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From: Joseph J. Wrobel<br>
<br>
Mr. Levy,<br>
I consider myself technically savvy (I've been involved in the technology
<br>
of optical recording since the mid-seventies), but I am not an archivist,
<br>
nor am I an audio expert. I have heard many opinions expressed by <br>
archivists and have formed an opinion of my own. Here it is.<br>
By all means, store your data digitally. No matter what format or media
<br>
you choose for storage today, at some time in the future someone will be
<br>
required to migrate your content to some next generation system. Having
<br>
the data in digital format will make this future migration so much easier
<br>
and cost effective.<br>
Your choice of CD-R as the storage medium makes a lot of sense. The
format <br>
is stable. It is defined by international standard. There is an installed
<br>
(and growing) base of over 400 million data drives (and 600 million audio
<br>
drives) that will keep the format alive for many years to come. DVD-ROM
<br>
drives, which now represent about 9% of the installed base of CD/DVD ROM
<br>
drives, are all backward compatible with CD-ROM and CD-R. Market forces
<br>
will demand that this backward compatibility be maintained. (After all,
<br>
over 3 billion CD-R discs will be sold in 2000, and over 4.5 billion are
<br>
expected to be sold in 2001.) The drives and media are inexpensive and
<br>
available from multiple sources. The low media cost (and increasingly
<br>
higher recording data rate) allows the redundant recording that you have
<br>
wisely implemented.<br>
Audio experts may have varying opinions about whether the CD audio format
<br>
(44.1 kHz sampling, 16 bits/channel) is of sufficient quality for your
<br>
needs. I frankly don't know. But regardless of your choice of audio
<br>
digitization format, using CD-R for your "bit bucket:" is the
way to go.<br>
But that's just my opinion.<br>
Joe Wrobel <br>
Eastman Kodak Company<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<font face="Century Gothic, Avant Garde">------------------------------------------<br>
Brian Levy<br>
Cultural Activist<br>
Kiwat Hasinay Foundation:<br>
Preserving Caddo Heritage<br>
211 W. Colorado Ave.<br>
Anadarko, OK 73005 USA<br>
(1) 405-247-5840<br>
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