FIAT NORDIC MINISEMINAR IN STOCKHOLM

Once again FIAT has organized a miniseminar for the Nordic countries in Europe, thus pursuing the idea of smaller regional meetings where the language problem is of less importance. This time the aim was for the participants to visit institutions in Stockholm, of interest to the TV companies in question, and secondly to have an opportunity of being informed about digital archives and digital information.

The participants came from most Nordic countries, including the Faroe Islands, and the Seminar languages were mainly Norwegian and Swedish. The progamme lasted from the afternoon of Sunday, February 23rd, until the morning of Tuesday the 25th.

The first day the participants gatherred at the Swedish Filminstitute near the SVT building to hear the latest about the efforts made by the Filminstitute to restore not only black and white movie pictures but also colour films, with the help not only by the so called FICA method - including a drying and freezing procedure - but also by digital means in the process.

Morning of the second day was devoted to the Swedish National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images, ALB, in their premises, also situated near by the Swedish Television location. The participants were given an explanation of the state of affairs concerning copyright law, the extent and the content of the collections, how to find material within them and problems concerning storage, not least when it comes to the increasing amount of obsolete formats.

In the afternoon the archives of the SVT demonstrated their current working practices, including registration and cataloguing, converting into new systems, service to customers and preparations and development for the future.

On Tuesday morning there was a general survey of the digital world today and tomorrow and finally a presentation of the European co-project Euromedia, emphasising the development and integration of content based methods for indexing, retrieval and navigation, combined with integration of techniques for efficient digital video browsing and archiving and the analysis and testing of new telecommunication services.

The participants seemed very satisfied with the outcome of the miniseminar and the FIAT President Tedd Johansen announced more of this kind in other regions.

STELLAN NORRLANDER

From the Swedish Film Institute

Ingun Olsen and Elsa Thomsen from the Faroe Islands with Tedd Johansen.