Summarising

In the case of analogue tape, the total archive cost for one hour of information is: f.5.60 + f.118.40 = f.l24.00 a year.

In the case of R-DAT the total archive cost for one hour of information (considering an equal year's production) is: f.0.16 + f.118.40 = f.118.56 a year.

The total difference between using an analogue tape or a R-DAT-cassette as information carrier per hour information is f.5.44 a year. So every year gives a saving of 12,500 x 5.44 = f.68,000 on the total amount. For a good understanding of the ratio we have to consider that the total archive costs are f.l,550,000 a year (storage costs of f.70,000 plus the other costs of f.1,480,000).

Adding to this the statement that, in the case of analogue tape, the information storage space would have to be increased, while the use of R-DAT would not require any increase in space for many years, we can see that the relationship between the annual housing costs of f.70,000 and the overall annual overall cost of running the archive costs the comparison rather irrelevant.

Before making a final decision based on all the above arguments, we have, however, also consider that there is no real technical experience at present of the long-term viability of R-DAT and the technical problems are, as yet, unknown. Many technicians have doubts about the format