(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

At sunrise, the statue of Memnon begansending out sounds in the Kingdom of

Egypt…

(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

Memnon in Europe today

• Memnon Belgium (Brussels - head office)• Memnon France (Paris)• Memnon Germany (Koln)• MemNor Norway (Stavanger)

– A Private-Public Partnership with the NIRS to offer archiving services in Scandinavia

• Memnon UK (London)• Memnon Africa• Memories EU Project (IST Call 6)

– Memnon project coordinator of a 2,5M EUR project (develop automated tools to facilitate documentation, indexation, and search for AV archives, OAIS compliant)

(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

Ongoing projectsby order of start date

• Readers’ Digest (WW)• Queen Elisabeth Music Competition of Belgium• British Library (UK)• Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (F)• European Parliament (Lux/F/B)• Bibliothèque nationale de France• Centre National de l’Audiovisuel (Lux)• World Council of churches (CH)

• Projects in start-up phase with several Jewish institutions in Europe• …

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EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

A rich past ...

• Spin-off from Musica Numeris (°1989). Classical music

• Leading recording studio for the industry(EMI, Warner, Barbara Hendricks, Jordi Savall, …)

• Thousands recordings performed using high end technology (high resolution 24/96- 192kHz; 5+1; SACD, …) – we know what obsolescence means !

(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

A rich past ...

• Long experience of one to one transfers from tapes, 78rpm, …

• Initial perception of the needs of specific digitisation services : second half of the 90’s

• First large digitisation contracts initiated in 2001-2003.

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EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

MEMNON

• 2004 : Memnon is born from the experience acquired within Musica Numeris

• Focus on providing global though modular services combining the craftsmanship experience of Musica Numeris with a factory approach for large quantities.

(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

A company at the service of the heritage

• An overall or modular archiving solution for audio archives:

Digitization of archives in small or large volumes On request audio restoration (Cedar), segmentation, documentation, … Meta-data management and structuring for audiovisual databases (OAIS) Shared mass storage services accessible at distance (secure back-up of

local AV digital archives) Publication and secure online management of AV content for use in intranet,

extranet, or internet, for B 2 B or B 2 C use

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EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

EXTRANET / INTRANET / INTERNET

Memnon preservation services

3 U

3 U

Memnon SoundStore web

3 U

Memnon SoundLibrary web

3 U

Automated back-up

Local storage

Stockage local

3 U

Users accessDocumentationSignal analysis & Quality Control

DigitisationTransfers Users

BelgiumFrance,Norway,

…

Identified users, public

access, …

Shared mass storage systems

(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

Lessons learned – how to servethe archive community

• Need for strong project management

• Detailed project preparation is key to success

• Large projects require factory approach (EU Project Prestospace) including:– Being high level audiovisual experts is no longer sufficient– Model contract and specifications– Process Flow management (databases, traceability, …).– Multi-skills management– Total quality concept– Large and regular investments

• In depth understanding of the long term preservation issues (interoperability, automated migration, open standards whenever possible (wave, mp3, …), ISO formats, …) is essential

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EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

Need for Public Private Partnership

• Service Provider should add value, over and above technical competence in digitisation:

• Input on selection of carriers, access and storage and long term preservation solutions

• Input to select target digitisation projects• Bring expertise in structuring metadata• Develop sponsoring / public subsidising documents• Use its own network to develop the fundraising

(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

Ongoing projects with Jewish heritage institutions in Europe

• A rich resource

• Funding is available from private and public institutions

• Engagement of Israeli institutions and opinion leaders is essential

(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon

EVA/Minerva Jerusalem Conference

ContactsMichel Merten / Stephen WeilMemnon Audio Archiving Services27 rue du Belvédère1050 BrusselsBelgiumwww.memnon.be

Tel. 00 32 2 643 47 77 Fax. 00 32 2 649 87 01michel.merten@memnon.bestephen.weil@memnon.be