The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has awarded Thomson a multimillion-euro contract to create a digital film, radio and television archive for the Broadcasting Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (BSKSA).
The kingdom also awarded Thomson a contract to continue rollout of DVB-T transmitters across the country. Thomson is working with its local partner, STESA, on both projects.
The archiving project will include the preservation of the radio, television and film assets of BSKSA, including more than 750,000 reels of 16mm and 35mm film, in addition to audio and video tape recordings.
The French Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) will help design the structure of the archives, as well as support the 140 Saudi archivists working on the project.
The two-year project includes construction of a specialized building to house the archive, as well as restoration and cataloguing of radio, television and film materials. A Thomson called ContentShare2 media asset management system combined with Thomson Grass Valley K2 media servers will handle the digitized material.
