The problem of FireWire

FireWire is a near-obsolete connection and data-transfer standard. Unfortunately, it is also the best way to capture digital video data from MiniDV camcorders, and many perfectly adequate audio interfaces also rely on it. Normally we would hope for adapters to an up-to-date connection standard like USB, but in FireWire’s case Read more…

PROUD and PRAVDA funded!

We are tremendously excited to announce that the Institute for Museum and Library Services has awarded RADD a Sparks! Ignition grant to build and document two kits, one for audiovisual digitization (“PRAVDA,” for “Portably Reformat A/V to Digital from Analog”), one for digital-data rescue (“PROUD,” for “Portable Recovery of Unique Read more…

Our thanks to John Ryan

RADD couldn’t exist without the generosity of the campus and Madison communities. Another example of this generosity was just added into the technology array. RADD uses the Device Side Data controller card to be able to read 5.25-inch floppy disks. Device Side Data used to sell an enclosure for the Read more…

RADD featured in Madison Magazine

RADD made 2015’s Madison Magazine “M-List”, which this year focuses on social innovation. We’re tremendously honored and excited! (One tiny correction: RADD hasn’t been around “for years,” though we certainly hope it will be. We’ve been around for six or eight months. The mission to share and preserve cultural information—that Read more…

Choosing RADD’s capabilities

How did SLIS choose which analog material RADD can digitize, and which digital media it can capture data from? The answer is part planning, part serendipity. The group of Digital Curation students who first made concrete plans for RADD did not do so until they had conducted a sweep of Read more…