Old Bridge company digitizes memories captured on old VHS tapes
Long before cellphone videos and digital anything, VHS tapes and film reels were just some of the ways people captured treasured memories.
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After years of capturing momentous occasions on various forms of media, a Middlesex County man is preserving and digitizing memories to bring them into the 21st century.
Long before cellphone videos and digital anything, VHS tapes and film reels were just some of the ways people captured treasured memories.
Larry Campolattaro, the man behind LJC Video Services in Old Bridge, has gone from shooting momentous occasions on equipment from yesteryear to now bringing them back to life.
"I was into it when I first started in '79. I used to capture back then, now I preserve. People bring me their memories, they can be in pretty much bad shape, and I can restore them for them," Campolattaro said.
At any given moment, Campolattaro is running multiple pieces of equipment to scan tapes. It’s a lot of work, tedious even, but someone’s got to do it.
Campolattaro walked News 12 through the process.
"I take all these tapes, I would scan each tape individually, get a time off each one. When the video runs out, I know exactly how long they run. I don’t just fast-forward it and get a time. Now we can color correct it like this, brighten it up fix the tint. Now it’s more of a true color. I can do a whole tape in four minutes… that’s two hours. And then when you’re done, you check the tape, and we transfer it. You get the thumb drive away it goes," Campolattaro explained.
Amid a changing industry, local digitizing businesses like LJC are competing against large national companies like iMemories, Legacy Box and Kodak Digitizing.
But Campolattaro isn’t worried, he says they treat their customers like family, and they treat every video like it was their own.
Not only do they offer personalized customer service, but 10% of LJC’s proceeds go to charity.
"God provides for us, so I want to give something back. I just feel better that way, we’re very fortunate… Thank God," Campolattaro said.
