Programme (Archive)

Archive content is becoming increasingly prominent across TV and film, breathing new life into historic footage and creating fresh, compelling stories for today’s audiences. But as demand grows, how are we preserving the past while ensuring archive remains accessible, relevant and commercially viable for the future?

This session explores the evolving role of archive — from preservation, restoration and rights management to the creative and technological processes transforming historic material into topical, engaging content for modern audiences.

The emergence of AI promises many benefits for archive owners, giving them new and more efficient ways to understand the content they have and how to leverage it, as well as new forms of distribution and licensing. However, there is also the danger that in a world where almost anyone is capable of faking footage, there could be an impact on the value of the real thing. So what is the value of stored IP going to be? This panel will take a look at the opportunities and dangers for archives and IP in an increasingly AI-driven world, and will leave attendees with some concrete steps they can take to adapt.

Maintaining content archives involves important considerations around how and where to store your content to ensure it remains accessible in the future; how to tag and catalogue your content so you understand what you have and where to find it; how to digitise content on obsolete physical forms; how to monetise and market your archive; and so on. 

In this session, we hear from content owners and those managing huge archives about how they address these challenges. You’ll find out what the best approach is for creating a safe, organised and accessible archive of content for a range of different user cases.

Go behind the scenes of one of the year’s most ambitious archive restoration projects as we sit down exclusively with the creative team behind Wham! 10 Days in China. This special session explores the extraordinary journey of transforming decades-old footage into a premium Dolby Cinema release. 

From navigating complex archive permissions and copyright clearance to painstaking film grading, remastering and restoration, discover the technical workflows and creative decisions that brought this iconic story back to life. We’ll also examine the role of sound restoration, dubbing and immersive audio in creating a modern cinematic experience while preserving the authenticity of the original recordings. 

Bringing together experts from across archive, post-production and restoration, this exclusive Broadcast Tech Archive Forum session offers a rare insight into the challenges, innovations and collaboration required to breathe new life into historic footage for today’s audiences.

Over the past year, Mnemonica has worked to promote a cultural shift: to treat production, preservation and distribution as a single entity. This could create a living, lasting, and commercially accessible ecosystem, powered by a transition toward a modern legislative framework capable of protecting and exploiting digital assets over time, while also promoting data sovereignty.

Mnemonica Archive, which was launched last year and has since evolved, is a real-world demonstration of how this can be achieved using the cloud. It goes hand in hand with the “Manifesto for the Memory of European Digital Cinema”, Mnemonica’s plea to institutions and rights holders to transform how audiovisual works are stored, governed, and monetised. Piero Costantini, CEO of Mnemonica, will be reporting on this story and what they have discovered so far.