piql_When quality matters

4

Piql Piql AS was established in Drammen, Norway, in 2002. The company was founded by a team of people with background from digital imaging, headed by Managing Director Rune Bjerkestrand. Their vision was to “bridge the gap between the digital and analogue world in the motion picture industry.” The market opportunity was that more movies were shot and produced digitally, whilst there were still cinemas that only projected 35 mm analogue film. Piql’s ambitions may have seemed a bit over the top at the time, coming from a country with no track- record from the motion picture industry. Yet the company managed to revolutionise the way the film industry prints their movies. The digital film record- er Cinevator® printed movies up to 100 times faster than its competitors, and with a better image quality. Sound and subtitles were added simultaneously, and not in subsequent steps like the industry was used to. Customers experienced a higher quality, time savings and cost savings. User-friendliness was also catered for, and in 2008 Piql was awarded with the internationally renowned Red Dot Design Award. The Cinevator is recognised as the leading digital film printer, in use by film labs and post-production compa- nies all over the world. Amongst its users are companies like Technicolor and Deluxe. The Cinevator has printed movies for film studios like theWarner Brothers, Univer- sal Studios, DreamWorks, Walt Disney and Paramount. In 2007 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, known for the Oscar show, published the report “Digital Dilemma” which addresses the challeng- es related to securing long-term access to the motion picture industry’s valuable assets; the movies. The report stated that even recent Hollywood productions worth hundreds of millions of dollars may soon be lost forever as current preservation technologies are incapable of securing future access.

Investigating this issue further made it clear that the threat of losing data is not unique for the motion picture industry; the same is faced by all industries and sectors that hold valuable digital data, both in the private and public sectors. A new application of Piql’s expertise in digital imaging was found; securing future access to valuable data by using photosensitive film as a digital storage medium. Piql’s vision is to reshape data preservation, and this requires a holistic approach that ranges from soft- ware to hardware, from the preservation medium and its packaging to its physical storage. To achieve this comprehensive task, the company leads a wide range of international R&D projects. A total of EUR 25 mil- lion have been invested into R&D. The EU has given strong support through its Eurostars and EUREKA programmes, and more recently through Horizon 2020. The Norwegian government is supporting Piql through the Research Council, Innovation Norway and other more local programmes. The R&D projects have involved close cooperation with institutions like Fraunhofer (Europe’s leading research organisation, based in Germany), Norner (leading polymer institute based in Norway) the National Archives of Sweden, and the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (Germany). A wide range of European tech- nology companies have also been involved to add the required expertise. After years of heavy investments in multidisciplinary R&D, a solution developed specifically for the complex needs of data preservation is commercially ready and available. Piql is offering its Preservation Services to the market in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. This is made possible by operating through a network structure, with trusted partners promoting Piql to data owners in their countries. Preservation Services are enabled by the use of Piql’s complete technology for digital preservation, based around the company’s know-how in digital imaging. Piql AS operates from Norway as the global head- officeof a growingnetworkof partners. Yet the company remains true to its values of being innovative, trustworthy and nimble. It combines cutting-edge technology with functional design to create great customer experiences, and was in 2015 awarded with the Norwegian Design of Excellence Award. Piql and its network of partners are strongly motivated by ensuring valuable data is accessible for generations to come, and move forward by being creative challeng- ers, hands-on experts and attentive service providers.

About us - Company history