Digital Asset Management With Free And Open Tools

David Rice and Mike Castleman represented Democracy Now! at the 2008 AMIA Digital Asset Symposium presenting on the integration of open source technology and Free Software in efforts to record, disseminate, and archive moving image media.

The presentation included references to:

• Tools for Recording: dvgrab, cron, vidi
• Tools for Transcoding and Wrapping: ffmpeg, mplayer, MP4Box, ffmpegX, x246 for Quicktime
• Tools for Online Media Accessibility: The Internet Archive, blip.tv, Miro
• Tools for Migrating AudioVisual Data from Tape-Based Digital Media: DATXtract and Live Capture Plus
• Tools for Backup and LTO Management: Bacula
• Metadata Extraction Tools: MediaInfo, getid3, qt_tools
• Metadata Standard: PBCore
• DAS (PDF)

AVPS Moves Office Location To Flatiron/Chelsea, Manhattan

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions has moved its operations to the historic Masonic building on the corner of 6th Avenue and 23rd Street, Manhattan. This move brings us closer to a greater number of our New York clients, and affords us the opportunity to conduct hands-on audiovisual preservation workshops for our clients in an easy to reach location.

While we will miss Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we are pleased to be better situated to serve our clients in the historic Masonic building.

Our new Address is:

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
71 West 23rd Street
Suite 504
New York, NY 10010

New York Archivist Roundtable Workshop On Moving Image And Sound Preservation

Serving as Education Coordinator for NYART, Chris Lacinak of Audiovisual Preservation Solutions hosted and participated as a speaker in a workshop titled “Preserving Your Moving Image and Sound Collections: An Overview of the Present with a View Toward the Future”.

The workshop featured an array of impressive speakers including Howard Besser, Director of the Moving Image and Preservation Masters Degree Program at NYU; Lee Shoulders, Getty Images; Joshua Ranger, NYU; Tanisha Jones, The New York Library for the Performing Arts, and Peter Kauffman, President of Intelligent TV.

Attending archivists from the New York Metropolitan area represented a wide array of commercial, academic, non-profit, governmental and arts institutions. While some attendees have been working with the preservation of their moving image and sound collections and were seeking to learn new developments in the field, others are just beginning to overcome the unique challenges posed by efforts at preserving dynamic media and content.

The workshop quickly reached maximum capacity early in the enrollment process. Initial feedback provided by the attendees indicates that the event was an overwhelming success.

To see the program for the workshop click the link below.

Chris Lacinak Becomes Vice Chair Of AES Standards Committee 03-07 On Audio Metadata

Chris Lacinak of AudioVisual Preservation Solutions was honored to receive an invitation to co-chair the Audio Engineer Society (AES) Standards Committee Working Group on Audio Metadata. As a long time participant in the development of metadata standards for moving image and sound, Chris enthusiastically accepted the invitation to take on this role.

Chris co-chairs alongside his esteemed colleague Chris Chambers of the BBC and long time standing chair of SC 03-07. The scope of the SC-03-07 Working Group on Audio Metadata includes the co-ordination and support of metadata activities within the AES, and harmonization with other bodies through working-group level liaisons and the preparation of related documents.

AVPS Project With Cunningham Dance Foundation And NYU Featured In New York Times Article

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions is designing and installing a system for the recording and editing of “Mondays with Merce”, a project aimed at capturing the technique of living dance legend Merce Cunningham. AVPS plays a multi-faceted role in this Mellon Foundation grant funded project involving the Cunningham Dance Foundation and New York University.

The capturing system includes a single operator with remote control over 4 High Definition video cameras, 2 of which are on robotic arms. AVPS is additionally developing highly innovative preservation oriented workflows for the Cunningham Dance Foundation that will deliver preservation worthy deliverables to the NYU digital library team.

NYU is serving as the digital preservation repository and host of the content, as well as acting as team members in the development of applications, workflows and processes.

