To read client reviews connected with projects listed below click here: "See What Our Clients Are Saying" 2022 Besides finalizing work digitizing several thousand videotapes for Dotdash Meredith, America’s largest digital and print publisher, we started off the year completing a project for Cornell University’s Dairy Management Group, covering video lectures and classes given by Peter Van Soest, professor emeritus of animal science and one of the most influential scientists of his generation. The content will be used as an online resource for future students as well as researchers in the field. We also had the privilege of digitizing a small but very important collection of audiotape and videotape masters for composer and fiddler, Judy Hyman, daughter of jazz pianist and composer Dick Hyman. We also began a great project with Wegmans Food Markets. Wegmans is the largest family-owned food store in the US. Their collection of over 1,000 videotapes covers 50 years of audiovisual media history on 10 different video carrier formats. For this project we are working with Adobe Cloud systems to upload the media content, along with metadata generated by MTS, to the client’s Adobe DAM system to provide searchable content with rich metadata information, so that employees can easily find and access content for training, educational and post production requirements. We also began a large mass-migration of over 3,000 audio CDs for the University of South Carolina’s music department. We secured the contract by being able to offer USC an extremely affordable rate using our recent investment in a large optical disc mass-migration robot. This robot is capable of migrating large collections of optical discs including: audio CD, video DVD and optical data discs. Ripping disc media by hand involves a lot of labor hours. Robotics dramatically reduce migration costs, allowing us to offer our clients a very affordable price-point with a much shorter turnaround time. In April we began a very interesting project with the Genesee Valley Council of the Arts, digitizing over 600 audiovisual media items covering the rich oral history of Upstate New York, in dozens of multi-media formats. We also began a twelve-month project digitizing over 700 standard audio cassettes for the Wood Valley Temple and Retreat Center in Pahala, Hawaii. Because of the region’s extremely high humidity and the temple’s limited resources, there was no way for the media to be stored in desirable conditions. The cassettes were exposed to 80% relative humidity for over 30 years and have both mold contamination and serious physical deterioration. Our skilled technicians are slowly cleaning and repairing the tapes, one at a time, prior to digitization. This project is a labor of love but will result in the preservation of classes and oral histories of some of the world’s most famous Tibetan Buddhist Dalai Lamas and religious leaders that came through this temple over the last 40 years. We were also pleased to have held again this year, a master-class for the George Eastman Museum’s Selznick School of Film Preservation students in May. This day long class introduces master’s degree students to the fundamentals in video/audio preservation and digitization. In June we began a project digitizing over 1,000 videotapes in seven different legacy formats for the Larouche Legacy Foundation covering the life and political history of Lyndon H. Larouche. Work will continue through the end of 2022. In September we also began two new CLIR “Recordings at Risk” grant-funded projects. The first is digitizing multiple audio formats for the University of Idaho. This collection covers the oral history of minority groups that established and flourished in Idaho. The second is digitization of legacy video and audio formats covering the rich history of the Catawba Indian Nation in Rock Creek, South Carolina. Work on both CLIR Grant projects will carry over through the first quarter of 2023. 2021 Covid continues to blanket operations of many businesses during 2021 but we continue to be blessed with many great projects and clients. We had the pleasure to play a role in a recent Netflix exclusive documentary - “Son’s of Sam: A Decent Into Darkness”. The producers had us digitize the series of original 1970’s reel-to-reel audiotape interviews of David Berkowitz. This four part documentary was the #1 series on Netflix for the month of August. Beginning in July MTS was awarded another large scale multi-year project, this time with the Meredith Corportation. Meredith is an American media conglomerate that owns major media brands such as Time Inc, People, Entertainment Weekly, Instyle and Food & Wine to name a few. The collection consists of several thousand videotapes in 14 different analog and digital videotape formats as well as several digital disk formats. Digital derivatives will be produced for both preservation and the production department's current workflow formats. We also start more work re-mastering video for Carol Goss, President of IAI records and wife of famous free-form Jazz musician Paul Bley. We will re-master more of Carol's video work of her husband Paul performing. In May we were privileged to be asked by the George Eastman Museum's Selznick School of Film Preservation to hold a master class in video and audio digitization. The day-long seminar included proper client needs assessment prior to beginning any project, collection triage and organization and best practices for digitizing both analog and digital video and audio media formats. Through the first quarter of the year, we continued to focus on the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs Grant, to digitize audiovisual materials from the Bix Beiderbecke Museum through the Davenport Iowa Public Library. The project has been very rewarding, preserving lots of great original music, radio programs and personal interviews on videotape, reel-to-reel and cassette audiotape, disk recordings and motion picture films. We also digitized some wonderful interviews on reel to reel audiotape for the estate of classical/jazz pianist, jazz singer and actress, Hazel Scott. Mike Wallace did the interviews of Hazel. They had a special relationship that was quite unique and clearly evident in the interviews. We were also asked by the Genesee Brewery to make a site visit to review a large collection of video and motion picture films documenting the brewery’s history. Media Transfer Service helped to identify the different media types and advise the Genesee Brewery of an initial action plan to secure safe storage and to begin preservation of their collection. 2020 In the middle of March, the Covid 19 pandemic began to spread. MTS was very fortunate to have plenty of work in-house, along with some wonderful new opportunities, which has kept us very busy throughout this year. Below is a brief of our activities throughout this year. We are very grateful to our clients and the opportunities we have had to keep our business strong and stable throughout this challenging period, while having the privilege of working on some wonderful preservation projects. In the first quarter we finished up the digitization of over 1200 hours of media content for both CLIR/Mellon Foundation “Recordings At Risk” grant funded projects with the State University at Geneseo and the Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center within the grant deadlines and within budget. We also finished digitizing 2300 videotapes from the largest bank in the Caribbean Islands well ahead of deadline. We’ve also digitized a rare short film for preservation, featuring actress Karen Allen (Raiders/Animal House) at the start of her career for “Movies On A Shoestring” and we have started the restoration on several mix master original ¼” audiotapes featuring the famous Jazz Singer, Blossom Dearie. The tapes were stored in less than desirable conditions and had fallen off their cored reels into large clumps of tangled and creased balls of tape. The painstaking process of slowly untangling the tapes, removing the creases and re-spooling them onto proper NAB hubs, then baking them has begun. We’re looking forward to the time where we can use our custom Mike Spitz-built ATR-100 deck to digitize these unique tapes for digital re-mastering and commercial release.  