR for Windows is still the world's only multi-track, multi-process, real-time audio restoration system. But more than that, it also allows users to configure multiple restoration sessions on a single machine, cleaning up multiple audio streams simultaneously in real time. The BBC's Radio Production Resources department has become the first national institution to take advantage of this, installing three 8-board CEDAR for Windows Systems configured to declick and decrackle 12 channels of audio at the same time.
The BBC has installed the three Systems as part of a huge project to digitise its archive, which includes recordings that date back to the start of the Corporation. Each System includes CEDAR's WIN1: declick and WIN2: decrackle processes, and the BBC will use these to remove scratches, clicks, and crackle from the 35,000 discs, 78s and LPs that make up its historical collection. Only CEDAR can restore this quantity of material in a practical and efficient manner.
The background to the Digital Archive Project:
The aim of the BBC Digital Archive Project is to maintain and preserve the Corporation's huge collection of about 600,000 hours of material, and to build the foundations for future online delivery of material directly to users' desktops. The first use of the newly digitised material will probably be in the newsroom, but the BBC believes that the Project will eventually lead producers into new ways of making programmes.
The digital archive will be stored in uncompressed formats - initially on a DVD-based database - in order to maintain the highest audio and video quality for broadcast use.
For further information:
CEDAR Audio Limited