The Process

We begin with a consultation that asks what you plan to do with your footage. Do you intend it to be used as an edit source or for playback only? At the outset, this determines whether you’d be best served by inter-frame or intra-frame compression.

We next explore your budgetary tradeoff between image quality and both bandwidth and storage capacity. We’ll suggest the appropriate match between your source and its digital equivalent. As an example, Digital Betacam would be best served by 4:2:2 100 Mb/s AVI files while ¾” SP would need no more than 25 Mb/s I-frame MPEG-2.

We’ll run tests on sample source material to determine whether your library would be adequately preserved by straight across digitizing with drop out compensation or if you need extensive restoration and color correction.

We are experts in processing your metadata. External metadata relates multiple media to each other, while internal metadata can be specific and linked to individual frames. We can process your metadata so it can be readily ingested by any popular editing or news management software for easy search capability.

We next examine your access needs. How many will be using your files at once? We suggest the most cost effective solution, from a simple RAID; to Network Applied Storage, NAS; or a SAN, storage area network. We typically employ fiber channel networking with a SCSI command set for high bandwidth that delivers superior performance.

Convergence Corporation’s technical breakthroughs have now put SAN’s, within the reach of smaller enterprises. Thanks to our skill at configuration, your access will be transparent. Each terminal treats a SAN as if it were a local drive. Our shared storage simplifies your network administration and maintenance since our SAN’s can be readily scaled and replaced if needed. Disaster recovery is enhanced because although each terminal treats data as local, we can arrange redundant back up off site.

Access to your archives will be controlled by you. Your choice of writers, producers, editors, and clients will have unprecedented on line access to years of content over your intranet or through the World Wide Web.

Since we’ve built efficiencies into our process from ingestion to delivery, you’ll find digital archiving to be surprisingly affordable. Additionally, you’ll no longer have a need for a tape librarian, or physical tape transfer. You can trim your maintenance bills on obsolescent equipment. Through our partner, the Broadcast Store, we have the machines and technicians to handle any video tape source 1”, 2”, ¾”, ¾” SP,VHS, Betamax, SVHS, Hi-8, 8mm, Betacam, Betacam SP, laserdisc, DVD, film, mini-DV, DV-Cam, DVC Pro, DVC Pro 50, D-9 Digital S, Digital Betacam, HD Cam, DVC- Pro HD and HDV in either PAL or NTSC.

We can do true 4K digital cinema film scanning at double the usual speed, handling 70mm, 35mm, 16mm, Super 8mm and 8mm.

We can deliver uncompressed SD, HDV, HDCAM, DVC- Pro HD or MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, Quicktime, and Real Media in varying bit rates. We can also do simultaneous transfers: at the highest possible data rate for pristine frame by frame archiving, while digitizing a low resolution data stream for browsing.

Your library can be digitized on a priority basis, 24 hours a day seven days a week until the process is completed, or you can book time on a space available run of schedule basis that is more budget friendly.

Security is paramount to our process. We can readily embed our system at your facility or you can rely on ours. Our plant is blanketed by surveillance cameras with secured entrances and exits. Source material is bar coded and tracked through the entire digitizing procedure from vault to machine and back, so you can monitor progress on line.

Take advantage of Convergence Corporation’s volume digitizing solution today. Call us for your free initial consultation.