This highly technical and complex system will be installed by AVPS at the beautiful Cunningham Dance Foundation Studio which is part of the historic Westbeth Complex in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan.

The New York Times article linked to below features the “Mondays with Merce” project.
www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/arts/dance/20bloo.html

Dance: An Old Mentor’s New Medium
Sunday New York Times, January 20, 2008 By JULIE BLOOM

The link below will bring you to The “Mondays with Merce” website, where you can obtain additional information. This site will also feature a series of webcasts which will be available for free download beginning in late 2008. Each episode will include segments from Merce Cunningham’s Company Class, and rehearsals with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The programs will also include interviews with Merce Cunningham and his associates.

www.merce.org/studioandclasses_mm.html

AVP Holiday Card – 2007

Artwork by Stephanie Housley from Coral & Tusk

The disk illustrated on the front of this card pays homage to the aesthetic quality of labels seen on commercially released 78RPM disks – also known as shellacs. No other recording medium before or since has exhibited such beautifully crafted decorative labels, making them a significant experiential aspect of working with the medium. UNESCO estimates that there are ten million 78RPM disks worldwide. Fortunately these disks are one of the most resilient formats ever to exist. Their primary physical threat is breakage due to mishandling or disaster. As the main audio medium for mass distribution of content in the first half of the 20th century, content found on these disks is amazingly diverse and relevant to defining the time period in which they thrived. Efforts toward preservation of the content found on these disks continue on as evidenced by the release of a 78RPM calibration disk from the Audio Engineering Society this year!

All Images on this page are copyright protected and may not be reproduced or used without permission from AudioVisual Preservation Solutions.

AVPS Releases Their 2007 Holiday Card

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions released its second annual original greeting card for the 2007 holiday season. The 2007 card features an illustrated disk with an original AVPS label that pays homage to the production of the wide array of classic decorative 78RPM labels that exist in audio libraries all over the world.

The 2006 holiday card features the VR-1000 Quad videotape machine in honor of the 50th anniversary of videotape.

The cards are inspired by the field that we work in. The original art work is created by Stephanie Housley, a New York based artist/designer.

We are pleased to send these greetings to our clients and all of the other members of our community who are dedicated to the preservation of our audiovisual heritage. We are especially delighted to note that we often see the cards posted in the archives we work in long after the holiday season has ended.

To see the 2006 and 2007 holiday cards click here:
https://www.avpreserve.com/uncategorized/avps-holiday-cards/

AVPS Is Recognized By The Association For Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) In Their Annual Report

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions (AVPS) was pleased to receive acknowledgment from the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) in their annual report for contributions made to the organization.

Chris Lacinak was recognized for representing AMIA at the National Recording Preservation Board Hearings. Chris was also acknowledged for his work with Moving Image Collections (MIC), where he worked alongside Hannah Frost of Stanford University chairing the MIC Preservation Portal Working Group and presented on the MIC Metadata Schema at the 2006 AMIA Conference in Anchorage, Alaska.

MIC is sponsored by the Library of Congress and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), and funded in large part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the first development phase (2002-2005). MIC is part of the National Science Digital Library.

For more information on Moving Image Collections please visit their website below:
mic.loc.gov

Yale Digital Preservation System Requirements

AVPreserve worked with Yale University Libraries to assist them in the selection of a campus-wide digital preservation system. The project identified and described functions, use cases and diagrams for ingest, metadata and data management, migration, emulation, reporting, access, security and administration.

• SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS LIST (PDF)

Audio Recording Of AVPS Oral Testimony At NRPB Hearing Available Online

As previously noted, Chris Lacinak of AudioVisual Preservation Solutions represented the Association for Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) and the Audio Engineering Society (AES) at the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) Hearings in December of 2006. He provided oral testimony as well as written submission to the NRPB.

The oral testimony is now available to hear online at the Library of Congress website:
www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-comments.html#NY

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