Media Asset Management: Archiving Considerations
Helen Hockx-Yu,Program Manager, Digital Asset StrategyOctober 2018

University of Notre DameUniversity of Notre Dame

● Private research university with Catholic character● Funded in 1842 by Edward F. Sorin, a priest of the Congregation ofHoly Cross● “a powerful force for good”● Located adjacent to South Bend, Indiana● Athletic teams known as the “Fighting Irish”

Centralised Campus Media Production Facility

Notre Dame Studios● Provides technical and staff
support for campus multimedia
production● Includes control rooms, studios
and editing spaces● Supports live and pre-produced
video programming● Home to video producers frommany departments

Digital Media @Notre Dame

● Frequent use of digital media for education, research, special
events, faith-based services, athletic competitions & performances● Video assets estimated to measure ~2PB at present, and growing● Assessment project in 2017 recommended CatDV as enterprise
video asset management application● Currently running new project to make CatDV enterprise-readyWhat is CatDV● Media asset management application created by UK-based software company Square Box● Organize, describe, locate and control media assets such as videos, still images, audio
files and PDFs
● Common features include asset ingestion, logging and clipping, metadata management,browse and search, and transcoding● Integrated with non-linear editing software such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere● Operates with tiered storage solutions, keeping track of media assets and their locations● Already used by departments on campus

Expanding CatDV● Infrastructure already in place including Spectra Logic T950 Tape Library and 600TBSAN● Also some CatDV licence + middleware appliance & licence, meeting the needs ofcurrent users● CatDV as enterprise solution requires integration with campus IT infrastructure,additional licence, backup & Disaster Recovery provision and storage○ Also a business model to support and sustain campus use○ Service documentation, training and support● Specific academic use cases still needs to be addressed (e.g. psychology)

Hosted Media Management Solution● Balancing performance, security and redundancy● Media management application: CatDV● 3-tiers of storage (via orchestration of BlackPearl)○ Fast SAN storage to support operational use○ Secure, cost-effective tape storage to accommodate growth○ Disaster recovery to avoid catastrophic data loss (Cloud storage)● 4 copies of assets (2 x original, 1 x mezzanine, 1 x proxy)○ Standard for content creators

● Desktop Client● Web Clients● CatDV Server● CatDV Worker● REST API

Archiving and archiving● archiving (to tape)○ Moving less active files from spinning disk storage to tape storage○ Tape Library, tape archive● Society of American Archivists○ Archives with capital A: permanent valuable records○ archives: an organisation dedicated to preserving the documentary heritage of aparticular group● University Archives: collecting, maintaining and preserving official records of UND

archiving to Tape
● Previously○ Manual process moving/restoring files outside CatDV (using Archiware)○ Need to restore and reingest data
● Now
○ BlackPearl integrated into CatDV○ Users can directly archive and restore content to/from BlackPearl using
CatDV desktop or web client - can schedule jobs

Transcoding using FFmpeg

University Archives● 240TB digitised material○ Analogue video & audio, photos, print publications
70% of AV are sports-related; 6% MarCom● 140TB born-digital material○ Athletics, MarCom, Development● 78,000 items on physical carriers (film, audio, video)○ All catalogued, 20% - 25% digitised● Stored in Tape Library (as mounted volumes) via Dternity● Getting a digital preservation system

Digital Preservation in DAMs
● DAMs in general not designed to support
Archiving and preservation workflows○ Checksum - main use case is filede-duplication○ Metadata - no built-in templates forcommon metadata schema○ File formats

Challenges and way forward● Still a large amount of content on physical carriers - digitisation based on risk & demand● Separation of content (historical and operational)○ Consolidation of discovery and storage?
● Dis-alignment between abundance of data and institutional capacity for long-term archiving and preservation○ Finished products as historical records do not necessarily support access / re-use● Retention schedule● How can IT support records creators and University Archives?
● Collaboration○ Can CatDV serve DIPs for Archives?
○ Can Archives provide guidelines re. records of enduring value