(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• …
(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon
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.
(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon
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
(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon
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
(c) Stephen Weil - Memnon
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 [email protected]@memnon.be