piql_When quality matters

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ARCHIVATOR (E! 4863) Eurostars project

The project consortium strongly believes that long- term archiving of digital data on specialized non-fading polyester-based micrographic film is a true alternative, while such material shows a proven long-term stability of more than 500 years under regular storage condi- tions. Piql and its partners developed a long-term archiving concept basing on the principles of a very fast micro- display based Data Recording on film for archiving and high-speed Data Scanning for data retrieval. Together with the unique Data Boxing and Un-Boxing this closed- loop archiving chain is made independent from hard- ware and software platforms and is extremely safe and cost efficient compared to archiving concepts using digital storage media. The ARCHIVATOR project comprised of • DATA BOXING to convert digital and digitized film and media data (or any other data format) including ingestion, formatting, encoding, and encryption of object data and combination with meta data; • DATA RECORDING to expose digital and digitized data to high resolution micrographic film material with a high-speed process, optimizing data density and bit depth on film and its reproducibility; • DATA SCANNING at high resolution to re-generate exposed data from film and prove consolidation of the process chain; • DATA UN-BOXING to reliably restore scanned data, decode and re-format data and make them readable. • STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, i.e. definition of archival procedures of storing film in save archives and definition of workflows to integrate the film-based long- term archiving process into short and medium-term dig- ital storage processes. Project Partners • In-Vision, Austrian experts in Digital Imaging OpticsCPAA, Spanish media and post production • Nordic Film Post Production, Norwegian film post production and laboratory • Tedial, Spanish experts in digital audiovisual technologies • P+S Technik Gmbh, German manufacturing of professional cinema equipment • Piql AS

Project duration: 2009-2012 Project budget: 7,5 mill euro

Project Abstract Long-term archiving today is a "never ending story" of migration to new hardware and software platforms and re-recording of the same data. The ARCHIVATOR project aimed to change the way the world will do long-term archiving of digital content. New technolo- gies, new products, new processes and workflows was established as a part of this project. The aim is further to set up a new and innovative business model that facilitates a quick market introduction and adaptation of the ARCHIVATOR process as the preferred option for long-term archiving of digital data. A fantastic project consortium was put together to accomplish this task. The best optical system designers in Europe, IN-VISION Digital Imaging GmbH, provide imaging optics to Piql’s sophisticated Data Recording and Data SCanning sys- tems (piqlWriter and piqlReader), provided by Piql and P+S Technik GmbH (PSTF). These three companies already have successfully worked together to create commercial win-win results before. Further an innovative and leading company in the field of digital archiving, Tecnologías Digitales Audiovisuales, S.L. (TEDIAL) was selected to be the partner for en- coding and packaging of data for recording as well as de-coding and un-packaging of data after scanning. Finally, two leading users and providers of archiving services, Nordisk Film Post Productions AS (NFPP) and Centro de Produccion Audiovisual Autor, S.R.L. (CPAA), were selected to provide inputs and requirements from the market side. The target for the ARCHIVATOR was to create an open standard for long term archiving for the future! Massive amounts of digital data require long-term archiving (>> 50 years). Exponentially growing amounts of data demand for logistically effective and cost efficient processes. Digital storage media (DVD, hard disks, magnetic tapes) exhibit limited lifetime. Repetitive data migration to overcome the rapid obsolescence of hardware and software (application SW and oper- ating systems) bears accelerated risk of data loss, data corruption or even manipulation and adds significant repetitive costs for hardware and software investments.

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