At the beginning of March we also began digitizing a collection of audio and videotapes for a new client, the Scholes Library at Alfred University. The project is a South Central Regional Library Council grant-funded project. It includes audio cassettes, reel to reel audiotape, ¾” U-Matic and VHS videotapes digitized to both preservation master and access files. In the summer months along with all our other work, we digitized a one-of-a-kind collection of ¾” U-Matic videotape recordings of Paul Bley, who was instrumental in the free jazz movement of the 1960’s. We were commissioned by Carol Goss, his wife, to digitize the videotapes to uncompressed master digital video files so that her production company, Improvising Arts International, could do post work on the content and re-release the content. In September we began a new project digitizing a unique collection of audio and video from the Davenport Iowa Public Library. We worked with them to apply for an Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs Grant, to digitize audiovisual materials from the Bix Beiderbecke Museum. Bix was an internationally known Jazz horn player in the 1920’s and early 1030’s. The collection includes music recordings of Bix and many unique interviews with other musicians of the time including Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, who discussed Bix, the type of person he was and his musical accomplishments during his short life. The collection includes videotape, cassette and reel-to-reel audiotapes, disk recordings and motion picture films. Content is being digitized to preservation master files and files for streaming online. The project will continue through the end of this year. 2019 In late November, projects with a tight turnaround came in from both the Rochester Institute of Technology and the National Technical Institute for The Deaf. Even with all the work in house, we were able to digitize over 150 hours of content on audio cassette and video formats for these clients, before the end of the year. In June, we began a 12 month project digitizing 2,300 videotapes in eight different formats from the largest bank in the Caribbean Islands. The recordings cover 30 years of the bank’s history, on nine different videotape formats. Tapes document the bank’s growth, advertising commercials and corporate meetings, to training videos and community sponsored events. Preservation files will be produced for all video formats. Back in May of 2019, two of the clients we have been working with in 2018 for grant applications received “Recordings at Risk” grants from the Council of Library and Information Resources, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation. One is the Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center in Buffalo, NY. Since June, Squeaky Wheel has been working with Media Transfer Service to digitize a large collection of ¾” U-Matic videotapes comprising the Axlegrease collection, curated selections of video art and documentary films created by local and national artists that were broadcast on a weekly basis in Western New York between 1987-1999. The other CLIR grant was awarded to the State University at Geneseo. Their collection consists of recordings made by Professor and Ethnomusicologist, James Kimball. In his 40+ year career at SUNY Geneseo, Professor Kimball has documented master traditional musicians of New York State, specializing in the Eastern square dance tradition. These include unique interviews and community performances of notable fiddlers, square dance callers, dance musicians and community members whose knowledge bridges 19th century repertory to contemporary practice of tradition. Original media formats in this large collection include reel to reel audiotape, cassette audiotape and video. Both collections combined total over 1200 hours of content and are being digitized for preservation and shared access. We’re proud to have assisted in helping both these clients receive these grants, of which only 20 in this round were awarded out of hundreds of applicants across the country. Beginning 2019, we started with another round of DVD recovery and migration for Niagara County Community College. We also begin digitizing rare 16mm motion picture films from the archives at Saint John Fisher College. The films center around the past NBA team - the Rochester Royals, covering games and highlights from the 1950's. We also began digitizing videotapes from the Thomas Golisano collection at the Wallace Memorial Library at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Mr. Golisano was founder/CEO of Paychex and a philanthropic billionaire. The videotapes range in format from D2 to Digibeta and cover news and media events featuring Mr. Golisano outside of Paychex. We also digitized video, audio, motion picture film and slides from a private collection to be housed at Cornell University and another private audio collection which included cassette tapes, reel to reel audiotapes and numerous formats of disk recordings including Gray Audograph disk recordings from the 1940's. Digitizing Gray Audograph disks require special equipment and software. They play from the center out and vary in pitch from the start of the recording to the end. Custom turntables allow us to slow the playback speed down to 20RPM  - a middle ground for the speed of these recordings. After transferring the Gray Audograph disks, professional audio processing software enables us to change the pitch throughout the recording so that the final WAV files result is a steady pitch throughout. We also digitized more videotapes from the Brockport State University Writers Forum collection, for preservation and reference. We’d also like to congratulate both Kirk McDowell and Lindsay Kurano, two second-year students with the Selznick School at the George Eastman Museum, who interned with us over the past year. Both have accepted positions at the Library of Congress - Culpeper Facility, where they begin their full-time careers preserving the nation’s audiovisual heritage.  2018 finds us digitizing more videotapes from the Brockport State University Writers Forum collection, for preservation and reference. They include early interviews of famous Pulitzer-Prize winning authors. As qualified vendors for the University of Rochester, a wide variety of various projects have been coming in from different departments. We've worked on several high-profile cases for local law enforcement agencies and law firms. We have also migrated two rounds of content from Niagara County Community College. The College has a large collection of DVD video disks from the Department of Performing Arts library. Because the disks are checked out by students and teachers, a good portion of the collection has contaminates and scratches on the data side and a percentage of the disks are also starting to have data layer fading. Our job is to pull the data off the disks as a file based format for preservation. First, we resurface the disks so the data can be properly read, then we rip the data off the disks with a special data recovery program. To date we have had a 100% recovery rate. Saint John Fisher College has us digitizing another round of reel to reel audiotape media from their Rochester Radio History Collection. These tapes are human interest broadcasts that were produced for public radio, many of which went national. The tapes suffered from a myriad of issues: flaking, soft binder, sticky shed, decaying tape slices and a wide variance of azimuth settings between each broadcast - 15-20 broadcasts per reel of tape. We were able to successfully digitize all of the content without any loss. We also have a major influx of larger consumer collections coming in including: slide collections, video collections and motion picture film collections. One of the consumer projects includes digitization of a wonderful collection of 16mm motion picture films covering the construction, heyday and end of the Rochester subway and trolley system from the 1920's, through 1960's. This content will be shared with the local library system, local transportation museums and local cable access stations for broadcast. We’d