NHK "Archive for Peace" proposal

 The NHK proposal was presented by Mr Ooi at the Brussels Conference. The FIAT IFTA Executive Council agreed to post the proposal on the website in order to give it a large visibility. If you are interested in participating in the project, do contact Mr Ooi

The NHK Archives opened according to schedule on February 1, 2003. That's exactly fifty years to the day since NHK began delivering Japan's firt television broadcasts.

To create the NHK Archives, we designed a number of new systems that make extensive use of Japan's cutting-edge digital technology. At the heart is a new type of central data base. It can store not only text such as a film's history and copyright information, but also motion picture data in compressed MPEG4 format. The introduction of this new database will allow footage from the Archives to be used right at the point of programme production. Usage of archival footage should take a dramatic leap toward. It will find application in many types of programmes.

Another attractive feature of the NHK Archives is the public programme library. This is a space where people can watch and listen to previously broadcast NHK programmes free of charge. It can accomodate 120 simultaneous users. They can pick whatever programme they want from a repository of thousands, using a video on demand system. The video data are stored on a 23 terabyte hard disk system. The public programme Library has already welcomed over 100.000 users. Starting this fall, it will be connected to all of NHK's 53 regional broadcasting centers by high speed fiber optic cable. That will make this valuable source available to even more people.

The opening of the NHK Archives has marked the start of an effort to explore the possibility of using film and video to contribute in some way to dialogue between civilizations, to the resolution of ethnic conflict, and to the establishment of global peace.

Nuclear weapons are the most terrifying of all weapons of mass destruction. The end of the cold war, unfortunately, has not put an end to the nuclear race.

NHK has produced many programs addressing nuclear arms and the problems of atomic bombing victims. As the public broadcaster for the only nation to suffer nuclear attack, they were made as a continuing plea for true world peace. There are more than 500 of these programmes. One of them, the NHK documentary Drawing A-Bomb Memories won top honours in June 2003 at the Banff Television Festival.

The NHK initiative for peace is based on the conviction that the horror of nuclear attack must never be repeated. Over the next two years, NHK will be working out the details of this project. The international outreach aspects of the project may well include the following :

1. It may be possible to provide programs on nuclear weapons and atomic bombing victims at no charge for educational uses. They will be made available in Japan and abroad.
2. NHK would like to see the establishment of a website concerning "Peace" that can be linked from the NHK homepage. On this site, there would be a series of overviews of programs about nuclear weapons and atomic bomb victim. There would be an explanation of how the proposed free availability scheme would work. The site would have messages from atomic bomb victims and experts on the subject from Japan and abroad. The content would be available not only in Japanese but in other languages.
3. It may be possible to create a system for exchanging video footage and information related to the keywords "anti-war" and "peace", especially with regard to nuclear weapons, among major broadcasters around the world.
   This would require building an international metadata exchange framework. Currently in Japan, a metadata exchange framework called "J/Meta" is being established as a standard. It is based on the P/Meta standard being promoted by the EBU. We aim to include broadband providers as well as broadcasters in the creation of the framework. NHK is a core participant in the development process and believe that exchange among the archives of a number of EBU member broadcasters would represent an excellent candidate to test out the J/Meta and P/Meta exchange systems. In practice, this may well take time, but I hope you will at least consider the idea.

Yasusuke Ooi
Executive Controller General
Multimedia Development Department
NHK

September 2003