E!113804 Digitization, indexation and conservation of audiovisual (AV) cultural heritage treasures.

The aim of the AV-Treasure project is to investigate, develop and validate a new integrated online open platform for access to and preservation of audio-visual content. The platform will have automatically generated as well as crowdsourced (CS) content and context metadata. This is a solution for institutions responsible for our film heritage, which have a fundamental role in supporting the development of knowledge about humanity. Together with galleries, libraries, archives and museums, they are responsible for our cultural heritage. Our solution gives them an uniqe opportunity to engage global audiences and make their collections more accessible and rich in information for users. Users can also contribute, participate and share, which makes the solution valuable. Scientific and technological goals: 1. Improvements and integration of our digitization products in terms of speed, accuracy in a dedicated AI Vintage Model 2. AI algorithms that easily identify specific "objects" (people, items, environments and locations) given periods through time-based identification 3. A robust CS methodology to best identify and validate time-specific vintage objects and extend content and context metadata 4. Integrate our products with new AI and CS methods in a cyber-physical system to ensure high-quality metadata 5. Ensure long-term storage and preservation of AV content and metadata 6. Test content from film institutions, engage the CS community. Metadata must be an integral part. Partners in the project are: Piql (NO), Vintage Cloud (DK), Professionshøgkolen VIA University (DK) and Valossa Oy (FI). The project has "closed the loop" for the complete AV-Treasure process. Vintage film has been digitized, old black-and-white films have been colorized, the film has been restored, the sound has been restored, sound (speech) has been converted (transcribed) into text, metadata has been extracted from the text, there is use AI with machine learning gets to extract metadata from images (e.g. faces, emotions, objects, places), these metadata have been verified through crowdsourcing, metadata is organized and packaged and linked together with sound and the image and packaged in a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) which is uploaded into Piql's archiving and long-term preservation platform, piqlConnect, the integrated package is written to piqlFilm (Piql's long-term data storage medium) and read back from the same for a final verification. A holistic solution in line with the ambitions of the project has been created. Now the next step is to scale and commercialize this solution.

The AV-Treasure results will enable Piql and VCS to directly sell to their local markets, and to international clients via their global network of distribution Partners, the first Holistic end-to-end Service of; • Scanning, digitising, restoring • Extracting and collecting rich metadata • Granting online access • Enabling monetization • Long-term preservation and future access catering for AV and photographic heritage content. Our client targets are FHIs and GLAMs holding AV & Photo content, globally, e.g. nat. libraries, broadcasters, corporate and private archives, etc. 1,000's of FHIs, e.g. DR, The Royal Danish Library and Nordisk Film (DK) and similar archives each have 10,000s of analogue film or photos stored which need to be digitised and indexed to come “alive” online. The public, national FHIs only constitute a fraction of these, i.e. 10,000's of potential clients globally for AV-Treasure enabled services, so the upside is enormous. Sales strategy We will sell services to FHIs & GLAMs where will facilitate our access to content an, and client access to metadata via API and a single online portal. We will facilitate an open-source metadata database. Our subscriptions will cover the indexed material, and the long-term storage of metadata. The FHIs will buy metadata indexation as a service, based on the film hours (Fh) indexed and stored. AV-Treasure will enable FHIs to better disseminate, communicate and commercialize their Fhs. The FHIs place different value on public-service and commercial dissemination of archived film, so our platform facilitates both. Regardless, each FHI needs to monetise on their archives to improve their financial capacity in the long term. We have held two webinars about the AV-Treasure solution. There were participants from Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Morocco, Hungary, Mozambique, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Spain, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Paraguay, India, Nigeria, Switzerland, France, Denmark and Sweden. In total 46 people participated and among them there were 36 representatives from PiqlPartners. 49 people, 36 partner reps. We have conducted several pilots with good results and we are now eager to commercialise. It is to early to say something about the actual reach, but the potential market is enormous.

The European Broadcasting Union estimates that there are more than 30 million film hours (Fh) of analogue audio-visual content stored in European archives. To activate this treasure trove in the digital age, this AV-Treasure project will give direct and easy online access to searchable digital archives so Film Heritage Institutions (FHIs) can monetize their assets, - and at the same have them securely preserved for future use. This applies to content of both local, EU and global significance. The overarching goal of the AV-Treasure project is to research, develop and validate a new integrated online open platform for access to, - and preservation of, AV content - enriched with automatically extracted as well as crowdsourced (CS) content and context metadata. Film heritage institutions (FHIs) have a fundamental role in supporting the advance of humanity’s knowledge. Together with galleries, libraries, archives & museums (GLAMs), they are the custodians of our cultural heritage, and hold in their collections the record of contemporary history. New online solutions present FHIs & GLAMs alike with unprecedented opportunities to engage global audiences and make their collections more discoverable and connected than ever, allowing users to enjoy the riches of the world’s memory institutions, and even to contribute, participate and share, which makes the content valuable. FHIs which open up their collections and metadata will benefit from these opportunities to realise the full potential of open online access, innovation and digital scholarship. The metadata will be as openly available as the individual FHIs allow.