Audiovisual preservation is best described as the totality of the steps necessary to ensure the permanent accessibility – forever – of an audiovisual document with the maximum integrity (CCAAA definition).
To ensure permanent accessibility, maintenance is necessary. The reason for using the word maintenance is rhetorical: to promote the idea that preservation activity must be performed, funded, and included in the standing maintenance functions of any organisation responsible for audiovisual material. Organisations that don’t actively maintain their assets will lose them.
This tutorial takes you through the essentials of preservation.