---
title: "Case Study_ Scaling Stanford's Videotape Migration"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/032ca67a-770d-4ee6-b19a-1020d4191e4e
stack: https://stacklist.com/c/business/stack/89f3baed-8413-4a97-b206-a6c24a1b0d9d
summary: "Stanford Libraries and other institutions use SAMMA (System for Automated Migration of Media Assets) to scale videotape digitization while maintaining preservation-grade quality and reducing staffing bottlenecks. The Emmy Award-winning platform enables multi-format tape processing with operator-friendly workflows, as demonstrated by successful implementations at CBS News, Yale University, and Reuters."
tags: "videotape-migration, digital-preservation, archival-digitization, samma-system, media-assets, broadcast-preservation, library-stewardship"
key_entities: "Stanford Libraries (organization), GrayMeta (organization), SAMMA (technology), CBS News and Stations Archive (organization), Yale University Library (organization), Reuters Screenocean (organization), Bob Berger (person), InDelt (organization), FIAT Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026 (event), Dublin (location), preservation-grade outputs (concept), archival-quality transfers (concept)"
classification: "reference"
content_hash: "sha256:c08bd218143db8b921118cf882f679b7de7e165ad9483d8afef524bf7bd774a7"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 1323
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# Case Study_ Scaling Stanford's Videotape Migration

Scaling Stanford's videotape migration 96 Login Chrome Extension
Login Privacy Policy Stanford Libraries has built impressive in-house
stewardship for its audiovisual collections. As that work expands from
processing and access projects into systematic videotape migration, the
calculus shifts. What works for targeted remediation can become a
bottleneck at scale: throughput limits, staff time per tape, and the gap
between "good enough for access" and true preservation-grade outputs.
SAMMA (System for Automated Migration of Media Assets) is
GrayMeta's Emmy Award-winning system designed for exactly this
transition: Higher throughput without proportional staffing. Multi-channel
configurations (2, 4, or 8) let you process more tapes simultaneously as
backlog scope grows. Preservation-grade outputs: Archival-quality
transfers that meet long-term stewardship standards, not just access
copies. Operator-friendly workflows: Library staff run SAMMA after
reasonable training, keeping expertise in-house without requiring
broadcast engineering backgrounds. Multi-format flexibility: Betacam,
DigiBeta, DVCAM, U-matic, and more in a single platform, ready for
whatever the collection holds. Yale University Library and Reuters
Screenocean use SAMMA to digitize thousands of hours of historical
footage. For a research library with Stanford's collection depth and
stewardship culture, it's a way to turn current momentum into a
systematic, scalable migration capability. I'd be glad to learn more about
where things stand with your videotape collections. Would a quick
conversation make sense? Request a Call Featured News CBS News
and Stations Archive Honored for Landmark Preservation Initiative
Facing an urgent preservation deadline with videotape deteriorating and
professional VTRs no longer in production, CBS News and Stations
Archive partnered with GrayMeta to safeguard more than six million
media assets spanning 50+ years of broadcast journalism. The
installation runs on SAMMA's Emmy Award-winning platform,
synchronizing 11 automated robots with banks of professional VTRs
across 88 simultaneous ingest channels. The system currently migrates
approximately 13,000 media assets per week, with each tape producing
a preservation-grade master, a lightweight proxy, and structured
metadata for indexing. What began as a preservation emergency has
become a commercial engine. Digitized assets flow directly into an AI-
powered indexing environment, making the entire collection searchable
and licensable across CBS/Paramount business units and global
partners. Watch the Video GrayMeta Partners with InDelt to Offer High- 

Speed Tape Cleaning Solutions GrayMeta now offers the TC-Matic line
of professional videotape cleaners, combining InDelt's manufacturing
expertise with real-world digitization workflow integration. Professional
tape cleaning is essential risk mitigation. It dramatically reduces the
chance of irreversible damage to both irreplaceable content and
increasingly scarce playback decks. Available models include cleaners
for 3/4" U-Matic, VHS and all Betacam formats. These are newly
manufactured units, not refurbished legacy hardware. Optional features
include optical defect detection and reporting. More Information SAMMA
at FIAT Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026 GrayMeta's Bob Berger
showcased the single-channel SAMMAsolo at the FIAT/IFTA
Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026 in Dublin, offering attendees a
hands-on look at videotape digitization workflows. The demonstration
walked participants through the complete preservation pipeline: from
archive audit and tape inspection through capture configuration, file
generation, validation, and digital archive creation. Attendees saw
firsthand how SAMMA handles metadata entry, quality control alerts,
and the creation of both master and proxy files accessible directly or via
MAM systems. Learn More Reuters Screenocean Expands SAMMA
Capacity Reuters has expanded its SAMMA installation from 8 channels
to 12, accelerating the digitization of thousands of hours of historical
news footage for its Screenocean video licensing platform. The
expansion supports Screenocean's growing library, which now provides
instant global access to over 1.5 million clips from Reuters News
Archive, Channel 4, Channel 5, Warner Bros Television Productions UK,
and other partners. By leveraging SAMMA's scalability alongside the
AE2020's image enhancement capabilities, Reuters continues to
transform archival assets into a living, monetizable digital library. This
project continues to prove that digitization delivers far more than
preservation. Your Archive is an Asset. Let's Activate it. SAMMA is a
scalable, easy-to-use digitization system with real-time quality
monitoring, creating preservation-grade files to build your digital archive
from the videotapes you’ve stored and invested in. Contact Us GrayMeta
Inc, 113 N San Vicente Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211, USA
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