Spool Room

Archive handling, inspection and transfer of film, magnetic tape and early video.

Spool Room is a two-bench workshop. We take in physical carriers that nobody makes players for any more, put them back into a condition where they can be played once, and record that one playback as carefully as we can. Everything else — colour work, restoration, editorial — we leave to the people who do it properly.

What we do

• Inspection and condition reports before anything is threaded or spooled.
• Cleaning, repair of splices and perforations, re-spooling onto archival cores.
• Real-time transfer with no automatic correction applied to the recorded file.
• Two copies of every transfer: an uncompressed master and a review copy.
• Written notes on every defect we could not fix, delivered with the files.

Carriers we accept

Film	8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, 16 mm
Magnetic audio	1/4" open reel, compact cassette, microcassette
Video	VHS, S-VHS, Video8, Hi8, Digital8, MiniDV, DVCAM
Early digital	DV tape, data CD-R and DVD-R, Zip and Jaz cartridges

Formats that need a machine we do not keep running are declined rather than risked. We will say so in the first reply, and we will usually know who does keep that machine.

Intake

Intake is by arrangement and in small batches — one shelf at a time, not one collection at a time. Write first with a rough count, the carrier types and what the material is to you; that last part changes how we handle it more than anything technical. Carriers with visible mould, vinegar smell or binder shedding are quarantined and handled separately.

Turnaround for a single shelf is normally two to three weeks. Larger holdings are quoted as a schedule rather than a date, because the schedule is what actually holds.

Contact

Write to hello@spoolroom.org. Please keep the first message short; we answer with questions.