also like to congratulate both Katherine Pratt and Conner Simon, two second-year students with the Selznick School at the George Eastman Museum, who interned with us over the past year. Katherine accepted a position at the National Archives and Connor is producing content for local cable access as well as working with Janice Allen at Cinema Arts, Inc.  2017 has us finishing up projects for The Dharma Ocean Foundation, The Sisters of Saint Joseph Archives, as well as a new collection of 3/4" U-Matic tapes from Brockport State University's Writer's Forum. The shows were produced in the 1960's through 1980's for local cable access. Many famous Pulitzer Prize winning writers and poets were featured on the show, including names such as W. S Merwin, Richard Wilbur, Isaac Bashevis Singer, John Ashbery and Anne Sexton as well as other historically significant writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Hayden, Isaac Asimov and Gene Roddenberry just to name a few. Some of these programs were on tape formats that required treatment prior to digitizing and/or very special signal processing to stabilize the video signal prior to digitization. Now these programs can be enjoyed by the general public as well as researchers for years to come. We also started scanning a second round of several thousand still image assets from the Caesarea collection for the Universities of Cornell and Cincinnati. St. John Fisher College has sent us another round of reel-to-reel audiotape digitizing for their Rochester Radio History Collection. Progressive Insurance has also commissioned us to digitize another round of audiovisual media in their corporate archives collection. We’d also like to congratulate Brett Scheuermann, our second-year student with the Selznick School at the George Eastman Museum, who interned with us over the past year. Brett took a position with Sony Memnon. Brett is a key player for Memnon’s film archiving services based at the Media Digitization & Preservation Initiative at Indiana University, one of the largest digitizing projects in the country. 2016 Larger projects of note include high-resolution scans of over 8,000 still images including slides, large format transparencies, large format photos and 35mm roll film negatives. These images document the excavation of the Promontory Palace, built by King Herod in 25 BC in the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima (located on the shores of Israel). The dig was co-funded by Cornell University and the University of Cincinnati. As the palace was unearthed photographs were taken, documenting the excavation and the palace. The palace was then buried again to preserve it. The scanned photos will serve researchers and scholars for generations to come. Another large project has us digitizing 1,000 videotapes from the Dharma Ocean Foundation, one of the most well respected Tibetan Buddhist teaching and meditation foundations in America. Digital derivatives will be used for both educational streaming now and archival master preservation files for future content preservation. We also digitized another round of promotional and advertising assets from Progressive Insurance. We've started moving digital information from over 1,000 aging DVD video disks to file based format for the University of Rochester's Mount Hope Family Center. We're also digitizing a collection of oral history interviews on cassette audiotape and historical 16mm film for the Sisters of Saint Joseph archives. We've upgraded our video capabilities adding several legacy videotape formats to accommodate new client requests. We're also pleased to announce a new partnership with the George Eastman Museum's Selznick School of Film Preservation - one of the highest regarded schools for film preservation and archiving in the world. MTS hires masters degree students to help with the growing workload at MTS. The students work in a real world environment that is related to their degree and MTS gets help from serious young professionals that are up to speed in many aspects of archiving. 2015 finds us working on more content from Georgetown University, and the estate archives of well-known Jazz musician - Don Elliott. New projects include digitization of video and audio oral history interviews from the organization - Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project. Based in Seattle Washington, they are one of the largest repositories of Japanese American history in the country. Video formats we digitize to archival master file and reference file are being posted to the web and available here: http://ddr.densho.org/   MTS also took on a project digitizing the archives of commercial producer Steven Vaughan. Back in the '70's and '80's, Steve was a very successful commercial producer on contract with companies such as US Air, Channel Fragrances, Giorgio Armani, Fanta, Nestle, Anheuser Busch, and Chrysler to name a few. His 1" master videotapes had taken on mold contamination and moderate sticky shed breakdown. After treating the tapes, we transferred them to archival digital master files and reference files. By September, our new 2,200 square foot facility was operational with plenty of projects to work on. The second half of 2015 found us continuing with another round of historic interviews of Japanese Americans interned during WWII from the Densho organization. At the same time we began a new project digitizing several hundred video and audio tape interviews of Holocaust Survivors from WWII for the Jewish Federation. Digital derivatives will be used as part of an educational curriculum for city schools as well as master archival file versions for preservation. We digitized another round of media from the archives of the corporate offices of Progressive Insurance. We also digitized original music produced for NASA that was played to astronauts while on missions during the 80's like Skylab. This music was also inserted into landers and probes as part of a time capsule representation. 2014 continued our success. The Walter Williams PBS documentary finally finished in February. Overall - a very nice piece to go to broadcast in the spring of 2015. Continuing projects for the Memorial Art Gallery, St. John Fisher College, Georgetown University and Progressive Insurance kept a steady flow of new audiovisual materials coming in. New projects included the first round of digitizing unique video and audiotape masters from the estate of well known Jazz Musician; Don Elliott. With the help of his friend, Les Paul, Don built one of the first multi-track recording studios in the country. Content from his estate includes live public concerts and private jam sessions in his studios, which include friends such as jazz greats: Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Phil Bodner and Big Joe Williams. 2013 was our busiest year yet. Projects for the PBS documentary on Walter Williams, Memorial Art Gallery, St John Fisher College, University of Rochester mentioned below were ongoing. Highlights of new projects includes: digitization of both video and audio assets from the Jean Craighead George estate (famous children book author), as well as 16mm motion picture film from the 1930's and 1940's for Camp Pathfinder - the famous canoe camp based in Algonquin Provincial Park. We also began a multi-year project with the Department of Neurology at the University of Georgetown, digitizing their holdings of over 1800 hours of very valuable videotaped lab studies on brain plasticity. MTS was commissioned to digitize Georgetown's collection that spans 40 years on over 10 different legacy videotape formats for both laboratory coding and long-term preservation. We also began a long term project with Progressive Insurance to digitize all of their archival audiovisual media assets for reference, re-use in future advertising campaigns and preservation. Finally we digitized camera original 16mm film taken by famed ornithologist Gladys Gordon Fry, documenting her trip as one of the first woman to explore Trinidad and Tobago as an ornithologist back in the 1930's. Gladys worked for the Museum of Natural History in New York City and was know as the "Bird Lady of Central Park" for her unique bird watching tours through Central Park.

