Yes, datatape is all very well but it's not as useful as having a videotape at hand. The tape data vaults are the modern day equivalent of the Flexicart except that if it all goes wrong you can't just fish the tape out and load it up in a stand alone machine
...so it helps to have your tape archive a couple of miles up the A40 and a courier on a motorbike, just in case!
Wouldn't a basic VT transmission facility at the archive centre (presumably they would have the kit to play the tapes) and a suitable circuit into pres be of even more use than a motorbike courier? I'd imagine it could be remote controlled from pres with a bit of ingenuity.
Wouldn't a basic VT transmission facility at the archive centre (presumably they would have the kit to play the tapes) and a suitable circuit into pres be of even more use than a motorbike courier?
Yes, but of course you'd still need to get someone there. The BBC's archive at Windmill Road (and presumably the new one) had VT (and telecine) facilities so that could be done if you really had to. They were also used for playing out items that were needed at short notice, for example news.
For something like a digital channel the costs of doing that would far outweigh the amount of use.
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I'd imagine it could be remote controlled from pres with a bit of ingenuity.
That would be possible but again not worth it, also tape vaults don't come in warehouse size. The point of having a deep archive in somewhere like Wales is that it's cheap and you only put things there that you need once in a blue moon