5.4.17 Signal Auto detection, auto upload (failings and benefits)

5.4.17.1 It is recommended that all tapes be actively listened to while preservation transfers are being undertaken. However, in response to the sheer quantity of the material to be transferred and preserved, manufacturers of digital archiving systems have been developing ways of automatically monitoring and detecting signal faults allowing for the possibility of unattended transfers. The savings in time are obvious, as an individual operator may undertake multiple transfers simultaneously. The systems themselves seem to achieve their greatest benefit on largely homogenous collection material that is well recorded on stable carriers that can be treated identically. This is evident in that the most successful mass upload systems have been undertaken or implemented by broadcast archives where the content is largely of similar quality, the collection size is large, and the resources are available to build, manage and run such systems. For material that requires individual treatment, and this is typified in most research and heritage collections, the benefits of an automated system are not as great.