What’s New at MTS

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What’s New at MTS

To   read   client   reviews   connected   with   projects   listed below click here: " See What Our Clients Are Saying " 2022     Besides    finalizing    work    digitizing    several    thousand videotapes   for   Dotdash   Meredith,   America’s   largest   digital and   print   publisher,   we   started   off   the   year   completing   a project   for   Cornell   University’s   Dairy   Management   Group, covering    video    lectures    and    classes    given    by    Peter    Van Soest,   professor   emeritus   of   animal   science   and   one   of   the most   influential   scientists   of   his   generation.   The   content   will be   used   as   an   online   resource   for   future   students   as   well   as researchers    in    the    field.    We    also    had    the    privilege    of digitizing   a   small   but   very   important   collection   of   audiotape and    videotape    masters    for    composer    and    fiddler,    Judy Hyman,   daughter   of   jazz   pianist   and   composer   Dick   Hyman. We   also   began   a   great   project   with   Wegmans   Food   Markets. Wegmans   is   the   largest   family-owned   food   store   in   the   US. Their   collection   of   over   1,000   videotapes   covers   50   years   of audiovisual    media    history    on    10    different    video    carrier formats.   For   this   project   we   are   working   with   Adobe   Cloud systems   to   upload   the   media   content,   along   with   metadata generated   by   MTS,   to   the   client’s   Adobe   DAM   system   to provide   searchable   content   with   rich   metadata   information, so   that   employees   can   easily   find   and   access   content   for training,    educational    and    post    production    requirements. We   also   began   a   large   mass-migration   of   over   3,000   audio CDs      for      the      University      of      South      Carolina’s      music department.   We   secured   the   contract   by   being   able   to   offer USC     an     extremely     affordable     rate     using     our     recent investment    in    a    large    optical    disc    mass-migration    robot. This   robot   is   capable   of   migrating   large   collections   of   optical discs   including:   audio   CD,   video   DVD   and   optical   data   discs. Ripping   disc   media   by   hand   involves   a   lot   of   labor   hours. Robotics   dramatically   reduce   migration   costs,   allowing   us   to offer   our   clients   a   very   affordable   price-point   with   a   much shorter     turnaround     time.     In     April     we     began     a     very interesting   project   with   the   Genesee   Valley   Council   of   the Arts,   digitizing   over   600   audiovisual   media   items   covering the    rich    oral    history    of    Upstate    New    York,    in    dozens    of multi-media     formats.     We     also     began     a     twelve-month project   digitizing   over   700   standard   audio   cassettes   for   the Wood   Valley   Temple   and   Retreat   Center   in   Pahala,   Hawaii. Because   of   the   region’s   extremely   high   humidity   and   the temple’s   limited   resources,   there   was   no   way   for   the   media to   be   stored   in   desirable   conditions.   The   cassettes   were exposed   to   80%   relative   humidity   for   over   30   years   and have     both     mold     contamination     and     serious     physical deterioration.    Our    skilled    technicians    are    slowly    cleaning and   repairing   the   tapes,   one   at   a   time,   prior   to   digitization. This    project    is    a    labor    of    love    but    will    result    in    the preservation   of   classes   and   oral   histories   of   some   of   the world’s    most    famous    Tibetan    Buddhist    Dalai    Lamas    and religious   leaders   that   came   through   this   temple   over   the last   40   years.   We   were   also   pleased   to   have   held   again   this year,    a    master-class    for    the    George    Eastman    Museum’s Selznick   School   of   Film   Preservation   students   in   May.   This day   long   class   introduces   master’s   degree   students   to   the fundamentals   in   video/audio   preservation   and   digitization. In   June   we   began   a   project   digitizing   over   1,000   videotapes in   seven   different   legacy   formats   for   the   Larouche   Legacy Foundation   covering   the   life   and   political   history   of   Lyndon H.   Larouche.   Work   will   continue   through   the   end   of   2022.   In September    we    also    began    two    new    CLIR    “Recordings    at Risk”   grant-funded   projects.   The   first   is   digitizing   multiple audio   formats   for   the   University   of   Idaho.   This   collection covers   the   oral   history   of   minority   groups   that   established and   flourished   in   Idaho.   The   second   is   digitization   of   legacy video   and   audio   formats   covering   the   rich   history   of   the Catawba   Indian   Nation   in   Rock   Creek,   South   Carolina.   Work on   both   CLIR   Grant   projects   will   carry   over   through   the   first quarter of 2023. 2021    Covid    continues    to    blanket    operations    of    many businesses   during   2021   but   we   continue   to   be   blessed with    many    great    projects    and    clients.    We    had    the pleasure    to    play    a    role    in    a    recent    Netflix    exclusive documentary   -   “Son’s   of   Sam:   A   Decent   Into   Darkness”.   The producers   had   us   digitize   the   series   of   original   1970’s   reel- to-reel   audiotape   interviews   of   David   Berkowitz.   This   four part    documentary    was    the    #1    series    on    Netflix    for    the month    of    August.    Beginning    in    July    MTS    was    awarded another   large   scale   multi-year   project,   this   time   with   the Meredith    Corportation.    Meredith    is    an    American    media conglomerate   that   owns   major   media   brands   such   as   Time Inc,   People,   Entertainment   Weekly,   Instyle   and   Food   &   Wine to   name   a   few.   The   collection   consists   of   several   thousand videotapes    in    14    different    analog    and    digital    videotape formats    as    well    as    several    digital    disk    formats.    