QUADRIGA v3 - The "Multi-Functional" Archive Solution
Multi-Machine (parallel ingest from up to eight playback devices)
Multi-Channel (recording mono, stereo or up to eight tracks per module)
Multi-Format (BWF, WAVE, MBWF, RF64 and WAVE64 at up to 192 kHz / 32 bit)
Multi-Speed (recording from half-speed up to quad-speed)
QUADRIGA v3 main user interface
The release of QUADRIGA v3 with its powerful "multi-functionality", combined with other new features such
as Dual-Direction ingest, provides users with unparalleled advantages and workflow efficiencies.
Through Cube-Tec's powerful new 'Cube-Workflow', QUADRIGA workstations can be fully integrated into existing
infrastructures. Asset management systems and legacy databases can easily be connected through Open Standard
interfaces (ODBC) using SQL or XML exchange via Web Services.
Follow the links below to learn more about System Integration and Scalability, and find out why QUADRIGA,
with installations in 16 different countries, clearly is the world leader in audio archival solutions.
British Library To Partner With Cube-Tec For New "Preservation Factory"
After extensive and thorough research, the British Library Sound Archive has selected Cube-Tec's proven, industry standard
technology for the critical task of ingesting, managing and preserving their highly valued collections of sound recordings.
QUADRIGA and CD-Inspector Workstations
Within the British Library's new Centre for Conservation, three QUADRIGA Import Modules will be used in a parallel ingest
workflow, providing semi-automated audio digitization and digital audio transfer. CDs will be ingested and quality inspected
by two Cube-Tec "CD-Inspector" workstations with each 5 CD audio capture drives.
Dual-Direction Ingest Mode
The British Library will be one of the first to utilize Cube-Tec's "Dual-Direction Ingest Mode" to capture both sides of a
half-track tape in a single pass. During ingest, QUADRIGA automatically reverses the file on the fly, so the operator can
monitor both sides during the ingest process, despite the fact that one track is being read backwards.
The primary audio carriers to be transferred are:
Audio cassettes
Quarter-inch tape
Other carriers include:
Vinyl microgroove discs
Coarse-groove discs (78rpm)
Optical media (DVD, CD)
Cube-Workflow Interface to CADENSA and DOBBIN Post-processing
In addition to QUADRIGA, the Centre will utilize Cube-Tec's ingest management solution - "Cube-Workflow" - to organize and
manage the archive related tasks of multiple users in various locations throughout the facility. "Cube-Workflow" will also
function as the interface between "CADENSA" - British Library's sound database catalogue - and three Cube-Tec archival
modules - QUADRIGA, CD-Inspector and DOBBIN. In a parallel workflow, a DOBBIN Server will manage all post-ingest processes
such as file conversion, checksum verification, and format encoding, as a fully automated background process.
Installation and Training
Pictured are Andrew Pearson, Will Prentice, Nigel Bewley and Richard Ranft during the Quadriga training session
provided by Cube-Tec's product specialist Thorsten Jüttner.
Meet The Cube-Tec And The PrestoSpace Team At IBC In Amsterdam
PRESTOSPACE Stand 2.110 Exhibitor Hall 2 [ 7-11 September 2007 ]
PrestoSpace is a European Union 6th Frame Program Integrated Project, with
9 Million Euro in funding provided by the EU. The project began in February
of 2004, with a scheduled completion date of January, 2008.
Combining R & D resources from industry and research institutes will enable
PrestoSpace partners to develop state of the art technologies to facilitate
the automated preservation and restoration of Europe's diverse audiovisual
collections.
Within the PrestoSpace consortium lead by BBC, INA and RAI, Cube-Tec
International is the Project Leader for the Audio Subsystem, and the primary
Research & Development partner for Audio Restoration.
At IBC, Cube-Tec will showcase some of the PrestoSpace developments,
including sophisticated technologies for manual, semi-automatic and fully
automatic audio restoration, incorporating complete scalability ranging from
a single PC to a fully integrated "Sound Preservation Factory".
For Dialogue Clean-up, Cube-Tec's Pro Tools VPIs Are The Solution
»At Dallas Audio Post Group the Cube-Tec's VPI's have become THE choice for audio restoration and noise reduction. All other
noise reduction systems and plug-ins are now either powered off or have been moved to the 'unused plug-ins' folder.
The Cube Tec VPI's have recently been employed to clean up dialogue on a feature, and to restore location audio that was
recorded in many difficult locations across the globe for a corporate client. The VPI's are simply outstanding. They clearly
out-perform anything else on the market; Great performance, no nasty artifacts and a great value. What more could we ask for?
