Cultural heritage is an irreplaceable cultural value. There are many libraries and archives in the world and in Serbia that contain materials that are, due to their physical nature, doomed to very limited shelf life, especially if they are opened and handled frequently for various reasons – for example, examination or study.
Over the past decade, digitization technology in the world has reached high levels of recording quality and conservation of museum and archive material. In Serbia, in the field of modern equipment for digitalization, the Audiovisual Archive and Center for Digitalization of SANU (AVA Center of SANU) and the Matica Srpska Library are keeping pace with European and world museums.
On Wednesday, September 16th 2021, our company, in cooperation with our parent company Tripont and our partner, the Danish company Phase One, held a detailed presentation of the latest equipment in this field, as well as a presentation of equipment for multispectral recording. On this occasion, the host was the AVA Center of SANU, a pioneer of digitalization in the country.
The event was attended by representatives from several domestic institutions: the Ethnographic Museum of Belgrade, the National Library of Serbia, the Matica Srpska Library, the History Museum of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Film Archive and the Museum of Science and Technology, as well as the operators of the AVA Center SANU. The attendees were first greeted by the director of the AVA center of SANU, Mr. Aleksandar Kostić, and then by the CEO of companies Tripont and Digital Emporium, Mr. Balazs Peti.
The first part of the presentation was held by Mr. Daniel Bedo from the company Tripont, who presented a full range of different modern technical solutions for the digitization of maps and documents of different sizes, mass digitization of books, and bound documents, industrial solutions, and aerial photography. We also heard a presentation of the Heritazs digitized document archiving software solution, given by Ms. Henrietta Tradler of Tripont.
After introductory presentations, we heard a presentation of multispectral imaging equipment, the Phase One Rainbow MSI system, given by Mr. Gerald Schnittger, an expert from Phase One in Cologne.
Multispectral imaging (MSI) involves imaging under lights of different wavelengths, visible and invisible to the human eye, through the electromagnetic spectrum using special camera technology, various light sources and filters. The resulting “stacked” images are used to analyze substances and surfaces to establish readability, authenticity, year of manufacture, or material.
Attendees were able to see the Phase One Rainbow MSI system in action after the break, it was exhibited in the center for a live presentation of the system and software.
When we talk about the need for things like: verification of the author of the work of art, the study of the painting method and the materials and colors used, but also examination of the “edited” work, it is possible to do it by using multispectral imaging, the so-called “non-invasive method”. MSI technology is also used in police, ie forensics, to examine particles and liquids invisible to the human eye.
Impressions, contacts, experiences, and plans were exchanged at the event, which will, we hope, lead to an increase in the number of institutions in Serbia with modern digitalization equipment and that the collective cultural heritage will be better preserved.