The Videotapes and Films

CERN audiovisual material exists since the early years 1960. About 5’000 videos and 100 films have been identified as part of CERN patrimony, corresponding to more than 6000 hours of recordings. These archives cover important events from the creation of CERN to the start of the LHC. They are a mix of edited masters, conference recordings and footages. Tapes have been stored in CERN Archive and in various AV Production offices.

The CERN Digital Memory project has started to digitize these records in order to ensure its sustainability and to provide public access to the open content. Below is the table of the very diverse types of carriers CERN has been using all along these 50 years.

Multiple units are involved in this project:
– the Information Technology department supervising the process and ensuring digitized files will be stored and preserved on the CERN Cloud;
– the Audiovisual Production laboratory who has produced over time most of the assets to be digitized;
– the Audiovisual Infrastructure unit, in charge of capturing and providing user access to a variety of formats for the current video production;

– Memoriav and INA (Institut National Audiovisuel) who provided expert points of view in multiple occasions.