Press release from DAMsmart
Australia’s leading audiovisual digitisation agency, DAMsmart, has been appointed by AusStage to design and build an innovative mobile migration unit to digitise Australia's most valuable performing arts heritage.
AusStage, together with some of its member organisations, has embarked on an exciting preservation project called the Visual Searching project through the creation of a publicly-accessible audiovisual archive of the history of Australian performing arts.
Jenny Fewster, Project Manager at AusStage said, “This is a really ambitious and important project for AusStage. We will begin to create a virtual archive of performance footage in Australia, benefiting both the future development of the arts as well as the greater community. We engaged DAMsmart as they have a proven track record, not only with expertise in AV archiving technology, but they also have specialist JPEG2000 knowledge. We have appointed DAMsmart to design and build two mobile digitisation units that will allow us to digitise the collections on location.”
AusStage collaborated initially with Sydney University’s Russel Emerson to investigate the most suitable archival file formats and metadata strategies to best enable the archive users to directly access new digital resources held in online repositories. In line with the findings of this research, AusStage decided to adopt the optimal format of JPEG2000 wrapped in MXF as the preservation format for the project.
Phase four of the AusStage project requires the digitisation of several large videotape collections from around Australia. In order to achieve this, AusStage needed a digitisation solution that offered them both flexibility and cost-effectiveness. AusStage turned to industry leader, DAMsmart, to find a solution to their geographically scattered library.
In response to this challenge, DAMsmart created a range of ground-breaking mobile digitisation units that can be transported directly to the library to digitise the tapes safely and cost-effectively on site. In a first for Australia, each mobile unit has been designed and built around a single stream SAMMAsolo. In addition to digitisation, the mobile units will also provide facilities for cleaning and refreshing aging tapes in the collections, which contain formats such as VHS and U-matic, to ensure the digitisation process is optimised. DAMsmart will also provide specialised training for the AusStage video archive operators as well as ongoing support throughout the project.
“We recommend that AusStage use a mobile digitisation unit, giving them the flexibility to move from location to location rather than having to relocate the media to one spot.” said Joe Kelly, Media and Preservation Manager at DAMsmart. “We have designed the units to be self-contained in road cases most commonly used for concerts. They’re built to withstand the stresses of shipping, while at the same time being easy to use and operate.” he continued. The units were custom designed and fitted by DAMsmart’s digitisation engineers in Canberra before being shipped to Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) ready to digitise the first collection.
The first tape collection to be digitised by one of DAMsmart’s mobile units is the famous Circus Oz. Circus Oz is keen to showcase its extraordinary history in an online experience that reflects the audience interaction that is so important in its live performances.
Ron Anderson, Managing Director at DAMsmart, said “This is a first for Australia and we are proud to be working with AusStage on such a significant cultural project. We are at the forefront of progressive digitisation projects and are going to continue to find new and innovative ways to support organisation in their endeavours to access and preserve their audiovisual collections.”