The consortium

Audiovisual archiving spans signal processing, artificial intelligence, semantic interpretation and all digital technologies applied to archiving from preservation to web publishing. The challenge is to integrate partners from all domains who represent the variety of competencies needed. The project therefore brings together archive owners, research centres from archive institutions, general research centres and universities, and small and medium enterprises for development and integration.

The main organisers and managers of the project are the core partners composing the steering board. The core partners are three audiovisual archive owners with research activities, two research institutions and an industrial integrator, each responsible for at least one work package. The core group brings together major and highly complex audiovisual collections in Europe. The partners have experience of launching and running large and effective digitisation and delivery programmes.

The research partners have already proven their ability to find solutions for various problems in the area through projects such as PRESTO, GATE, MUMIS and ECHO, and through involvement in other preservation research projects such as SHAMAN and CASPAR. They also bring results from PrestoSpace.

Who came together

Among the fifteen partners are:

• Five archive institutions and a university library, most representing the archives as well as their research and development departments involved in research and experimentation for audiovisual archiving.
• Four research partners, including two applied research and development institutes and two university research centres.
• Four industrial partners, two of which are small and medium enterprises. This reflects a market that requires innovative and flexible solutions.
• The European Foundation, associating major European actors in archives, audiovisual archives, museums and libraries.

How the work was shared

Full integration and consistency of the project was guaranteed by the participation of the archive partners in all work packages. Their purpose was to integrate specific technologies for long term preservation and access, and to provide services for audiovisual actors within the Competence Centre.

The research partners were in charge of high level innovation and responsible for providing exploitable results from academic approaches to distributed services and interoperability.

The industrial partners were in charge of integration and evaluation, extending their competencies in digital asset management and software framework solutions for their customers and final users, or for service providers.