May 9, 2007

DELUXE ACQUIRES IMAGE TREASURY

The acquisition includes the entire Seattle, Washington, and Burbank, CA, assets and staff of Image Treasury, including founder Andy Pratt, who has been named VP, Deluxe Digital Media Film and Negative Services.

A few years ago, Pratt found that studio archivists were alarmed that video masters of TV series created during the 1980s were disintegrating. These series, averaging 22 - 24 episodes per season, were shot on 35mm film, transferred to videotape and edited for broadcast. Creating new HD masters from the archived original negative was one solution, but since the negative was never conformed, almost 1.5 million feet of film per season would have to be matched - a daunting task. Pratt designed a cost-effective system to solve this problem. He also introduced other services to content owners that were designed to help them reduce storage costs through element consolidation. Footage not used in the final edit of a project could also be made available for licensing.  

"Deluxe's goal is to take content in any form and manipulate, distribute and store it in whatever means our clients may require as our industry moves to a data centric environment," explains Gray Ainsworth, senior VP of operations at Deluxe Digital Media. "Image Treasury bridges the traditional film world with today's digital technology."