Located in Beltsville, Maryland, BonoLabs grew out of Bono Film Services which opened its doors in 1961. Founder Joe Bono, originally from upstate New York, first worked in film in 1951 as a motion picture photographer in the Navy. Reflecting the changes in the moving image landscape, the company name was changed to Bono Film and Video (BFV) in 1986. Joe, and now his son Tim, always had a knack for adjusting to the changing communications climate. So while other film laboratories closed their doors, Bono’s is still here because we have always been customer-oriented.  We identified what our clients need and are proud of our support of innovative efforts in the industry.

Of equal importance, every member of our staff strives to maintain a sense of excellence and a sense of humor.

Our company and its long track record of more nearly six decades in archival duplication and migration for preservation and access are well known and established among government and private archival collections. Our facility has been credentialed by the National Archives, NIH National Library of Medicine, and the Library of Congress through Fedlink. Our staff handles all legacy film and video formats.

Bridging the old and new

In 2002, we set up a new division called BonoLabs to develop new technological initiatives. Our initial project: to investigate the HD “landscape.” Our film-to-HD transfer suite was the first of a series of planned innovations. In February 2004, we introduced a new initiative: the “tapeless” option for telecine transfers whether, in high definition or standard definition. We pioneered the direct to hard drive route. The tapesless workflow is now the industry standard. We officially became BonoLabs in 2010.

We view ourselves as a mature, innovative facility that embraces the dualities of experience required for media preservation and migration in the 21st century. Under our roof one will find a complete inventory of the history of film and video. Our equipment ranges from fully operational vintage film equipment to high definition/2K telecine – installed in 2003 – used to transfer film direct to hard drive on a daily basis. All major video formats, from the 2-inch QUADs to the various Betacam decks, are hooked to high powered workstations.

While grounded in the professional film and video practices of the last near half century, we are also fully engaged in adapting new technologies for our clients. Through our pioneering efforts, we have opened up the digital landscape to small and medium-sized government, private, and non-profit collections previously unable to move forward with preservation and access programs. The R & D effort to meet 21st century moving image challenges has taken us into new and exciting territory. Clients have appreciated our cost-efficiency mindset, and our initiatives in the digital domain and in support ventures, such as our long-term storage products.

Product and design innovators

When products or solutions don’t yet exist, our staff develops them.

When we couldn’t find a solution for the growing need to store hard drives, Tim Bono designed a series of modular shelving units. Our current and on-going focus is to find cost effective and inventive ways to bridge the old and the new. We strive to identify and discard preconceived notions that stand in the way of innovation.