Asset management specialist TransMedia Dynamics (TMD) has added unique facilities specifically for audiovisual archives, drawing on its experience in major implementations such as the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. These facilities are now grouped in a dedicated software module for its Mediaflex asset management suite, Mediaflex Collections.
The requirements of an audiovisual archive are significantly more challenging than the normal broadcast application. First and most obvious, an archive is likely to contain more than just sound and video recordings, extending to paper documents and other artefacts. In a major archive, the total number of elements across all the content types can be very large indeed, with millions of assets not uncommon.
Large national and state broadcasters, with archives stretching back 50 years or more, may well be faced with the same challenges as the cultural archive, and so the solution developed by TMD could equally be applied to these extended broadcast implementations.
In a multimedia audiovisual archive, the nature of acquisitions, accessioning, preservation and access is complex. While for broadcast an asset will arrive and be ready for use almost immediately, a bequest to an archive might include hundreds or even thousands of individual items, all of which will need to be examined, validated and catalogued, and many of which may need restoration. A curatorial view must be added to track these critical processes.
“Our core Mediaflex product has the depth and breadth of capabilities in its architecture to meet these greatly extended requirements, as we have demonstrated in successful archive systems around the world,” said Carlton Smith, CTO of TMD. “But while these specialised facilities are not required by many of our broadcast customers, it is important that they are clearly defined for archivists.
“That is why we have grouped all this additional functionality into a dedicated module, Mediaflex Collections,” he continued. “It puts all the right capabilities into the hands of those that need it, without complicating the product for others. This is central to our philosophy of providing the best possible asset management solutions in a form which allows our customers to realise their ambitions without restriction.”
