As published in the January 1997 copyright 1997, Miller Freeman/PSN

Industry Advancements and Long Term Storage Demands for Industry Might Lead To Resurgence. - By Mark Bell

Barium Ferrite (BaFe) magnetic storage media is not a new story. Many years ago the technology was researched, developed and utilized for high density storage, as well as for items such as high density computer diskettes. For many common purposes in the television industry, however, BaFe was not required because of the supply of other appropriate use and storage media, such as today's oxide and metal particle (MP) tapes.

A company called ARkival Technology Corporation out of Nashua NH is leading a surge of this product in the form of Betacam SP, Digital Betacam, Hi8, DAT, Digital Data (4mm & 8mm) and D-2 formats. ARkival sees this period of time as one where there is ncreasing industry demand through digital recording, HDTV, and a need for longer lasting archival media.

ARkival President Ron Weiss is understandably positive regarding the technology.

"There are many factors which show BaFe as a positive contribution to broadcasting," stated Weiss. "This is the ideal recording media for true digital, exactly where TV is headed. It's a perfect match. The government funded development of BaFe really plays into the HDTV future, but has many uses today. The BaFe material isn't meant to be compared to oxide, it's comparable to MP, and in some ways it's even better than MP. While one cannot really compare it against older tape material, per se, it may be able to pick up where those tapes leave off, as those older tapes are getting very old. Broadcasters may want to consider transfer of archived tapes to the longer lasting, easier maintained, BaFe storage medium."

In terms of archival storage, BaFe's technology works for videotape because BaFe stands up to environmental hazards differently, and for the better. Air pollution content such as hydrogen sulfide, present in cities or heavy industrial areas, acts as a catalyst for corrosion. Humidity also causes changes to most common tape right out of the box in such a way that, especially in long term storage, service life will diminish. Even short term exposure to ocean air might start corrosion which will shorten the service life of conventional tape. BaFe has no moisture sensitivity, and a totally different molecular characteristic. Even over a long period of time, its makeup should not change.

Lasting Forever
An increasingly common case in point these days regarding long term storage of videotape is from people who are discovering that tapes do not last forever. They take old porta-pak, 3/4, or old 1-inch format tapes out of their desk drawers from the mid 70's and discover that the tapes play for about five seconds, if that, then simply stop in the tape transport, stuck to something. Phillip DeLancie wrote an article describing this phenomenon in audio tape decks in a May 1990 "Mix" magazine piece, calling it "sticky shed syndrome." One cure DeLancie wrote to alleviate the stickiness was to clean the machine and bake the tape in a specially constructed oven. Another cure discovered is to wipe the surface of the tape with a substance such as naphtha to remove the sticky substance which has actually risen through to the surface of the tape.

Once humidity exposure occurs to tape, especially those of the MP variety, they may become unplayable in anywhere from two to ten years. Keep in mind what happens to any metal particle exposed to moisture over time. Generally, most tapes can be perceived as predictably useable for a period of only 10-15 years. BaFe is estimated as a 30+ year medium. This is where the need for the archival stability BaFe offers may be a savior of sorts for the industry.

John Tyler of the Smithsonian in Washington has seen problems with tapes from the late 70's and early 80's. The characteristics of BaFe were, at the very least, impressive.

"There is a real concern with keeping tapes for many years," Tyler stated. "We've had sticky-shed with older tapes and want to do the best with our long term storage footage. BaFe looks promising."

Tyler is converting many tapes to BaFe stock, as is Carl Piermarini of PBS's WGBH in Boston.

"We have a great interest in long term storage," said Tyler. "and are very impressed with the National Media Labs tests. We are converting our current two-inch and one-inch stock to MP, D-3 and BaFe with confidence for the years ahead."

BaFe also has characteristics which make it favorable for those concerned with headwear. Unlike metal particles of MP tape, BaFe has a uniform crystalline structure which creates a better wearing surface with fewer voids. The magnetic alignment as well as an overall ofter material than the metal of MP tape, may prove it to be easier on head tips and head replacement budgets.

News Believer
Another user of BaFe tape has been Mike Keller, Director of Engineering of New England Cable News. NECN is a remarkable story of success in its regional coverage of the New England area, and has the pleasure of saturating its spot sales. The pressure on Keller to maintain the integrity of on-air appearance and stay within a maintenance budget call for well thought out engineering and fault-elimination procedures.

Keller has used BaFe along with MP tape in his commercial playback library for over a year with positive results.

"I'm looking for lower dropout rates as well as extended wear characteristics," said Keller. "Without a lot of scientific analysis, it's my feeling that I have fewer failures with a product that is proving to be very durable, yet gentle in the machines. Equipment failures I can handle, but dropout on spots I cannot. The BaFe has been good and reliable right out of the box. There have been no surprises."

Keller also discovered something that we saw in our own research with the tapes, which was longitudinal audio attenuation. This can be easily compensated for, and is by increasing record levels slightly to keep playback output levels uniform with the MP tapes in the system. Typical of the high frequency "sweet spot" that BaFe offers, the higher frequencies of video RF hold true, and may even be enhanced. It seems that in the BaFe world, the higher the frequencies, the better the tape seems to function.

One interesting observation in the research of BaFe use were claims by users that colors looked better, more vivid. Simple RF envelope observation showed BaFe to be very comparable to MP tape we looked at in the same machine. While the two observation parameters don't really have an effect on each other, perhaps dropout rates, age of the tapes, factors of frequency response or other peripheral characteristics have an effect on color reproduction. Broadcasters use various brands of tape due to similar observation or belief, and may start to favor BaFe with the knowledge that the reproduction will be good, and the tape will maintain its signal integrity regardless of variable environmental factors.

Serious Prices
The price of BaFe is estimated at 10-15% above that of MP tape at the time this article was prepared. For those that need to be budget conscious only, that amount might be tough to justify. For those who take their tape seriously, and need to know signals and tape composition will be stable for many years, price has probably never been a factor, and BaFe might prove to be a favorable choice. However, such considerations feed into the analogy/joke about the wedding videographer who, in the future, will offer MP or BaFe tape to his clients depending on their age and relative confidence in the expected length of their marriage. "How important IS this moment to you....?"

In the part of our business we take for granted until a failure, our signal storage medium, new products are looked at with a bit of hesitation. Nobody wants to take the chance and be the new kid on the block with a fancy idea when we can almost predict our failure factors with conventional products with some history behind them. While you read this you may be at a computer which used BaFe diskettes for its operating system input, or sitting on a wallet or next to a purse containing credit cards with a magnetic stripe made of BaFe. We all are aware of the abuse our diskettes, credit and bank cards take from chemicals, sweat, bending, spills, drops and scraping. The diskettes were the best product the computer industry could find to place their "zero-tolerance" programs on, and the banks followed suit as well. Perish the thought that your software didn't work or you couldn't spend the banks/your money at the moment of "zero-tolerance" impulse. Those cards and programs work through it all, and might be used as we order that pizza when waiting for the HVAC guy to come in and repair the environmental control system of our oxide/MP videotape storage facility.