Welcome address

Nowadays, when extremely dynamic development of different audiovisual production causes the accumulation of large amount of information, the issue of archiving this information in an appropriate quality becomes more and more topical. New formats, resolutions and information carriers are emerging. Sometimes one must be a true fortune-teller to take the right strategic decision when choosing the right technology.

To my mind, the best way to take the right decision in this situation is – maximum communication on the expert level of this sector. For three years Riga has hosted archive specialists from all over the world at the traditional Baltic Archive Seminar -“The Riga Seminar”.

Thanks to these activities the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) has entrusted the organization of its annual conference to the Latvian Television in cooperation with the Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council.
We are proud to have the honour of organizing the IASA-BAAC Conference 2007 and wish all of us productive and constructive work!
I am looking forward to meeting you in the City of Inspiration – Riga!

Jānis Holšteins,
Director General, Latvian Television


The conference will address themes associated with the tasks audiovisual archives are facing in a world undergoing rapid change. It is essential that archives develop new ways to meet future demands. Analogue and digital collections will coexist for a while yet, depending on the resources made available for the preservation of analogue material, the digitisation process, and the management of digital content. Digitisation is now recognised as the way to go to save our audiovisual heritage, but the issues of future migration and the sustainability of digital archives still need to be addressed.

English is the official conference working language, simultaneous interpreting in Latvian will be provided.