Thanks!«
Cube-Tec Presentation At 7th Joint Technical Symposium (JTS) In Toronto
At the recent JTS conference held in Toronto on June 28, 29, and 30,
Cube-Tec presented a comprehensive lecture entitled "Automated Workflows in
Mass Audio Archiving" - delivered Rob Poretti.
Migrating large audio archives represents a daunting task. Once the archive
is cataloged, assessed and prioritized for preservation activities, managing
an efficient transition to a digital carrier poses its own sets of
challenges. The lecture covered computerized solutions for the
mass-migration of analog and digital archival media, to mass-storage
systems.
Processes covered included:
Importing legacy data to generate workflows and system jobs
Digitization of analog material with quality analysis
Using quality analysis meta-data to drive automatic batch processes
Using batch-processing to generate multiple derivatives
Reporting and Exporting meta-data to the Preservation database
Some archival media lend themselves to more efficient ingest strategies. For
example, by their nature, optical media archives can be transferred at many
times "real-time". New technologies now allow for faster than real-time
transfers for analog media as well. The lecture covered the ramifications
of:
Multiple stream digitization - up to 8 simultaneous devices
Ingest speeds from 1/8th to 8x real time
Forward/Reverse digitization for cassettes and 2-track reels
Multi-channel digitization up to 8 channels per stream
Mass digitization strategies have their own sets of challenges. Operators
need specialized tools to manage multiple streams simultaneously, especially
when they originate from different media types. Purpose built monitoring
functions required for digitizing in reverse, or high-speed ingest, will be
investigated. When the digital master is created, browsing copies and other
derivatives may be required on a timely basis or in an automated fashion.
Cube-Tec's presentation covered an approach to an extensible automated batch
processor for digital archives that integrates into the entire archive
system.
Cube-Tec Supports "Digital Audio-Visual Archiving Technologies" Hosted By Deutsche Welle Akademie In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
[ 11 - 22 June 2007 ]
UNESCO estimates that there are approximately 200 million hours of
audiovisual content contained within the world's archives.
Many of these valuable assets - an important part of our 20th Century
Heritage - are stored on fragile carriers that are subject to deterioration,
representing a significant challenge to archivists. For the most part,
archivists must rely upon a combination of archive migration technology and
properly trained staff to meet this challenge.
In Kuala Lumpur Tom Lorenz (Cube-Tec) explains archival concepts and presents practical solutions based on QUADRIGA technology
For over 10 years Cube-Tec has been involved in the development of archive
migration technology - resulting in the company's QUADRIGA solution.
In addition to developing technology, Cube-Tec supports the Deutsche Welle
Akademie in their efforts to provide training and consultancy services for
radio organizations in developing countries within Eastern and South-Eastern
Europe.
The most recent event was a training workshop held at the Asia-Pacific
Institute for Broadcast Development, at which Cube-Tec's Tom Lorenz
conducted workshops attended by participants from Bhutan, Jordan, Laos,
Macau, Malaysia, Mauritius, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Vietnam
and Yemen.
Improving Speech Intelligibility By DeNoising: What Can Be Achieved? Meet The Cube-Tec Team At The IAFPA Annual Conference
The 2007 IAFPA Annual Conference will be hosted by the College of St Mark and St John,
Plymouth, UK. The conference will take place from Sunday 22nd July 2007 (reception and registration) until Wednesday
25th July 2007 in the college's Desmond Tutu Centre.
Meet Tom Lorenz and Joerg Houpert in Plymouth, Mr Houpert will give a talk about the results of a joint reseach project:
Increasing Speech Intelligibility by DeNoising: What can be achieved?
Jan Rademacher
Medical Physics - Signal Processing Group, University of Oldenburg, Germany
Prof. Dr. Joerg Bitzer
Institute for Hearing Technology and Audiology, University of Applied Science Oldenburg / Ostfriesland / Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Abstract:
The speech intelligibility of a lot of forensic material is
often very poor, usually due to a variety of disturbances that occur during
the recording process. A typical way to increase intelligibility is to apply algorithms that can be called DeNoisers, which filter out the
background noises. However, increasing the quality does not imply that the speech intelligibility is increased, which is the
essential goal of the process.
In (Bitzer et al. 2005) the authors show that no significant enhancement is possible if the background noise is a perfect
masker for the desired speech signal. In their study the noise signal was computed by a mixture of 500 sentences randomly mixed
by the same speaker. Therefore, the long-term noise spectrum is exactly the same as the spectrum of the desired speech signal.
Finally, the speech reception threshold is computed, which is the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) at which 50% of all words can be
understood. The methodology is described in (Kollmeier and Wesselkamp 1997 and Wagener 2003). The test is called Oldenburger
sentence test and is based on (Hagerman 1982). Read more
