000933 Digital Radio Archive Speech Recognition

The Library is recognised as the home of the nation's radio archive. The current radio collection comprises around 250,000 hours. Additionally, via a longstanding arrangement with the BBC the Library also provides the only UK point of research access to the extensive radio collections of the BBC Archives. However, of the estimated 3m hours of radio broadcast in the UK each year from c.700 stations, the Library is capturing a mere 15,000 hours (mostly news-based content). It is estimated that 92% of current UK radio is not being properly preserved, with only 2% being made available for research post-transmission.

To address this situation we plan to create a digital radio archive, based primarily on off-air recording, which will preserve a proportion of ongoing UK radio output (emphasising speech-based content), and make this available for research. The first step is to build a pilot radio archive over a period of two years (2018-2020), covering up to 50 stations from across the UK, to be developed thereafter into a full service. The pilot will test technologies, scalability, sustainability and research use and develop integration with British Library systems.

A Digital Radio Archive Management system was the subject of an earlier tender; this tender is for a complementary speech recognition facility, with the aim of making the content of the National Radio Archive as fully searchable by word and theme as possible.

Additional information: Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender~: 1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): https://bl.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register - Accept the terms and conditions and click 'I agree' - Enter your correct business and user details - Note the username you chose and click 'Save' when complete - You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure) 2. Express an Interest in the tender - Login to the portal with the username/password - Click the 'PQQs Open To All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) - Click on the relevant PQQ to access the content. - Click the 'Express Interest' button at the top of the page. - This will move the PQQ into your 'My PQQs' page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only) -You can now access any attachments by clicking 'Buyer Attachments' in the 'PQQ Details' box 3. Responding to the tender - Click 'My Response' under 'PQQ Details', you can choose to 'Create Response' or to 'Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining) - You can now use the 'Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification - Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ - There may be a mixture of online and offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available) You must then submit your reply using the 'Submit Response' button at the top of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.