We keep history alive

Only a few decades ago, fantasy films envisioned the digital future that has become our reality today. In today’s world, it is perfectly natural to read a news article on our phone, or create, sign, and store important documents in a digital format. For these tools to be effective, it is important for them to be convenient and easy to use. However, now that we?accustomed to modern conveniences, it can be stressful and annoying to review old documents or find information in old publications. We need quick and convenient solutions for storing and reviewing these old documents.

“Digitalization, utilizatsion of data, and preparation of metadata are as relevant today as never before. Great prospects are anticipated in this field, as there is a strong demand for high-quality and rapid processing of large quantities of documents in ?the academic, public, archiving and publishing sectors”, says Gytis Umantas , CEO of Novian Technologies and Novian Eesti Oü, companies belonging to the Novian Group. “Our investments in the field of digitization only demonstrate the importance of this - we have opened the digitization center “Novian Digitization Center” in Tallinn, where the highest quality data digitization work is carried out by unique Swiss scanners specially designed for highly sensitive and accurate scanning. The software and experience of Zissor AS , a Norwegian subsidiary of Novian Technologies ensures the quality and ease of use of digital data”, says G. Umantas as he presents the features of the new digitization center.

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Media monitoring laid the foundations for the emergence of a unique scanner

While the need for digitization has only recently gained a strong momentum, the emergence of digitization equipment and the process itself began several decades ago, developing from a separate service. “We were originally providing systems for media monitoring companies. Media monitoring companies were at that time working totally manual in finding relevant articles for their clients. They were reading newspapers manual, physically clipping our articles from the newspaper and send the found articles by post or fax to their client. Start using technologies as scanning, OCR and electronic clipping and distribution made them much more efficient,” said Ove Dirdal , company manager, when presenting the beginning of Zissor’s operation.

However, the modernization of the media monitoring service was not simple and easy to implement - the paper of newspapers is fragile, so it was necessary to adapt a solution that would be suitable for fragile paper of large dimensions.?“I modified the first scanner with a special paper guide for newspapers. Once we achieved our initial solution, we started considering a “double-sided” scanner, which did not exist anywhere in the world. This is how the big device was made: two scanners, a paper handler and three computers, making it possible for the first time to scan a newspaper sheet from two sides simultaneously thereby automatically obtaining four separate pages,”?says Swiss Beat Schneider, the creator of the unique scanner. ??

The classic term “Swiss precision” perfectly ?describes the work and meticulous thought process involved in ?developing this unique new scanning device which can achieve unsurpassed results. ?While developing the device, B. Schneider considered every detail that could determine the quality of the results, such as potential paper irregularities, paper fragility (the scanned sheet is held by carbon fiber “fingers” which gently guide it from the machine), control of large-sized paper, and even a comfortable workplace for the person operating the scanner, helping the operator maintain the quality of their personal performance. ?“These small details only seem minor at first glance, yet taking these minor issues into consideration makes a significant contribution to the overall quality ?of our work so this approach is an integral element of our recipe for success,” says O. Dirdal.

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The customer order that brought the digitization service to life

Over time, as scanners improved, expectations and needs grew, although the equipment was still used for its original purpose - media monitoring. O. Dirdal recalls when requests for a digital archive became more frequent, and the first client who requested this service proved to be the motivating factor to start a new phase in the company’s history, as well as an incentive to expand the portfolio of services provided. The idea of converting physical paper based archives of old Newspapers and Magazines and make them available for searching and viewing, lead to development of new digitization system and new special designed scanner for old newspapers. . According to Dirdal, once they began archiving scanned publications in digital format, more and more libraries, publishers and archives showed an interest in using ?this service. “We have also adapted our equipment to meet the increasing demand for archiving. We have developed MediaScan 880C Archive scanner, which is characterized by better quality of archive images. However, our success goes beyond the scanners, and also includes the software that meets the customer’s needs and supports the necessary document features”, says B. Schneider.

“We bring history to life”, says O. Dirdal, explaining that the services they provide ensure the longevity of documents, newspapers, magazines, archives, as well as facilitating their easy, safe use.

The Novian Digitization Center currently provides digitization services for newspapers, magazines and other publications, not only by transforming them from paper into digital format, but also by adapting the digital format to the device that is used to read and use the publications. Both private and public archives are digitized in the digitization center, adapting them for convenient and smart use.

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About Novian Group

The companies Novian Technologies, Novian Eesti, and Zissor belong to the Novian Group, whose companies provide technological, programming, digitization, as well as complex IT solutions and services in these fields.

The competences of Novian Technologies include the creation, maintenance and adaptation of IT infrastructure to meet new requirements, as well as critical IT infrastructure maintenance services. The company’s service portfolio includes solutions related to high-performance computing devices and their clusters, as well as open-source cloud technologies, high-reliability data, archiving and other solutions.?

The activities of Novian companies include projects that range from managing the smooth daily operation of the IT economy to programming, which can be on a municipal or state scale, along with the development of information systems in individual areas, as well as digitization and artificial intelligence solutions. Novian companies implement projects in various fields including business, e-government, e-health, and tax related enterprises.

The companies of the Group work in the Baltic states and Norway, and Moldova, providing services and implementing projects all over the world. In 2016-2022, Novian corporate projects covered more than 50 countries from Europe to Africa, Asia and America. For more details - novian.lt