Digital derivatives   will   be   produced   for   both   preservation   and   the production    department's    current    workflow    formats.    We also    start    more    work    re-mastering    video    for    Carol    Goss, President   of   IAI   records   and   wife   of   famous   free-form   Jazz musician   Paul   Bley.   We   will   re-master   more   of   Carol's   video work    of    her    husband    Paul    performing.    In    May    we    were privileged   to   be   asked   by   the   George   Eastman   Museum's Selznick   School   of   Film   Preservation   to   hold   a   master   class in    video    and    audio    digitization.    The    day-long    seminar included   proper   client   needs   assessment   prior   to   beginning any    project,    collection    triage    and    organization    and    best practices   for   digitizing   both   analog   and   digital   video   and audio   media   formats.    Through   the   first   quarter   of   the   year, we   continued   to   focus   on   the   Iowa   Department   of   Cultural Affairs   Grant,   to   digitize   audiovisual   materials   from   the   Bix Beiderbecke   Museum   through   the   Davenport   Iowa   Public Library.   The   project   has   been   very   rewarding,   preserving lots   of   great   original   music,   radio   programs   and   personal interviews      on      videotape,      reel-to-reel      and      cassette audiotape,    disk    recordings    and    motion    picture    films.     We also    digitized    some    wonderful    interviews    on    reel    to    reel audiotape   for   the   estate   of   classical/jazz   pianist,   jazz   singer and   actress,   Hazel   Scott.   Mike   Wallace   did   the   interviews   of Hazel.   They   had   a   special   relationship   that   was   quite   unique and   clearly   evident   in   the   interviews.   We   were   also   asked   by the   Genesee   Brewery   to   make   a   site   visit   to   review   a   large collection   of   video   and   motion   picture   films   documenting the    brewery’s    history.    Media    Transfer    Service    helped    to identify   the   different   media   types   and   advise   the   Genesee Brewery   of   an   initial   action   plan   to   secure   safe   storage   and to begin preservation of their collection. 2020   In   the   middle   of   March,   the   Covid   19   pandemic began   to   spread.   MTS   was   very   fortunate   to   have   plenty of    work    in-house,    along    with    some    wonderful    new opportunities,   which   has   kept   us   very   busy   throughout this   year.   Below   is   a   brief   of   our   activities   throughout this   year.   We   are   very   grateful   to   our   clients   and   the opportunities   we   have   had   to   keep   our   business   strong and    stable    throughout    this    challenging    period,    while having    the    privilege    of    working    on    some    wonderful preservation projects. In   the   first   quarter   we   finished   up   the   digitization   of   over 1200     hours     of     media     content     for     both     CLIR/Mellon Foundation   “Recordings   At   Risk”   grant   funded   projects   with the    State    University    at    Geneseo    and    the    Squeaky    Wheel Film   and   Media   Art   Center   within   the   grant   deadlines   and within   budget.   We   also   finished   digitizing   2300   videotapes from   the   largest   bank   in   the   Caribbean   Islands   well   ahead of    deadline.    We’ve    also    digitized    a    rare    short    film    for preservation,   featuring   actress   Karen   Allen   (Raiders/Animal House)    at    the    start    of    her    career    for    “Movies    On    A Shoestring”   and   we   have   started   the   restoration   on   several mix    master    original    ¼”    audiotapes    featuring    the    famous Jazz   Singer,   Blossom   Dearie.   The   tapes   were   stored   in   less than    desirable    conditions    and    had    fallen    off    their    cored reels   into   large   clumps   of   tangled   and   creased   balls   of   tape. The    painstaking    process    of    slowly    untangling    the    tapes, removing   the   creases   and   re-spooling   them   onto   proper NAB    hubs,    then    baking    them    has    begun.    We’re    looking forward   to   the   time   where   we   can   use   our   custom   Mike Spitz-built   ATR-100   deck   to   digitize   these   unique   tapes   for digital     re-mastering     and     commercial     release.          At     the beginning   of   March   we   also   began   digitizing   a   collection   of audio   and   videotapes   for   a   new   client,   the   Scholes   Library at   Alfred   University.   The   project   is   a   South   Central   Regional Library    Council    grant-funded    project.    It    includes    audio cassettes,    reel    to    reel    audiotape,    ¾”    U-Matic    and    VHS videotapes     digitized     to     both     preservation     master     and access   files.   In   the   summer   months   along   with   all   our   other work,   we   digitized   a   one-of-a-kind   collection   of   ¾”   U-Matic videotape   recordings   of   Paul   Bley,   who   was   instrumental   in the     free     jazz     movement     of     the     1960’s.     We     were commissioned    by    Carol    Goss,    his    wife,    to    digitize    the videotapes   to   uncompressed   master   digital   video   files   so that       her       production       company,       Improvising       Arts International,   could   do   post   work   on   the   content   and   re- release   the   content.   In   September   we   began   a   new   project digitizing   a   unique   collection   of   audio   and   video   from   the Davenport   Iowa   Public   Library.   We   worked   with   them   to apply   for   an   Iowa   Department   of   Cultural   Affairs   Grant,   to digitize    audiovisual    materials    from    the    Bix    Beiderbecke Museum.   Bix   was   an   internationally   known   Jazz   horn   player in   the   1920’s   and   early   1030’s.   The   collection   includes   music recordings   of   Bix   and   many   unique   interviews   with   other musicians   of   the   time   including   Jelly   Roll   Morton   and   Louis Armstrong,   who   discussed   Bix,   the   type   of   person   he   was and   his   musical   accomplishments   during   his   short   life.   The collection     includes     videotape,     cassette     and     reel-to-reel audiotapes,     disk     recordings     and     motion     picture     films. Content   is   being   digitized   to   preservation   master   files   and files   for   streaming   online.   