Geophysical Transcription

eMag Solutions has been servicing the Geophysical market worldwide for the past 25 years. We have manufactured and supplied geophysical quality tapes from 9-track to 3590 cartridges. We have manufactured dedicated cleaning and restoration equipment for poor quality, old, or damaged tapes, and we have developed software for the efficient restoration and copying of critical data. We offer services at our locations in Atlanta and Dallas in the USA, as well as the United Kingdom. Or we can bring teams of experienced personnel to your location to provide quality service work.

Do any of the following situations apply to you?

I would like you to audit my Geophysical library

I need to clean my dirty tapes

I'd like to restore my old, sticky magnetic tapes

I need to transcribe some Geophysical data

I'd like you to manage my Spec data

I've lost the original tapes & I need to recreate the data from an old Seismic section

Geophysical Consulting Services

I would like you to audit my Geophysical library

A typical Geophysical library contains old tapes & cartridges from many sources and manufacturers. Data, once written to tape is at risk, as tape by its very nature decays. To understand this is to understand that data stored within a library needs constant management or the data will be lost. An audit will tell you what problems to expect and when.

eMag, as a manufacturer of magnetic media for more than 25 years, understands better than most companies how tape decays and ultimately fails. For more than 18 years we have been helping customers recover data, through our Copy and Transcription Service Centers. Over this time we have created a comprehensive database of knowledge that can be used to predict which media from a given manufacturers tape & cartridge inventory will fail, when & how. Consequently we understand how, in most cases, to temporarily fix the failed media so it can be recovered.

For the Geophysical client, the oldest tapes in any given survey will obviously be the Field tapes. These tapes were often created in less than ideal environmental conditions. Quite often a Geophysical contractor will also archive the initial Gathers, so even if the Field tapes ARE lost, then reprocessing can proceed from the Gather stage. Even so, it is frustrating to loose data that was so expensive to acquire in the first place. This raw data often contains information that is not carried through past the Demux or Tape Input stage (for instance the Shot Signature or the Vibe Sweep stored in the auxilary traces), and sometimes for special processing, this type of information is required.

A library audit will list what tapes you have, who made them, how old they are, what their expected life span is/was and which media need immediate attention. This is produced in a clear report form and typically takes several days to perform, at the client's site. Once the report is completed, the clients can then determine which media need copying or transcribing, and what the size of that job will be. eMag, with over 25 years as a media manufacturer, has extensive tape recovery expertise, and knows the best and most ideal methods to stabilize a tape before attempting to read it.

IMPORTANT: To attempt to read an old tape without first stabilizing it, is to risk having the oxide literally shed off the tape as it is being passed over the read head, thereby loosing the data forever. Immediate candidates for "rescue" for instance include ANY data created on ANY 3480 style cartridge prior to 1988, which needs copying to a new media NOW. Another down side to older media is that as it fails it begins to shed, leaving behind oxide and other forms of debris on the tape heads and the tape path. The next tape in the drive picks up this dirt and is now contaminated and spreads that dirt on to another drive when it is next read and so the troubles spread.

To find out more about what data you have at risk, please contact eMag, and we'll tell you about our Audit, Copy & Transcription services.

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I need to clean my dirty tapes

Whether a tape has been subjected to flooding, oil/smoke from a fire, dirty or dusty environments, or a range of other industrial pollutants, eMag has the expertise and technology required to restore the contents of the damaged media. The level of data recovery is obviously dependent on the level of damage the tape has been subjected to, but usually is close to 100%.

Staff at eMag's Service centers have extensive experience with Geophysical tape formats and understand the internal structures necessary for a tape to be successfully read by a Seismic input module. With this knowledge, if media IS fatally damaged (say due to a tape transport that chewed up the tape at load time), we can, with programming help if need be, salvage or regenerate the data so that the data that were recoverable, are readable, when transferred to new media. For instance a SEGY tape might be missing its reel headers and the first ten traces (realistically the first 3-5 wraps of tape around a 9 Track reel). We can dummy up new EBCDIC and Binary headers, and recover the rest of the data, while resequencing bytes 1-8 in each trace header, thus making the data accessible again. We have detailed knowledge of over 1500 seismic formats, and while we can read and copy these, in most instances it makes sense for the client to take the next step and ask us to Transcribe the recovered data to SEGY, as most of these formats are obsolete, or readable only with old software packages.

