It's "Reely" Important: Media Archiving

Over the past few days, here at Opera Roanoke, I've been taking all CD recordings, pictures, and videos from past productions and digitally archiving them on our server. Yes, it's tedious, but no less important than paper documents. Why is that you ask? Organizations that function within the arts have a rich performance history. We find this history in pictures, recordings, and videos, in which we can reference for marketing and promotion, or for artistic reference when we decide to do a production again. To have a digital and physical copy of our archives is simply practicing good business habits as well.

Whilst rummaging through our collection, I've come across not only CDs and DVDs, but footage from old video cameras, reel-to-reel recordings, cassettes, and negatives from still photographs. That's awesome, right? Some of this media is from 1980, which makes sense considering Opera Roanoke has been operating (hehe) for nearly forty years. Now here's the problem, how do we actually view and use this media? We have it, it's there physically, but it might as well be trash without the obsolete devises to play it on. Isn't that a shame? A performing arts organization that has such an extensive history on stage can't even view all of it's performances. Yes, there's the possible ability to digitize, but Opera Roanoke is a nonprofit organization that puts on two productions a year. Being a niche entertainment and in Southwest Virginia, it's a struggle to find funding to take five to ten different forms of media and bring it to digital. Ironic, huh? Though I'm sure no one in 1980 thought, "you know, I bet we won't be able to view this in thirty years, so what's the bother?"

But we can't just throw it out. Even though we have all this wonderful footage and recordings locked away without a key doesn't mean that we should forget about it. Over the next few weeks Opera Roanoke will look for and explore options of getting this history into an updated form for viewing and listening. Liz and I have been discussing the matter recently, but we really have a lack of knowledge on pricing and possibilities that are available. We could stuff it right back in the closet where it has been for decades, save the little funding we could spend, and forget about it. Besides, no one knew it was there to begin with. However, it is our duty as musicians and lovers of the arts to preserve any form of history. It is important that we do so, so that we may keep the arts alive and well, so that we do not forget our past, and so that we can persevere into the future.


Here's what I'm talking about...

Until next time,

-Matt