The   project   will   continue   through the end of this year. 2019   In   late   November,   projects   with   a   tight   turnaround came   in   from   both   the   Rochester   Institute   of   Technology and   the   National   Technical   Institute   for   The   Deaf.   Even   with all   the   work   in   house,   we   were   able   to   digitize   over   150 hours   of   content   on   audio   cassette   and   video   formats   for these   clients,   before   the   end   of   the   year.   In   June,   we   began a    12    month    project    digitizing    2,300    videotapes    in    eight different   formats   from   the   largest   bank   in   the   Caribbean Islands.   The   recordings   cover   30   years   of   the   bank’s   history, on   nine   different   videotape   formats.   Tapes   document   the bank’s     growth,     advertising     commercials     and     corporate meetings,    to    training    videos    and    community    sponsored events.    Preservation    files    will    be    produced    for    all    video formats.   Back   in   May   of   2019,   two   of   the   clients   we   have been   working   with   in   2018   for   grant   applications   received “Recordings   at   Risk”   grants   from   the   Council   of   Library   and Information       Resources,       sponsored       by       the       Mellon Foundation.   One   is   the   Squeaky   Wheel   Film   and   Media   Art Center   in   Buffalo,   NY.   Since   June,   Squeaky   Wheel   has   been working    with    Media    Transfer    Service    to    digitize    a    large collection     of     ¾”     U-Matic     videotapes     comprising     the Axlegrease   collection,   curated   selections   of   video   art   and documentary   films   created   by   local   and   national   artists   that were   broadcast   on   a   weekly   basis   in   Western   New   York between   1987-1999.   The   other   CLIR   grant   was   awarded   to the   State   University   at   Geneseo.   Their   collection   consists   of recordings     made     by     Professor     and     Ethnomusicologist, James   Kimball.   In   his   40+   year   career   at   SUNY   Geneseo, Professor     Kimball     has     documented     master     traditional musicians    of    New    York    State,    specializing    in    the    Eastern square    dance    tradition.    These    include    unique    interviews and   community   performances   of   notable   fiddlers,   square dance   callers,   dance   musicians   and   community   members whose     knowledge     bridges     19th     century     repertory     to contemporary   practice   of   tradition.   Original   media   formats in    this    large    collection    include    reel    to    reel    audiotape, cassette   audiotape   and   video.   Both   collections   combined total   over   1200   hours   of   content   and   are   being   digitized   for preservation    and    shared    access.    We’re    proud    to    have assisted   in   helping   both   these   clients   receive   these   grants, of    which    only    20    in    this    round    were    awarded    out    of hundreds   of   applicants   across   the   country.   Beginning   2019, we    started    with    another    round    of    DVD    recovery    and migration   for   Niagara   County   Community   College.   We   also begin   digitizing   rare   16mm   motion   picture   films   from   the archives    at    Saint    John    Fisher    College.    The    films    center around   the   past   NBA   team   -   the   Rochester   Royals,   covering games    and    highlights    from    the    1950's.    We    also    began digitizing   videotapes   from   the   Thomas   Golisano   collection at   the   Wallace   Memorial   Library   at   the   Rochester   Institute of   Technology.   Mr.   Golisano   was   founder/CEO   of   Paychex and    a    philanthropic    billionaire.    The    videotapes    range    in format    from    D2    to    Digibeta    and    cover    news    and    media events   featuring   Mr.   Golisano   outside   of   Paychex.   We   also digitized   video,   audio,   motion   picture   film   and   slides   from   a private   collection   to   be   housed   at   Cornell   University   and another    private    audio    collection    which    included    cassette tapes,   reel   to   reel   audiotapes   and   numerous   formats   of disk   recordings   including   Gray   Audograph   disk   recordings from   the   1940's.   Digitizing   Gray   Audograph   disks   require special   equipment   and   software.   They   play   from   the   center out   and   vary   in   pitch   from   the   start   of   the   recording   to   the end.   Custom   turntables   allow   us   to   slow   the   playback   speed down   to   20RPM      -   a   middle   ground   for   the   speed   of   these recordings.    After    transferring    the    Gray    Audograph    disks, professional     audio     processing     software     enables     us     to change   the   pitch   throughout   the   recording   so   that   the   final WAV    files    result    is    a    steady    pitch    throughout.    We    also digitized     more     videotapes     from     the     Brockport     State University   Writers   Forum   collection,   for   preservation   and reference. We’d    also    like    to    congratulate    both    Kirk    McDowell    and Lindsay   Kurano,   two   second-year   students   with   the   Selznick School   at   the   George   Eastman   Museum,   who   interned   with us   over   the   past   year.   Both   have   accepted   positions   at   the Library   of   Congress   -   Culpeper   Facility,   where   they   begin their   full-time   careers   preserving   the   nation’s   audiovisual heritage.   2018     finds     us     digitizing     more     videotapes     from     the Brockport    State    University    Writers    Forum    collection,    for preservation   and   reference.   They   include   early   interviews   of famous   Pulitzer-Prize   winning   authors.   As   qualified   vendors for   the   University   of   Rochester,   a   wide   variety   of   various projects   have   been   coming   in   from   different   departments. We've   worked   on   several   high-profile   cases   for   local   law enforcement     agencies     and     law     firms.     We     have     also migrated    two    rounds    of    content    from    Niagara    County Community   College.   