The Digital Asset Symposium (DAS), presented by the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), has crafted a comprehensive program that addresses the challenges of digital asset management in today’s constantly changing landscape. The event takes place May 4 at the Victor Borge Theater in New York. Six case study presentations from experts in the field will explore the many facets of the life-cycle of content–from collection and maintenance strategies to delivery with the purpose of reaching new, bigger audiences.
“DAS is a unique international event that brings together an unparalleled cross-section of domain experts in a pragmatic, engaging and educational format to discuss the most current challenges and breakthroughs in managing digital assets today,” notes Program Chair Chris Lacinak.
The 2016 DAS program includes:
Diamonds in the Cloud: Major League Baseball (MLB) is rich with over 600,000 hours of video content currently in its archives, and over 7,000 hours of content recorded per week during the season. Logging this content, while making it highly available to creative television production personnel, is critical to MLB Network’s business. In July 2008, the MLB Network began development of DIAMOND, a customized asset management tool to log, search and retrieve all video content recorded at MLB Network. Eight years later, DIAMOND has developed into much more than just an asset management system. This presentation will provide insight into the growth and expansion of the DIAMOND platform, DIAMOND In The Cloud, and the integration with Adobe Premiere Pro. Tab Butler, who manages the Media Management team, editor manpower, and Post Production engineering and operations for the MLB Network and the NHL Network, will provide highlights of the development journey.
Tracking Copyright-Implementing Rights Management at the New York Public Library (NYPL): As cultural heritage institutions build larger repositories of increasingly complex objects, copyright concerns have taken center stage in the management of digital assets. To address the management of copyright information, the New York Public Library has developed a rights metadata management system. This session will cover the information stored in the rights system, as well as how that information has been made programmatically actionable. This session, led by Greg Cram, Associate Director of Copyright and Information Policy at NYPL, will also highlight how tracking the copyright status of objects enabled NYPL to release 190,000 high-resolution images of public domain materials.
(Below) Emerging Business Models – We’re Down With OTT!: This discussion will look at the launch of Footprint.TV and USA Rugby channels online, delving in to the decision-making process as well as the results and outcome. With TV and digital media being reinvented by the Internet and changing the way consumers engage with entertainment, companies need to rethink their production, distribution and business models. Paul Hamm from Endavo, a leading provider of OTT and multi-channel network (MCN) solutions, will offer insights on the opportunities and trends that exist for all organizations today in this space.
Building the Smithsonian’s Digital Assets Vault: The Smithsonian’s Enterprise Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) has been a work in progress since 2008 that has now matured into a mission critical component of the Smithsonian’s digitization initiatives and strategy. Currently serving over 40 Smithsonian units across museums, archives, libraries, and the zoo, DAMS is entrusted to store, manage, preserve and deliver over 8 million assets as it continues to grow and evolve. Isabel Meyer, Information Technology Branch Manager at the Smithsonian Institution, will cover the building phases of the DAMS to include integration with Collection Information Systems (CIS), and asset delivery as demonstrated by representative use cases.
Smart Content and Metadata from Creation to Distribution: Metadata has never been more important across every part of an assets lifecycle and connecting it has never been more valuable. Taking a new Smart Content approach, organizations are looking across all their data to connect with users, drive new ways to partner with advertisers, drive efficiencies and help better understand the value of their content. This session will look at the impact of Smart Content across the content lifecycle and highlight some organizations putting it all together and making an impact, not only in how they work with content but in creating great new user experiences. Diane Burley, Chief Content Strategist for MarkLogic Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based Enterprise NoSQL database platform provider, will deliver this informative presentation.
Previously announced, a session with Facing History and Ourselves, an educational non-profit, will also join DAS to demonstrate how the organization has successfully digitized its legacy media, established policies for born digital production, implemented and rolled out a DAM, established a taxonomy, and integrated with a web content management system and an online video platform. Speakers include Eva Radding, Digital Archive and Library Systems Manager from Facing History and Ourselves, and Karl Facredyn, President of Orange Logic, the company behind Cortex, the DAM Facing History implemented.
To register for DAS or for more information, click here.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More