FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2025

This project addresses the urgent need to preserve an important piece of heritage at risk: approximately 10K hours of RAI news programs produced between 1952 and 1985, currently stored on 350K 16mm reels. These reels document the formative years of Italian television and are threatened by deterioration due to the vinegar syndrome, necessitating immediate physical and digital preservation.

The project goals include having a digital equivalent of film reels for long term digital preservation, having digital copies suitable to any repurpose in current media environments, and preserving the cleaned and repaired films in the best possible condition, to stop physical deterioration.

The project, slated for completion in early 2026 with partial funding from the Ministry of Culture, employs state-of-the-art digitisation technology to create high-quality digital versions in standard, interoperable formats. RAI oversees the entire process, coordinating external providers and ensuring rigorous technical quality control, logistics management, and the creation of synchronised audio-video clips.

A key aspect is the application of AI techniques for automated metadata generation, including transcriptions, facial recognition, summaries and more. This metadata, alongside the digitised content, is integrated into RAI’s content management system, enabling future reuse in production and research.

A low-resolution version of the entire collection, including metadata, will be made accessible for research and educational purpose, through a national digital platform, to public bodies and universities.

This end-to-end migration project, executed within a constrained timeframe, represents a significant undertaking involving diverse teams and a competitive public tender process.

The integration of AI-powered metadata extraction, the commitment to both long-term preservation and immediate exploitation make this project a compelling case study in digital heritage preservation.