The   College   has   a   large   collection   of DVD   video   disks   from   the   Department   of   Performing   Arts library.   Because   the   disks   are   checked   out   by   students   and teachers,   a   good   portion   of   the   collection   has   contaminates and   scratches   on   the   data   side   and   a   percentage   of   the disks   are   also   starting   to   have   data   layer   fading.   Our   job   is to   pull   the   data   off   the   disks   as   a   file   based   format   for preservation.   First,   we   resurface   the   disks   so   the   data   can be   properly   read,   then   we   rip   the   data   off   the   disks   with   a special    data    recovery    program.    To    date    we    have    had    a 100%    recovery    rate.    Saint    John    Fisher    College    has    us digitizing   another   round   of   reel   to   reel   audiotape   media from   their   Rochester   Radio   History   Collection.   These   tapes are    human    interest    broadcasts    that    were    produced    for public    radio,    many    of    which    went    national.    The    tapes suffered   from   a   myriad   of   issues:   flaking,   soft   binder,   sticky shed,   decaying   tape   slices   and   a   wide   variance   of   azimuth settings    between    each    broadcast    -    15-20    broadcasts    per reel   of   tape.   We   were   able   to   successfully   digitize   all   of   the content   without   any   loss.   We   also   have   a   major   influx   of larger    consumer    collections    coming    in    including:    slide collections,     video     collections     and     motion     picture     film collections.     One     of     the     consumer     projects     includes digitization    of    a    wonderful    collection    of    16mm    motion picture   films   covering   the   construction,   heyday   and   end   of the   Rochester   subway   and   trolley   system   from   the   1920's, through   1960's.   This   content   will   be   shared   with   the   local library    system,    local    transportation    museums    and    local cable access stations for broadcast. We’d    also    like    to    congratulate    both    Katherine    Pratt    and Conner   Simon,   two   second-year   students   with   the   Selznick School   at   the   George   Eastman   Museum,   who   interned   with us   over   the   past   year.   Katherine   accepted   a   position   at   the National   Archives   and   Connor   is   producing   content   for   local cable   access   as   well   as   working   with   Janice   Allen   at   Cinema Arts, Inc.  2017   has   us   finishing   up   projects   for   The   Dharma   Ocean Foundation,   The   Sisters   of   Saint   Joseph   Archives,   as   well   as a   new   collection   of   3/4"   U-Matic   tapes   from   Brockport   State University's   Writer's   Forum.   The   shows   were   produced   in the    1960's    through    1980's    for    local    cable    access.    Many famous    Pulitzer    Prize    winning    writers    and    poets    were featured    on    the    show,    including    names    such    as    W.    S Merwin,     Richard     Wilbur,     Isaac     Bashevis     Singer,     John Ashbery    and    Anne    Sexton    as    well    as    other    historically significant   writers   such   as   Allen   Ginsberg,   Robert   Hayden, Isaac   Asimov   and   Gene   Roddenberry   just   to   name   a   few. Some    of    these    programs    were    on    tape    formats    that required   treatment   prior   to   digitizing   and/or   very   special signal    processing    to    stabilize    the    video    signal    prior    to digitization.   Now   these   programs   can   be   enjoyed   by   the general   public   as   well   as   researchers   for   years   to   come.   We also   started   scanning   a   second   round   of   several   thousand still    image    assets    from    the    Caesarea    collection    for    the Universities    of    Cornell    and    Cincinnati.    St.    John    Fisher College   has   sent   us   another   round   of   reel-to-reel   audiotape digitizing     for     their     Rochester     Radio     History     Collection. Progressive   Insurance   has   also   commissioned   us   to   digitize another    round    of    audiovisual    media    in    their    corporate archives collection. We’d    also    like    to    congratulate    Brett    Scheuermann,    our second-year   student   with   the   Selznick   School   at   the   George Eastman   Museum,   who   interned   with   us   over   the   past   year. Brett    took    a    position    with    Sony    Memnon.    Brett    is    a    key player   for   Memnon’s   film   archiving   services   based   at   the Media     Digitization     &     Preservation     Initiative     at     Indiana University,    one    of    the    largest    digitizing    projects    in    the country. 2016   L arger   projects   of   note   include   high-resolution   scans of    over    8,000    still    images    including    slides,    large    format transparencies,    large    format    photos    and    35mm    roll    film negatives.   These   images   document   the   excavation   of   the Promontory   Palace,   built   by   King   Herod   in   25   BC   in   the ancient   city   of   Caesarea   Maritima   (located   on   the   shores   of Israel).   The   dig   was   co-funded   by   Cornell   University   and   the University    of    Cincinnati.    As    the    palace    was    unearthed photographs   were   taken,   documenting   the   excavation   and the   palace.   The   palace   was   then   buried   again   to   preserve   it. The   scanned   photos   will   serve   researchers   and   scholars   for generations   to   come.   Another   large   project   has   us   digitizing 1,000   videotapes   from   the   Dharma   Ocean   Foundation,   one of   the   most   well   respected   Tibetan   Buddhist   teaching   and meditation   foundations   in   America.   Digital   derivatives   will be   used   for   both   educationa l   streaming   now   and   archival master   preservation   files   for   future   content   preservation. We     also     digitized     another     round     of     promotional     and advertising     assets     from     Progressive     Insurance.     We've started   moving   digital   information   from   over   1,000   aging DVD   video   disks   to   file   based   format   for   the   University   of Rochester's     Mount     Hope     Family     Center.     