BOM-Vl - Preservation and Distribution of Multimedia Data in Flanders

Vilvoorde, December 8th, 2008 - Flanders has a store of audiovisual archives. Broadcasters, cultural organizations, private individuals and government agencies posses thousands of hours of voice and video on analog carriers. It is essential to take the appropriate measures, in this case long-term preservation by digital storage, to prevent a quick decay of these audiovisual archives. These image and voice fragments also have an important social, cultural and economic value. The distribution of these collections is a building block for knowledge distribution and a better understanding of Flemish culture. The BOM-Vl project (Preservation and Distribution of Multimedia Data in Flanders) provides a platform for the storage and the release of the Flemish digital heritage.

The Multidisciplinary approach

A large part of the image and voice recordings in Flanders is still stored in old formats whose quality is rapidly deteriorating. The threat of a large part of the magnetic tapes present in Flemish collections is very real. Taking no action would translate in the loss of some unique material.

Stimulated by the Cabinet Economic Affairs, Innovation & Science, of Minister Patricia Ceysens the Bom-Vl research project started beginning 2008. A wide range of cultural organizations are involved. The media sector is represented by the public broadcasting company, commercial and regional broadcasters, and the companies Videohouse and Comsof. IBBT and VRT Medialab provide the scientific framework within the project.

During the design of the project extensive consultations were held with various actors active in the Flemish heritage, culture and media sector (including storage and heritage libraries and archives). Each of these sectors formulated specific points of interest concerning the storage and retrieval of multimedia data in Flanders. On this basis the importance of the project for these sectors was estimated, and the project could be defined so that all sectors achieve a maximal added value. This added value is not limited to the project partners, the BOM-Vl-project aims to create a clear added value for Flanders as a whole and for all actors in the Flemish heritage, culture and media sector in particular.

The complete press release (only available in Dutch) can be found in attachment.

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