The BBC will be tape-free by 2012, according to its Director of Future Media and Technology Erik Huggers – with the corporation using off-the-shelf kit as it moves to a wholly digital library.
Speaking at a DTG conference, Huggers said that the digital media initiative (DMI) was in an advanced stage, and that the BBC's library would be network based by 2012.
"We have been investing in a programme which we call DMI, the digital media initiative," said Huggers. "The idea behind DMI is simple, we want a tapeless BBC by 2012."
No special sauce
He continued: "We do not want a world where we have to run trucks carrying tapes, we want a world where everything is file-based, on the network and all that media is accessible via commodity based computing technology; No special sauce, just off the shelf kit.
"That program is in an advance stage of deployment within the BBC and we will see that land within this year."
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Huggers believes that not only the BBC will benefit from a digital library – but that other broadcasters can also utilise the technology.
"Now this could be exceptionally beneficial to all other content creating organisations in the UK," added Huggers.
"Having access to that type of an infrastructure would be exceptionally beneficial from a cost savings perspective, but also from a creative dividend perspective, so helping to spread those benefits is rather important."
