Audiovisual Heritage and its Uses at the Swiss Public Broadcaster: A Dialogue on Opportunities and Constraints for Archives and Academics

Abstract

Conjointly conceived by an archivist at the Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS, the French speaking PSB) and two media historians, this paper aims at discussing the diversity of uses of digitised AV heritage in Switzerland through the lenses of their professional experience. It focuses on the RTS as a particularly productive case study since the RTS has not only been a pioneer in digitising AV heritage and in promoting its holdings to the broader audience, but it also actively develops new tools for internal use, in particular speech to text technologies and more recently AI-based automation for image treatment and analysis, and datamining tools. Through a discussion of current projects at the RTS, the paper provides insights into the most recent uses and reuses of digitised AV heritage in Switzerland.