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About us -
Company history
Piql
Piql AS was established in Drammen, Norway, in 2002.
The company was founded by a team of people
with background from digital imaging, headed by
Managing Director Rune Bjerkestrand. Their vision was
to “bridge the gap between the digital and analogue
world in the motion picture industry.” The market
opportunity was that more movies were shot and
produced digitally, whilst there were still cinemas that
only projected 35 mm analogue film.
Piql’s ambitions may have seemed a bit over the top
at the time, coming from a country with no track-
record from the motion picture industry. Yet the
company managed to revolutionise the way the film
industry prints their movies. The digital film record-
er Cinevator® printed movies up to 100 times faster
than its competitors, and with a better image quality.
Sound and subtitles were added simultaneously, and
not in subsequent steps like the industry was used to.
Customers experienced a higher quality, time savings
and cost savings. User-friendliness was also catered for,
and in 2008 Piql was awarded with the internationally
renowned Red Dot Design Award.
The Cinevator is recognised as the leading digital film
printer, in use by film labs and post-production compa-
nies all over the world. Amongst its users are companies
like Technicolor and Deluxe. The Cinevator has printed
movies for film studios like theWarner Brothers, Univer-
sal Studios, DreamWorks, Walt Disney and Paramount.
In 2007 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, known for the Oscar show, published the
report “Digital Dilemma” which addresses the challeng-
es related to securing long-term access to the motion
picture industry’s valuable assets; the movies. The
report stated that even recent Hollywood productions
worth hundreds of millions of dollars may soon be lost
forever as current preservation technologies are
incapable of securing future access.
Investigating this issue further made it clear that the
threat of losing data is not unique for the motion
picture industry; the same is faced by all industries
and sectors that hold valuable digital data, both in the
private and public sectors. A new application of Piql’s
expertise in digital imaging was found; securing future
access to valuable data by using photosensitive film as a
digital storage medium.
Piql’s vision is to reshape data preservation, and this
requires a holistic approach that ranges from soft-
ware to hardware, from the preservation medium and
its packaging to its physical storage. To achieve this
comprehensive task, the company leads a wide range
of international R&D projects. A total of EUR 25 mil-
lion have been invested into R&D. The EU has given
strong support through its Eurostars and EUREKA
programmes, and more recently through Horizon 2020.
The Norwegian government is supporting Piql through
the Research Council, Innovation Norway and other
more local programmes. The R&D projects have involved
close cooperation with institutions like Fraunhofer
(Europe’s leading research organisation, based in
Germany), Norner (leading polymer institute based
in Norway) the National Archives of Sweden, and the
Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster
Assistance (Germany). A wide range of European tech-
nology companies have also been involved to add the
required expertise.
After years of heavy investments in multidisciplinary
R&D, a solution developed specifically for the complex
needs of data preservation is commercially ready and
available. Piql is offering its Preservation Services to the
market in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. This is made
possible by operating through a network structure, with
trusted partners promoting Piql to data owners in their
countries. Preservation Services are enabled by the use
of Piql’s complete technology for digital preservation,
based around the company’s know-how in digital
imaging.
Piql AS operates from Norway as the global head-
officeof a growingnetworkof partners. Yet the company
remains true to its values of being innovative,
trustworthy and nimble. It combines cutting-edge
technology with functional design to create great
customer experiences, and was in 2015 awarded with
the Norwegian Design of Excellence Award.
Piql and its network of partners are strongly motivated
by ensuring valuable data is accessible for generations
to come, and move forward by being creative challeng-
ers, hands-on experts and attentive service providers.