Digitization
Western Front offers digitization and archival services to museums, community archives, and artists. This includes transfers of audio and video material from obsolete analogue formats to various digital formats, and LTO storage and recovery. All transfers are undertaken by a professional archivist, who performs a physical inspection of the tape, careful cleaning if necessary, and a supervised transfer to ensure the best results.
Please contact our technical manager, Ben Wilson, to discuss your digitization needs.
VO-9800 ¾ inch Umatic deck (2020). Photo: Ben Wilson
Restoration and Digitization Services
Video transfers from ½” open reel video, ¾” Umatic, Betamax, Mini-DV / DVCam / HDDV, VHS and S-VHS to various digital codecs.
Audio transfers from ¼” open reel audio (½ track), Betamax PCM F1, compact cassette, and DAT to various digital codecs.
Rates
≤ 10 mins. $80
≤ 30 mins. $120
≤ 60 mins. $150
≤ 90 mins. $175
≤ 120 mins. $200
Discounted rates are available for bulk orders. A cleaning fee of $20 is required for each open reel tape, and may also apply to other formats based on their condition. Clients must supply a hard-drive for their digitized files.
Digital files are retained by Western Front for one month after pick-up and then permanently deleted.
Digital Archiving
Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is the new standard in media preservation. Western Front offers LTO storage services to LTO-8 tapes, and recovery services from LTO-5 and LTO-6.
Rates
LTO Storage: $300, including a LTO-8 tape and ≤ 1-TB of data migration.
After the initial TB, an additional fee of $0.15 per GB transfer is charged.
LTO Recovery Service:
$225 per tape
Venue Rental
Western Front is one of Vancouver’s most iconic cultural venues. When not in use for our artistic program, the Grand Luxe Hall is available to rent for photo and film shoots, audio recordings, rehearsals, workshops, meetings, and private gatherings. We currently do not allow rentals for public presentations.
Grand Luxe Hall (2022). Photo by Rachel Topham Photography.
Specifications
Capacity: 120
Area: 1250 sq ft
Dimensions: 50 x 25 ft
Ceiling Height: 14 ft
Grid Height: 12 ft
Floor: Wool carpet with a removable section for a 13 x 20 ft hardwood stage
Seating: 43 built-in folding wood chairs and 80 moveable chairs
Accessibility: Second floor, only accessible by 26 stairs
Rates
Room Rental: $100/hr
Microphone: $25
PA: $50
Projector and Screen: $50
Grand Piano: $125
Piano Tuning: $175
Staffing costs apply for rentals out of office hours.
FOH Staff: $27/hr
Venue Manager: $35/hr
Discounted rates are available for artists and non-profit organizations, and for rentals of a day or more. There is no tax on room rental as we are a registered charity. Tax is applicable on equipment rental and staffing costs.
Please review our full Venue Rental Terms and Conditions.
Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.
We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.