IASA 2017 Annual Conference

Conventional mechanical playback cannot be used in the case of damaged lacquer audio disk records, used between 1930 and 1960 by a large number of radio broadcasters and archives. INA has developed optical tools and software for the recovery of such records.
The Saphir scanner uses an original approach, by casting a structured coloured light beam onto a small area of the disk surface, and uses a standard video sensor for acquiring rings of pictures. From the collected pictures, the software allows to decode a wide range of audio disks recording types, from early Berliner to stampers and 33rpm vinyl disks, but its strength is at recovering the signals from lacquer recordings, even severely damaged (broken, cracked, delaminated). Extreme examples with numerous cracks and missing flakes will be demonstrated.
We will present our efforts towards replicating the scanner, making the tools available to INA, other audio archives, and service providers, with the objective of opening up the potential for recovering this highly endangered part of the audio heritage.