Radio Kuwait has teamed up with NOA for a digitisation and archiving project, aiming to preserve more than 260,000 archival audio carriers dating back to the 1950s.
The Ministry of Information Kuwait National Radio has awarded the contract for its Radio Archive Project to Al Rashed Group, with NOA GmbH, a specialist in AV digitisation and archiving, selected to modernise the broadcaster’s radio repertoire. The project includes the digitisation of the entire archive and the establishment of a disaster recovery backup.
Under the seven-year agreement, finalised at the end of June, Kuwait Radio will integrate a complete NOA mediARC archive management system with its existing Dalet playout infrastructure. Simultaneously, the broadcaster’s entire radio archive will be digitised using NOA’s ingestLINE technology.
The project will commence with a year-long delivery and ramp-up phase, followed by a three to four-year period dedicated to digitising the entire archive. The mediARC Archive Asset Management system will be installed at Kuwait Radio’s main site in Kuwait City, with a disaster recovery site established in Magwa. The storage system will be supported by framework modules holding four copies of the archive.
Speaking about the contract, Dr Nidal Fawaz, Director of the Technology Solutions Division at Al Rashed Group, said: “While the organisation’s radio archive has been partially digitised for production purposes, the re-digitisation of the entire inventory is yet to be completed. The MOI tender amounts to approximately €10m. The goal is to digitise some 260,000 archival audio carriers dating back to the 1950s, including quality control, inventory, and enrichment of metadata.”
NOA’s mediARC solution offers a versatile framework for Archive Asset Management, enhancing efficiency for broadcasters and archives of all sizes. The NOA ingestLINE provides professional, purpose-built digitisation tools, ensuring high-quality and cost-effective archive preservation.
Eng. Dalal Alhindal, Project Manager of MOI – Kuwait Radio, added: “After a thorough analysis of this prominent tender, we’re excited to finally start this project with our contractor Al Rashed Group and their International technical partner NOA. This initiative will preserve our unique radio archive heritage, one of the oldest in the Arab world.”
This project marks the first installation of its kind in Kuwait, adding to NOA’s portfolio of significant AV archiving projects in the region, including those with Abu Dhabi Media Corp. and Sharjah Broadcasting Authority.
Jean-Christophe Kummer, Managing Partner of NOA, stated: “We’re thrilled to expand our footprint in this region by winning this prestigious seven-year project with our partner AL Rashed Group. Our enterprise framework, based on NOA mediARC and ingestLINE, combined with our experience in delivering archive technology for over 5m hours of AV material worldwide, positions us well for success in this endeavour.”