Preservation Technician Contractor

BAVC Media’s Preservation department seeks a part-time contract (approx 20 hours per week) Preservation Technician to assist with audiovisual digitization tasks at the BAVC office in San Francisco.

BAVC Media was founded when a group of media makers and activists met in January of 1976 to devise practical ways to encourage independent video-making in the Bay Area. In 1994, in partnership with the Getty Research Center, BAVC’s Preservation Department was created. BAVC Preservation works with museums, artists, and cultural institutions around the world to reformat, archive and make accessible seminal creative and cultural significant works on video and audiotape, as well as community-based works that are broadly used in academia, research, and other media projects.

Today, BAVC’s Preservation work represents one of the nation’s longest-standing nonprofit audiovisual preservation programs. With current and past funding from various government and philanthropic foundations including NEA, NEH, Mellon, Rockefeller, and Knight, BAVC Preservation has implemented practices and services that helped define the field of video preservation. BAVC Preservation continues that work today by pursuing a range of field-building initiatives and services.

The Preservation Contractor will work on ongoing grant-funded and fee-for-service projects within the Preservation department to promote BAVC’s continued excellence in the field of audiovisual archiving. The Preservation Contractor will work hands-on with tape-based media from artists and cultural heritage organizations to provide the highest quality transfers possible, reporting directly to the Preservation staff and Director.

• Inspect audiovisual assets (magnetic and optical media) and ingest them on an item-level basis to internal database
• Perform pre-digitization tasks for audiovisual assets, including cleaning and repair
• Perform daily digitization of video and audio tapes, following the instruction of Preservation staff
• Generate detailed notes of each digital transfer, documenting signal flow and possible errors
• Perform post-digitization tasks for audiovisual assets, including file editing and transcoding
• Perform quality control of digital files, reporting on accuracy of deliverables
• Communicate technical issues affecting playback equipment and/or computer equipment
• Provide additional support for the Preservation staff and facility in general, when needed
• Other duties as assigned

• Demonstrated knowledge of audiovisual archiving practices for libraries and archives
• Knowledge of audiovisual archiving practices
• Knowledge of analog and born-digital audio, video, and data preservation issues and standards
• Proficiency with troubleshooting skills
• Excellent physical and digital organizational skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Commitment to equity and inclusion through your work, your lived experience or both

• Proficiency with project management practices and software
• Knowledge of analog and digital video and audio formats and their associated playback environments
• Familiarity with the cleaning, handling and storage of reels, cassettes, discs and digital storage media
• Familiarity with broadcast video equipment, including patchbays, VTRs, time base cor rectors, scopes and switchers

Work will be performed at BAVC Media facilities located in San Francisco, California

• Constantly:
  Perform desk-based computer tasks
• Frequently:
  Grasp lightly/fine manipulation, grasp forcefully, and reach/work above shoulders
• Occasionally:
  Sit, twist/bend/stoop/squat
• Visual acuity including color vision and fair auditory acuity
• If you are able to…