Australian Caption Centre chooses Snell & Wilcox technology

The Australian Caption Centre is to restore more than 50 classic titles per month, bring irreplaceable music footage to DVD, and provide film archive restoration capabilities to a variety of film producers and distributors with a new Snell & Wilcox Archangel.
The Archangel is a top-of-the-line video archive processor which often provides an end result better than when the footage was first shot.
This restoration system, the only one of its kind in Australia, can correct original material from a variety of formats using motion compensation technology. Archangel Ph.C cleans up, fixes and stabilises in real-time video material that has deteriorated or been damaged by age or other factors. Typical material can be restored within two or three times its running length.
Linda Baker, client services director at Australian Caption Centre, said: "The Archangel will be available to all producers and distributors of film based products. We will be restoring and producing in excess of 50 DVD titles per month from the CFM classics catalogue. We also have interest from a major national film and sound archive that wants to restore a variety of movies and TV programs. Along with this, we are restoring classic music footage such as INXS videos for DVD."
Archangel was developed by Snell & Wilcox to address a growing problem among broadcasters and video libraries that find themselves with valuable assets which are literally degrading. The Archangel can play a key role in saving priceless footage from damage caused by poor storage or simply by time. In addition, the system is also used for commercial applications such as minor repairs to advertising footage.
Mark Parlett, managing director of Snell & Wilcox Asia Pacific Limited, said: "Until now this level of restoration quality could only be achieved by laborious, time-consuming, and expensive processes. Consequently, a lot of material remains unrestored because, although potentially useful, it is too costly to bring up to standard. The Archangel is a valuable investment for companies in the film and video business that need to provide this service."
(GB)