The restoration process for tapes varies according to the type of tape, and the reason for degradation. Tapes may just need cleaning, they may need drying, they may need the coated surface re-cured to avoid stickiness or they may need to be smoothed allowing closer head to tape contact. We have extensive experience of all methods of tape restoration. The key in each is "one shot" identification of the issue and "one shot" execution of the restoration. Inaccuracies in either can result in decreased capability of a successful restoration.

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I'd like to restore my old, sticky magnetic tapes

Stiction and Print-Through are two problems that plague older tapes and cartridges. With over 25 years manufacturing experience and over 18 years transcription and recovery expertise, eMag is exceptionally well positioned to handle any and all tape related problems, whether the data be Seismic or Backup or anything else stored on magnetic media. As a media manufacturer, eMag has unique insights into tape formulations, chemical compositions and most importantly what it takes to restore older sticky tapes to a readable state. To understand the need for these services, it is necessary to understand a little more about what leads to the breakdown process in the first place.

Stiction is process where due to age/heat/humidity/improper storage the binder that holds the "data" (stored on the magnetic oxide) to the "tape" break down in the form of erratic levels of lubrication on the tape surface, leaving behind a sticky mess that literally, in the worst cases, glues the tape to itself, and ultimately the tape head. Trying to force these bad tapes apart will literally cause the tapes to fall apart making any hope of recovery remote. In more "mild" cases, the tape sticks to the tape path, the read/write head and anything else it makes contact with and leaving behind deposits. Other tapes using this same drive will eventually pick these up, thereby leading to a contaminated tape library. The now corrupted tape drives themselves do not read/write data correctly, with resulting major down time for the center. This can sometimes take a while to detect, and more often than not, many tapes have been incorrectly generated on these bad drives and will have to be recreated.

A tape library audit is recommended for all centers on a semi-regular basis to determine which media are at risk of Stiction. eMag does this on a regular basis for many clients. Whereas Stiction makes the tape unreadable, until the tape is baked and/or cleaned, Print-Through is more insidious as it corrupts the data on the next wrap of tape. This occurs on older tapes that have not been read for a while where the magnetic signal is so hot that it literally influences the magnetic media on the next wrap of tape, changing its numerical contents. With seismic being effectively "random" numbers this can lead to hidden forms of data corruption that are not readily detectable by the input program (e.g. not parity errors or soft/hardware errors, but would be detected by a built in spike checker). These are only truly detectable in the reel or trace headers (or where you have persistent data spikes from bad numbers being read from tape), or when there are read problems which reveal unexpected byte packets in the interblock gaps (aka "Crap in the Gap"). Sometimes these problems go unnoticed for several processing steps and it takes a determined Geophysicist to track down the cause of the data problems.

In both these instances the only remedy is to move the data to new media. This can be done through a bit-to-bit copy, assuming the tape can be 100% recovered. In most cases, tapes subject to read problems are written in obsolete seismic formats. eMag's Transcription software can read over 1500 different seismic formats and convert the data to SEGY, while providing extensive QC capabilities to verify that the data was recovered, and successfully and accurately transcribed. A library audit will reveal which other tapes are suspect too.

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I need to transcribe some Geophysical data

With over 25 years manufacturing experience and over 18 years transcription and recovery expertise, eMag is exceptionally well positioned to handle any and all tape related problems, whether the data be Seismic or Backup or anything else stored on magnetic media. With an exhaustive ability to read almost any 9 track seismic format (all the usual variations of SEGA, SEGB, SEGC, SEGD & SEGY, as well as over 1500 other known seismic formats), our software can input, verify and transcribe the data, with full QC capability, to IBM32FL SEG-Y. QC tools include both interactive and hard copy plotting, with ability to specify record range and trace(s) within a record to view, as well as byte lengths etc.

