Webinars
Archives continue to depend on legacy audio and video playback equipment that is no longer manufactured, increasingly difficult to service, and essential to ongoing preservation and access work. Maintaining this equipment requires practical knowledge, careful handling, and an understanding of when routine maintenance ends and specialized repair begins.
This series provides an overview of basic maintenance, diagnosis, and safety considerations for a range of legacy formats, including 1/4″ audio and cassette decks, VHS, U-Matic, and Betacam/DV. Each one-hour session focuses on a specific format, highlighting common wear issues, operational pitfalls, and routine upkeep practices.
The series is not intended to teach advanced repair techniques. Instead, it is designed to help participants keep equipment in good working order, recognize early warning signs, and work through a practical checklist of common issues before determining when professional repair or replacement is required.
Resources from the session are listed as applicable. .
BETACAM, DIGIBETA, & DVCAMFinding experienced technicians is getting harder and harder as many of them have retired without passing on their knowledge to the next generation. This workshop will not make you an expert in VTR maintenance, but it will give you the foundations you’ll need to effectively use and maintain your Betacam, Digibeta and DVCAM decks.
U-MATICAudiovisual archives across the globe face many challenges, not the least of which is maintaining and repairing their video tape records (VTRs). Proper maintenance and repair is critical for getting the best quality from tape playback, as well as ensuring that sensitive and fragile tape media objects are not damaged. However, finding experienced technicians is getting harder and harder as many of them have retired without passing on their knowledge to the next generation. This workshop will not make you an expert in U-matic maintenance, but it will give you the foundations you’ll need to perform basic maintenance and adjustments on your U-matic deck.
Resources mentioned:
VO-9580 Service Manual: https://archive.org/details/Sony-VO-9850-Service-Manual
VHSAudiovisual archives across the globe face many challenges, not the least of which is maintaining and repairing their video tape records (VTRs). Proper maintenance and repair is critical for getting the best quality from tape playback, as well as ensuring that sensitive and fragile tape media objects are not damaged. This workshop will not make you an expert in VHS maintenance, but it will give you the foundations you’ll need to perform basic maintenance and adjustments on your VHS deck.
Resources mentioned:
1/4″ AUDIO & CASSETTEMany archives continue to rely on ¼” open-reel and compact audio cassette decks that are no longer manufactured, yet remain essential for preservation and access work. This one-hour webinar provides an overview of routine maintenance, operational best practices, and common playback issues associated with legacy audio tape equipment. Topics include tape path cleaning, transport inspection, handling considerations for fragile or degraded media, and format-specific risks unique to open-reel and cassette playback.
CRT BASIC MAINTENANCE & REPAIRRepair and maintenance of obsolete analog CRTs (television monitors with cathode ray tubes) is complex technical work involving highly specialized knowledge and incredibly rare calibration equipment that is no longer manufactured. For these reasons, few vendors still offer this type of technical service to specifications that meet preservation standards. Due to the limited vendor options, unaffordable shipping costs to send heavy CRTs to the few vendors available, and fragile physical condition of the equipment, this workshop wishes to foster greater proficiency for basic in-house maintenance and repair of CRTs used for the preservation of collection materials and in the exhibition of time-based media artworks.