Unique collection of America’s Cup films now online in HD Video

by Sail-World on 20 Jul 2013
Florida-based media company Maritime Productions LLC announced today the launch of a new website that will provide on-line access to the world’s largest library of America’s Cup historical films and documentaries.

The site – www.maritimeproductions.tv – is dual purpose, with a rent-and-screen section for the general public and a password-secure library that will be a one-stop-shop for broadcasters and independent producers seeking historical and archival material.

While the initial focus is the America’s Cup, the site will be continuously developed to include a search engine for detailed selection of historical footage as well as other Maritime activities.

The CEO of Maritime Productions, Larry Keating, says the site’s exhaustive America’s Cup library includes the America3 Foundation Collection of 1992 & 1995 Louis Vuitton & America’s Cup, the exclusive collections of America’s Cup by John Biddle, The Cronkite Report, the Uhl Collection, the archives of the famed Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea, at Mystic, Connecticut, as well as films acquired and produced by America’s Cup aficionado Keating, for over 25 years.

All of this material is now available for the first time in full High Definition (HD), most transferred from the original 16mm and 35mm film to HD by Peter Jackson’s state-of-art Park Road post-production laboratory in Wellington, New Zealand. Park Road’s credits include the 'Lord Of The Rings' trilogy, 'The Hobbit', 'King Kong' and 'District 9'.

'The result is stunning,' says Keating. 'To be able to transfer these films to high definition at the worlds state of art facility was an honour. Viewers can now access these great old Cup films on-line for the first time in the highest digital quality. This material is historical, educational, and also highly entertaining'.

The password-secure section is in a developmental phase but presently provides on-line access, for commercial use, to a series of 60 second vignettes tracing the Cup’s history from 1851.

In time, the world’s largest library of America’s Cup film and video will be available to search frame-by-frame in all formats from Standard Definition video to HD, so broadcasters and independent producers can now select and license footage on line, along with the site’s produced vignettes.

Much of this material is part of the huge private America’s Cup collection of Mr. William I. Koch, America’s Cup Hall of Famer, who successfully defended the Auld Mug in 1992 with his ground-breaking IACC yacht, America3. Mr. Koch is lending a part of that unique collection to America’s Cup Events Authority for display in the America’s Cup Park throughout the 2013 America’s Cup event in San Francisco.

The site will be promoted throughout the world in a major marketing push starting in July when the first races of America’s Cup 34 commence.