An ambitious archive digitization project earned The Associated Press a 2014 Focal International Award. The winner of the “Best Archive Restoration / Preservation” category, AP Archive, the film and video archive of AP, worked with Prime Focus Technologies on the project, which was entirely self-funded and involved the digitization of AP’s vast film and videotape assets to the highest specifications.
Prior to the project over 90 percent of the film was only available on film or videotape. Now AP Archive content is easily accessible via a new state-of-the-art web platform where footage can be downloaded in seconds.
The collection documents the events and people that have shaped the modern era, and the project has ensured that some of the most significant moments of history are easily accessible for online viewing or download by customers. The project has also preserved this unique footage for the benefit of future generations.
The digitization project took two years to complete and was steered from AP’s London office. A logistically complex process, Prime Focus Technologies created a sophisticated workflow involving teams in London and Bangalore, India, to deliver to AP a suite of different files for online viewing, offline editing and archiving.
“Winning this award is testament to the work we have put in to our archive collection. We have been on the frontline of breaking news for over 160 years and, as a result, have a stunning collection which has to be preserved for future generations,” said AP Director of International Archives, Alwyn Lindsey. “We have so much significant and unique footage that digitizing the archive had to be a top priority and we also wanted to ensure that we could make the content easily accessible to our customers, wherever in the world they may be. Now, they can view all our archive content online and easily download it via the website, which has been designed around their exact workflows.”
A list of all the winners can be viewed here: http://www.focalint.org/focal-international-awards/2014/the-focal-international-awards-2014.
Contact
Laura Imregi
Communications Manager
The Associated Press
0207 482 7751
limregi@ap.org
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