Memnon (formally LMH) has been appointed as a partner by ATP Media, the global sales, broadcast production and distribution arm of men’s professional tennis body, the ATP World Tour.

ATP Media has approved LMH to supply a full range of content services. This includes ingest and digitisation of a large archive of historical footage, as well as file-based content services such as QC and standards conversion. There is also potential for the partnership to include VOD processing and international deliveries.

Experience makes LMH’s content services “a great fit”

Announcing the partnership, LMH Managing Director Gary Edwards said: “We are delighted to be working with ATP Media. Our wealth of experience in the full gamut of media services makes us a great fit for ATP Media’s requirements.

“In partnership with ATP Media, we have devised a multifaceted workflow with a strong quality control ethos. This allows us to deliver a robust supply chain that maximises the potential of ATP’s huge archive of premium content.”

Shane Warden, Director of Broadcast and Technology for ATP Media, commented: “We look forward to working with LMH. They understand our commitment to preserving the heritage of the ATP World Tour. And they are able to meet our high standards relating to handling and ingesting some of the oldest assets in the ATP archive, using their state-of-the-art facilities.”

LMH undertaking ingest and digitisation of 400 hours of archive footage

The ATP World Tour has amassed a vast archive of historical tennis footage, and ATP Media already has a market-leading digital archive site, www.atpworldtourarchive.com. The site makes available match and non-match action to rights-holders and third parties.

The first project LMH is to undertake will be the preparation, ingest and digitisation of additional match action. The footage dates back to 1990 and will add an additional 400 hours of content to the archive site. It includes tennis legends such as Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and John McEnroe. The tapes also feature action of the current top players first breaking onto the ATP World Tour.

Acquisition of Indelt TC-Matic further enhances tape-cleaning offering

LMH recently upgraded its tape-cleaning capabilities with the purchase of a new Indelt TC-Matic Betacam tape cleaner. The machine has been put into immediate use for cleaning the first batch of tapes from ATP Media’s archive. The TC-Matic identifies physical defects on the tape surface, and also cleans the tape. This process aims to remove as many flaws as possible prior to ingest.

“The TC-Matic is one of the leading machines of its kind and is a key component in ensuring that the final digitised files are of an optimum quality, by reconditioning and rigorously cleaning the tape prior to ingest,” explained Edwards. “Acquiring it further enhances the restoration and ingest services LMH is able to offer to ATP Media and to all of our clients.”