DAMsmart DIGITAL NEWS
DAMsmart Digitally Archives Key Army Footage
Plays significant role in Project SPAASSM
SYDNEY, 17 September 2008 – Digital media migration specialists DAMsmart today announced details of their involvement with Project SPAASSM (Special Project for Army Apprentice School Special Material) the Army’s drive to migrate and archive significant historical footage.
Project SPAASSM was instigated after members of the Australian Army Apprentices Association (AAAA) Inc. discovered that the Army Museum at Bandiana (AMB) had a vast quantity of historical material relating to the Army Apprentice School (AAS), which was wasting away in an old warehouse and not available for the general enjoyment of apprentices far and wide.
DAMsmart’s Media Migration Manager Joe Kelly explained, “Peter Thornton of AAAA Inc. approached us with his requirement to digitize, migrate and archive the AMB footage. We took Peter through our full DAMsmart! process and he was impressed enough to give us the job on the spot.”
Kelly and the DAMsmart team created preservation files and DVDs for the Army and Motion JPEG2000 files of all the AMB footage which were then passed to the National Archives of Australia (NAA).
Kelly continued, “The technical and IT team at the NAA then easily integrated the MJPEG2000 filers into their system which proved the accuracy and efficiency of the MJPEG2000 encoding and decoding process. This was particularly well received by the NAA.”
Peter Thornton added, “We were delighted with DAMsmart’s service and performance on Project SPAASSM. They completed all video and film migration to a very high standard which was particularly pleasing when one considers the poor quality of the original material. The entire process was seamless with the DVD material shipped and stored back at AMB and all the new digital tapes dispatched to the National Archive for long term environmental storage.”
With the AMB archive now also presented on DVDs many recruits were finally able to view previously unseen footage.
Peter Thornton concluded, “Project SPAASSM and DAMsmart have been instrumental in setting a new national standard for digital preservation, which is a credit to DAMsmart’s credentials and professionalism in this area. I believe that Army can be very proud that it was instrumental (through its sponsorship of Project SPAASSM) to have helped forge this new standard for Australia. DAMsmart’s professionalism in processing the Museum’s collection and its continued engagement with the project in general has been second to none.”