We're     also digitizing   a   collection   of   oral   history   interviews   on   cassette audiotape   and   historical   16mm   film   for   the   Sisters   of   Saint Joseph    archives.    We've    upgraded    our    video    capabilities adding   several   legacy   videotape   formats   to   accommodate new   client   requests.   We're   also   pleased   to   announce   a   new partnership   with   the   George   Eastman   Museum's   Selznick School   of   Film   Preservation   -   one   of   the   highest   regarded schools   for   film   preservation   and   archiving   in   the   world. MTS    hires    masters    degree    students    to    help    with    the growing   workload   at   MTS.   The   students   work   in   a   real   world environment   that   is   related   to   their   degree   and   MTS   gets help   from   serious   young   professionals   that   are   up   to   speed in many aspects of archiving. 2015    finds   us   working   on   more   content   from   Georgetown University,    and    the    estate    archives    of    well-known    Jazz musician   -   Don   Elliott.   New   projects   include   digitization   of video      and      audio      oral      history      interviews      from      the organization    -    Densho:    The    Japanese    American    Legacy Project.   Based   in   Seattle   Washington,   they   are   one   of   the largest    repositories    of    Japanese    American    history    in    the country.   Video   formats   we   digitize   to   archival   master   file and    reference    file    are    being    posted    to    the    web    and available   here:   http://ddr.densho.org/         MTS   also   took   on   a project    digitizing    the    archives    of    commercial    producer Steven   Vaughan.   Back   in   the   '70's   and   '80's,   Steve   was   a very    successful    commercial    producer    on    contract    with companies    such    as    US    Air,    Channel    Fragrances,    Giorgio Armani,    Fanta,    Nestle,    Anheuser    Busch,    and    Chrysler    to name   a   few.   His   1"   master   videotapes   had   taken   on   mold contamination   and   moderate   sticky   shed   breakdown.   After treating   the   tapes,   we   transferred   them   to   archival   digital master    files    and    reference    files.    By    September,    our    new 2,200    square    foot    facility    was    operational    with    plenty    of projects    to    work    on.    The    second    half    of    2015    found    us continuing    with    another    round    of    historic    interviews    of Japanese   Americans   interned   during   WWII   from   the   Densho organization.   At   the   same   time   we   began   a   new   project digitizing   several   hundred   video   and   audio   tape   interviews of   Holocaust   Survivors   from   WWII   for   the   Jewish   Federation. Digital   derivatives   will   be   used   as   part   of   an   educational curriculum   for   city   schools   as   well   as   master   archival   file versions   for   preservation.   We   digitized   another   round   of media     from     the     archives     of     the     corporate     offices     of Progressive    Insurance.    We    also    digitized    original    music produced   for   NASA   that   was   played   to   astronauts   while   on missions   during   the   80's   like   Skylab.   This   music   was   also inserted   into   landers   and   probes   as   part   of   a   time   capsule representation. 2014    continued    our    success.    The    Walter    Williams    PBS documentary   finally   finished   in   February.   Overall   -   a   very nice    piece    to    go    to    broadcast    in    the    spring    of    2015. Continuing   projects   for   the   Memorial   Art   Gallery,   St.   John Fisher    College,    Georgetown    University    and    Progressive Insurance   kept   a   steady   flow   of   new   audiovisual   materials coming     in.     New     projects     included     the     first     round     of digitizing    unique    video    and    audiotape    masters    from    the estate   of   well   known   Jazz   Musician;   Don   Elliott.   With   the help   of   his   friend,   Les   Paul,   Don   built   one   of   the   first   multi- track   recording   studios   in   the   country.   Content   from   his estate   includes   live   public   concerts   and   private   jam   sessions in   his   studios,   which   include   friends   such   as   jazz   greats:   Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Phil Bodner and Big Joe Williams. 2013    was    our    busiest    year    yet.    Projects    for    the    PBS documentary   on   Walter   Williams,   Memorial   Art   Gallery,   St John    Fisher    College,    University    of    Rochester    mentioned below   were   ongoing.   Highlights   of   new   projects   includes: digitization   of   both   video   and   audio   assets   from   the   Jean Craighead   George   estate   (famous   children   book   author),   as well    as    16mm    motion    picture    film    from    the    1930's    and 1940's   for   Camp   Pathfinder   -   the   famous   canoe   camp   based in   Algonquin   Provincial   Park.   We   also   began   a   multi-year project   with   the   Department   of   Neurology   at   the   University of   Georgetown,   digitizing   their   holdings   of   over   1800   hours of   very   valuable   videotaped   lab   studies   on   brain   plasticity. MTS   was   commissioned   to   digitize   Georgetown's   collection that   spans   40   years   on   over   10   different   legacy   videotape formats      for      both      laboratory      coding      and      long-term preservation.    We    also    began    a    long    term    project    with Progressive     Insurance     to     digitize     all     of     their     archival audiovisual    media    assets    for    reference,    re-use    in    future advertising   campaigns   and   preservation.   Finally   we   digitized camera   original   16mm   film   taken   by   famed   ornithologist Gladys   Gordon   Fry,   documenting   her   trip   as   one   of   the   first woman   to   explore   Trinidad   and   Tobago   as   an   ornithologist back    in    the    1930's.    Gladys    worked    for    the    Museum    of Natural   History   in   New   York   City   and   was   know   as   the   "Bird Lady   of   Central   Park"   for   her   unique   bird   watching   tours through Central Park.
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