Studio Hamburg wins major film digitization project for Bayerischer Rundfunk

28 September 2018

Studio Hamburg Postproduction has recently secured a major contract with Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bavaria’s public broadcasting service, for the digitisation of around 9,000-hours of footage from their film archive.

In a Europe-wide multi-stage competitive tendering process, Studio Hamburg Postproduction won a 10-year contract for three out of four service packages.

With over 8 million viewers and listeners each day, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) operates 10 radio stations and 2 television channels from 20+ regional offices throughout Bavaria. In this project, BR wish to digitise their entire film archive, protecting it from decay in the long term, ensuring it’s usability and improving reusability.

For the successful implementation of this demanding 10-year contract, Studio Hamburg Postproduction has set up a facility near Munich for the mechanical preparation of the film, as well as a sophisticated studio in Hamburg for film scanning and digitisation. The Hamburg site hosts dft’s flagship 4k film scanner, Scanity HDR, which includes state-of-the-art WetGate technology for 16mm and 35 mm films, working alongside high performance storage from Quantum.

Tammo Steinmetz, managing director of Studio Hamburg Postproduction is delighted: “An archive is like a treasure! With modern technology we can help to revive and preserve this cultural treasure for future generations. We are working with the latest technology and techniques, using SMPTE’s Interoperable Mastering Format (IMF) standard for the mastering and archiving of high-resolution digital copies – which seems to us to be trend-setting for comparable projects.”

Robert Dittrich, project manager of Studio Hamburg Postproduction, adds: “In responding to this project we have established an impressive infrastructure to support film and archive service delivery. Working with our colleagues at Bayerischer Rundfunk, we have a team of skilled “film rescuers” who can grow and expand together.”

Simon Carter, sales and marketing director at dft added: “This large and significant film project with Bayerischer Rundfunk is an important milestone in the preservation of German cultural film history. We are extremely proud that Studio Hamburg Postproduction has chosen Scanity HDR with its latest WetGate technology for this very important project.”Editors notes:

dft (Digital Film Technology) has been at the forefront of film scanning technology for over 75 years, supplying the film post production market with a range of high quality, leading edge products and services. With a reputation for quality, dft is head quartered in Germany and has a network of sales, service and support centres worldwide.

dft is a subsidiary of the Prasad Corporation Ltd, India.
www.dft-film.com

Studio Hamburg Postproduction is the leading post-production company in Northern Germany and is part of the Studio Hamburg Group.
www.postproduction.de

Further information:
Digital Film Technology
Simon Carter, Director
simonc@prasadgroup.org
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 870853
Mob: +44 (0) 7776 297371

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