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April 26, 2022
Digital archiving will make reo more accessible
Moeawa Fransen
Posted On April 26, 2022
Download AudioNgā Taonga Sound and Vision has selected international archiving specialist Memnon to head the $40 million Utaina project to digitally preserve much of its archive of sound and video recordings.
Ngā Taonga co-chief executive Paul Meredith says the company has almost 20 years of experience in the large-scale digitisation of audio and video assets for libraries, universities, broadcasters, museums and government organisations around the world.
It will hire up to 20 local staff and operate out of Avalon Studios in Lower Hutt, taking three years to convert about 350,000 AV items from Ngā Taonga, 100,000 from the National Library and 10,000 from Archives New Zealand 10,500 items.
He says it will make the crown collection more accessible, including for Māori.
“I’m thinking about your Waka Huia programmes, Koha, Marae, Māori Television. We also used to be the sound archives at Radio New Zealand. Most of that is on magnetic media, on audio and video tapes, and that’s at risk. There’s just not the technicians in the world with the equipment so it’s important that material is digitised,” Mr Meredith says.
Ngā Taonga holds not just the finished programmes but also much raw footage, making it a valuable source for tribal use.
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