(17 Oct 2025) Utaina, one of the largest audiovisual digitization projects in the world and the largest in New Zealand to date, has concluded. Over 400,000 items from the collections held by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa and Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kawanatanga have been preserved for generations to come.
The crown-funded multi-year project was a race against time to safeguard precious analogue audiovisual materials that were at imminent risk of deterioration and obsolescence. Members of the culture, heritage, broadcast & producer communities gathered to formally celebrate and close the Utaina project on Thursday evening at the National Library in Wellington. Hon Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Hon Brooke Van Velden, Minister of Internal Affairs, were in attendance to celebrate the completion of the project.
Without digital preservation, it was estimated that more than 95% of magnetic media could be lost within the decade due to physical deterioration. In addition, the playback technology required to digitize these formats is increasingly hard to come by, and even harder to repair.
Due to the innovative work on this project, countless hours of New Zealand’s favorite television, radio programs and music will survive to tell our country’s history and culture for current and future generations.
Find out more here.
