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Re: MAVIS



Mavis is a very interesting MAM (Media Asset Management) system from Wizard
technologies in Australia. I believe it was developed in concert with the
national film and sound archive in Australia which is known as Screensound.
Screensound is a very large AV archive with a very large and diverse
collection and an extensive preservation capability and very knowledgeable
staff. They are a major force in this field, and are widely respected around
the world for their many contributions. So they know their stuff - and the
product reflects that input and the fact that it has been steadily improved
over many years - this is not one of those just out of the box new companies
type of things.  It is running in several places around the world including
the Library of Congress in the Television/Film/Audio division. MAVIS runs on
oracle and is a multi-user system and can be scaled rather extensively. It
can also be used remotely over slow lines - and is being used this way in
some archives in South East Asia Pacific as clients of a VERY remote server.

MAVIS has some rather unique characteristics compared to other DAM or MAM
systems that are out there. Specifically it is very media type centric with
extensive capability to document conditions of elements and copies. In that
way MAVIS is much more "archival" then other products for AV material. The
product really "understands" different media types and their unique
properties - so it is extremely strong in this area. It is really more
structured to be a system to manage media elements, masters, and copies of
tapes, films, 78 records, etc. as opposed to a Digital Asset Management
(DAM) system which is more geared to manage purely DIGITAL assets. So this
is its strength (and its weakness). If you want to be on line cataloging
tons of MPEG streaming videos that are kept only in a server system - this
is not the strongest product out there.  If on the other hand you have a
large collection of every type of media imaginable in any type of condition
describable then this may be the product for you. I think that their main
problem over the years is lack of marketing - no one has heard of them as
compared to some other companies with lots of marketing.  But the product
itself has had many hours of smart peoples input. If you have tons of media
that you need to keep track of and manage - MAVIS is a strong product and
should be examined.

This is totally my own opinion - I have no connection to the company other
then I know some people who work at Screensound, one at Wizard and some
people who have used the product - and BTW - they give away really nice
baseball caps at trade shows, my 8 year old loves it!

Jim Lindner

General Manager VidiPax Division
VidiPax - The Magnetic Media Restoration Company

Executive Vice-President
Loudeye Technologies
NASDAQ Symbol:LOUD

VidiPax
450 West 31 Street
New York, N.Y.  10001
212-563-1999 ext. 102
www.vidipax.com

Moderator: AV Media Matters Listserve
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Stephanie Smith
> Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 3:08 PM
> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> Subject: MAVIS
>
>
> We are in the process of applying for funds to update our
> obsolete dBase in-house collections information system, and have
> been advised that MAVIS, or Merged Audio Visual Information
> System, would do what we need a new system to do.  I only found
> one posting about MAVIS (an Australian product) in the Archives
> of this list.  Is anyone out there using it?  If so, would you be
> willing to share your story of implementing it with me?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
> Stephanie Smith, Assistant Archivist
> Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
> Smithsonian Institution
> 750 9th Street, NW, Suite 4100
> Washington, D.C.  20560-0953
> 202 275-1157
> steph@folkways.si.edu
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
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>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>