Perth-HQed Tape Ark picked to digitise historic footage for West Australian Ballet

West Australian Ballet (WAB) has signed a deal with Perth-based data migration experts Tape Ark for a three-year partnership to digitise and protect 3700 hours of historical video footage, including archived performances and interviews dating back to 1970.

As WAB's Historical Digital Preservation Partner, Tape Ark will employ its technology to transfer the ballet company's extensive tape archive to the public cloud.

Tape Ark will digitise around 1850 legacy tapes and other media, in the highest quality format possible.

The global tape-to-cloud migration specialist plans to explore innovative applications of artificial intelligence, including facial and music recognition, as part of the project. Items within scenes and venues will also be recognised.

Speech-to-text capture to enhance metadata and searchability of video content will be added by Tape Ark, along with video quality enhancement the company said.

These advancements could provide WAB and choreographers with unprecedented analytical data, based on what can be extracted from the historic footage.

The project faces several challenges, particularly around the quality of older footage. 

Deterioration of tapes and outdated recording devices may impact the effectiveness of AI-driven analysis, requiring innovation to overcome.

The collaboration comes as WAB prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2027.

"West Australian Ballet has such a rich and storied history and we can't wait to uncover cherished moments and hidden gems that might have otherwise be forgotten", Lauren Major, executive director of West Australian Ballet, said.

"For as long as I can remember I have had a deep empathy and kinship with anyone in the creative industry or really anyone at the top of their game in any field", chief executive and founder of Tape Ark, Guy Holmes, said.

West Australian Ballet was established in 1952 by Kira Bousloff, and was the first such company formed in the country that is still in existence today. Based in Perth, WAB also tours nationally and internationally, including China, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.