5.4.16 Time Factor

5.4.16.1 The time needed for copying contents of audio material varies greatly, and is highly dependent on the nature and status of the original carrier. The step of actually playing the carrier is only one part of the process, which includes respooling, assessment, adjustment and documentation. Even a well documented, good quality analogue tape of 1 hour’s duration will take, on average, twice the time of the length of its recording to properly transfer to a digital carrier. In the mid-1990s the Archivarbeitsgruppe of ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands) would regard this as optimistic as they postulated a transfer factor of 3 (1 operator: 3 hours of work for 1 hour of material) for the transfer of typical archival holdings of their radio stations. Tapes that exhibit any faults, which require repair or restoration, or need documentation or the assessment and addition of metadata, will take much longer to conserve, transfer and preserve.