By Gemma Simpson, 14 May 2007 17:20
The Mediatheque at BFI South Bank is planned as the first of a series around the UK.
Baker told silicon.com around 80 to 90 per cent of the current content cannot be viewed elsewhere for example via the internet - because of copyright reasons and so the Mediatheque facility is the only place the public can view such footage for free.
The IT architecture is also flexible enough to cope with different encoding systems for digitised content in the future.
For example, if the BFI decides to switch to a different coding system that provides better quality in the future, it will be relatively simple to adapt by recoding the materials already stored and upgrading the software on the workstations.
The Mediatheque facility currently has around 700 visitors every week with each user allowed up to two hours on a work station at a time.
In the next phase of development, the BFI plans to let people create user accounts in order to select films to view before they arrive at the Mediatheque via the facility's website, make advance bookings and leave feedback.
Photo credit: BFI and HP
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