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PRIME Media appoints DAMsmart to digitise archives

PRIME Media has appointed audiovisual digitisation agency DAMsmart to digitize and manage the broadcaster's vast archives, currently stored in Canberra, Orange, Newcastle and Woollongong.

The PRIME network, which operates across TV, radio and digital media, has commissioned DAMsmart to ensure its archive’s security and availability in contemporary media contexts.

PRIME’s chief technology officer Gerry Smith said Prime had been entrenched in country Australia for many years.

"We have great audiovisual archives, which contain some rare and unseen footage of major events that have taken place throughout regional Australia. We want to make this footage available in a contemporary format, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the culturally significant collection," he said in a statement.

DAMsmart’s media and preservation manager Joe Kelly said it had provided PRIME with a total archive solution, from logistics to digitisation and a hosted access service.

"We are digitising several thousand hours of footage that is currently maintained on various videotape formats such as 2U-matic, Betacam and DVCPro as well as film including 16 and 35mm before making it accessible to PRIME stations through our Hosted Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform. Once in a digital format the archive will reside on DAMsmart’s hosted DAM platform that allows access through a secure web client and integrates seamlessly with PRIME's internal workflows.”

The project with DAMsmart is currently underway and DAMsmart has been contracted to provide Hosted DAM services until 2018.

Over time PRIME will also build on the descriptive metadata that already exists, increasing the ability to search the collection with more meaningful and robust results so that Australia’s historical narratives can be accessed and enjoyed in the digital future.