Of the above-mentioned formats, SEGD is by far the most complex, with many variations, some survey specific, some not. The software can read non-standard SEGD headers and index into any nibble, bit or byte position to extract values, and can also convert multiplexed SEGD to demultiplexed SEGD if so required.

Data to be transcribed can be read in from disk, or on a tape by tape basis, or via a selected record range, or by swath or via selected geographical area (typically marine data which contains X & Y coordinates within its headers). Output selection can be any media, be it disk, CD, or tape.

The software is PC based, running under Windows NT, and is fast, having been purpose written as a transcription package, without all the hooks and other legacy clutter that Geophysical software converted to transcription packages normally have. The authors are industry veterans and this shows in the way the data is handled, with exceptional error recovery and problem reporting diagnostics.

This software, combined with eMag's unique insights into how tape is made, and how it fails, gives us an industry leading understanding and ability to read, restore and transcribe any type of failing seismic media.

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I'd like you to manage my Spec data

eMag's transcription system allows easy management of Geophysical Spec Data. You ship us the survey you wish us to manage. We store the tapes. At your request, we input selected data ranges, keying on tape number, FFID, or even, if the headers include the information X & Y data, or perhaps a selected trace range or a date/time stamp. If it's in the header, we can index it and key on it. We then carve out the data specified, outputting it to the media of your choice, either in the original format, or transcribed to SEGY, and ship the resulting dataset.

By having us manage and store your spec data you are freed up from the day-to-day hassles of media management, transcribing and shipping, allowing you to focus more on selling data access.

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I've lost the original tapes & I need to recreate data from an old Seismic section

Seismic data, existing only in hardcopy form, cannot be loaded to an interpretation workstation or be processed using modern software to reveal its hidden information.
Data Conditioning

eMag has the optimum solution to this problem that is accurate, reliable and cost effective. Scanning and vectorising of seismic sections is achieved through the company's unique Total Waveform Tracking proprietary software package SeisFileII which retains the full dynamic range of the original data. The technique provides a convenient, very high quality solution for the conversion of existing paper data to digital format for subsequent processing and loading into interpretation workstations.

Key Features:

Total waveform digital reconstruction
Full dynamic range of the data is maintained
Outputs as SEG-Y or workstation formatted data
Allows post-stack data reprocessing
Raster cleanup for old interpretation and stain removal
On-screen QC displays of vector data over scanned image
Grayscale scanning up to 1000dpi

Using A0 scanners each section is scanned in grayscale or black and white mode with resolutions up to 1000dpi depending on the size and condition of the original. The scanned TIFF image is loaded to SeiSfileII and previous interpretation is removed using raster editing software to clean up the image prior to reconstruction. Advanced image processing routines are used to edge detect timing lines and trace centres. From this information a distortion map is created that contains precise information about timing and skew. SeiSfileII vectorises each trace and outputs a SEG-Y file. Vector overlays of the scanned images are used for quality control purposes, allowing the analysts to test parameters prior to running the job.

The data can finally be delivered in a trace sequential SEG-Y format or input into a full seismic processing suite for further enhancement. The reconstructed data can finally be delivered in a trace sequential SEG-Y format or input into a full seismic processing suite for further enhancement.

Benefits:

Returns hard copy data to SEG-Y format
Enables seamless workstation loading
Old data sets can be re-used and integrated with new surveys
Makes reprocessing of vintage data sets possible
Enables the long-term, safe storage of a valuable asset

Services Include:

Image Capture
Image Editing
Digital Reconstruction
Total Waveform Tracking
Quality Control
Remote Data Collection

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Geophysical Consulting Services

eMag Solutions also offer a no-commitment-based geophysical consulting service, advising you how best to go about transcribing your data. While you may not decide to do transcription business with us, we can show you HOW to ensure that the transcription task is properly specified, bid and managed. This is your data. It was expensive to obtain, and maintain, and now you need to ensure that it is handled appropriately. There are a number of companies claiming to offer Geophysical Transcription Services, but very few really understand the dangers and risks, and the correct tape handling and QC procedures required to ensure complete project success. Staff at eMag have literally overseen the transcription of Millions of tapes and cartridges, over countless projects, for clients all over the world. Let us bring this experience to your center and help guide you through this difficult process.