True-to-Source Digitization at Scale - From Scanning to Industrialized Workflows

Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026 - Dublin, Ireland Speaker: Tobias Golodnoff (FASTFORWARD) -- Millions of 16mm film reels hold our shared visual history — and they are at risk.Until now, digitization has been constrained by complexity, cost, and lack of scalability.This session presents a new approach to film digitization through a practical demonstration. At the core is a simple principle: True-to-source digitization — no alterations, no hidden processing, no compromises. The session shows how institutions can move from slow, specialist-driven scanning to standardized, high-throughput digitization workflows, and how this enables the establishment of scalable internal capabilities.It is structured around three core dimensions: • Physical & digital capture: How analog film is transformed into a digital signal — from illumination and transport, through optics, to sensor capture — and the key parameters that define quality (resolution, dynamic range, bit depth) • Workflow & production: How consistent, repeatable workflows enable reliable, preservation-grade digitization at scale • Organizational model & scaling: A community-based model for organizing, implementing, and scaling digitization within institutions — enabling internal capability, control, and long-term sustainability The session draws on experience from digitizing more than 250,000 film reels in collaboration with leading broadcast archives.