The Swiss Company Cinetis receives a prestigious European Multimedia Prize

The prize was awarded to Cinetis last March 1st in Hanover, at the European Multimedia Forum at CeBIT. This is the largest international event for the digital industry. “We are proud and touched to receive this European mark of distinction honoring our work and our passion, which is to bring our client’s memories back to life”, responded Pierre Ihmle and Jean-Pierre Gehrig, founders of Cinetis.

Since the company was created in 2005, in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences and the Idiap Research Institute, Cinetis has developed solutions that allow audiovisual archives from the past century to be preserved for posterity. Several thousands of hours of Super8 and 16mm films made by amateur and professional filmmakers have been digitized and restored. In association with Bolex International, the famous brand of mechanical cameras and projectors, and operating under the name of Bolex-Digital, Cinetis has attracted a loyal client base. A recent partnership with MWA Nova in Berlin, a manufacturer of High Definition film scanners has enabled the company to market its expertise. Cinetis, whose creation was supported by the Ark Foundation, is based at the IdeArk in Martigny (Valais).

Development of an Image Sharing Platform
To respond to the growing market demand for digital archiving of audiovisual documents, Cinetis is today working with a network of European partners that are in full expansion. Soon, Cinetis will be in a position to offer its clients a private film and image archive sharing platform which will enable this young company to encourage clients to post their “historical moments” onto social networks, and thereby contribute to the creation of an audiovisual collective memory.