On 5-6 May 2016, GLOBO in collaboration with the FIAT/IFTA Media Management Commission organised a 2 day Regional Seminar in Rio De Janeiro on State of the Art MAM systems, Metadata and Digital Curation in Broadcast Archives. The Seminar was a great success and the 120 seat conference room was full with engaged and passionate AV Archivists from all over Brazil and Latin America. With inspiring keynotes and presentations the atmosphere was inspirational and it was so lovely to see everyone networking and sharing experiences and ideas during lunches and coffee breaks. It was a great opportunity for many broadcast archivists to meet and get to know colleagues from other organisations who were dealing with similar challenges in digital archives. Also, the Seminar presentations and discussions were live streamed to other broadcast archive teams in different locations across Brazil, enabling a far greater reach to AV archivist unable to attend in Rio. De Janeiro.

Rita Marques, Globo TV Head of Archives, the Seminar host, organiser and facilitator, gave a welcome speech with the Globo TV Technology Director, Raymundo Barros. This was followed by Brecht DecLercq, VIAA, who gave his analysis of the results of the FIAT/IFTA Latin American MAM Survey which was conducted over several weeks before the Seminar.

The theme of Day One was Second Generation MAM systems starting with a keynote by Ximena Araneda, Executive VP Video Workflows, Vizrt, who gave a simple message that communication is the key to successful projects and understanding user’s different needs and priorities.

Several Case Studies on second generation MAM implementations across Brazil were presented by Jose Schulz, Gabriela Cavalcante, Thiago Abreu and Rachel Kudloweiz from GLOBO and GLOBONEWS, Jose Chaves and Thiago Perrella from TV Bandeirantes and Gilvani Moletta from TV Cultura. Evolutions in audio-visual cataloguing were addressed by Marcia de Simoni from GloboSat, Iolanda Albertino , Rede Amazonica Radio and Television network,, Livia Lucas and Giulio Caio Breviglieri, EPTV Network and Paula Rodrigues, TV Gazeta de Vitoria and Maria Carolina Avellar,Associacao de Comunicaca Educativa Roquette Pinto.

The Sponsors panel debate gave a different perspective on the challenges and future trends of MAM implementations in broadcast media companies with an open and honest discussion mediated by Thiago Abreu, Globo, with speaker panellists – Julian Fernandez-Campon TEDIAL, Erick Soares SONY and Ximena Araneda VizRT. One of the key MAM challenges is constant transition and change with many new tools and technologies driving a consumer revolution of new demands and expectations. New generation MAM systems are a set of related entities- metadata, images , multiple search, taxonomies, good UX experience which all need to be constantly developed on new platforms. Integration and interoperability are key challenges and all the sponsors agreed that they needed to improve plug-in upgrades and develop partnerships with integrators/ other parties and adopt Standards, for example, FIMS and IMF. It is important to manage customer expectations and find people who can understand and engage key sets of stakeholders. Use Change Management companies if possible and offer good training on new features and functionalities.

The day ended with a wonderful caiparinha cocktail reception in the lobby of the Conference hotel – Windsor Atlantica, Copacabana, where all the delegates were able to relax and network after an intense day of presentations and discussions.

The theme of Day Two was Digital Curation, Metadata and the changing role of the archivist. Prof. dr. Howard Besser, Director of the Moving Image Archive and Preservation program, New York University gave an inspiring keynote on lifecycle management and preservation , skill share training and use of social media in preservation. Continuing the theme, three Case studies were presented on social media and their importance for audiovisual archives by Andrea Doti, Communications and Relationship Director, Globo, Danilo Gesualdo, TV Cancao Nova with MAM Sponsor Roberto Duif, of VSN LATAM.

A short film was introduced by Jacqui Gupta, BBC on the “BBC Web and Social Media Archives” which showed demos of a newly developed BBC Twitter Archive. A panel debate followed on with mediator Fabricio Antenor, Globo, on the topic of “how do audiovisual archives get the most from social media platforms?”. Prof Howard Besser, Jacqui Gupta and Newton Fleury,Globo.com discussed the advantages and disadvantages of social media and its impact on AV archives.

Fernanda Elisa Costa Resende, Audiovisual Archives Co-Ordinator, IGPA-PUC-GO, Brasil, gave a presentation on the digitisation project of the film collection of filmmaker Jesco von Puttkamer –as part of Memory of the World/UNESCO. The collection comprises films, photos and diaries written in English and German. There were issues of translation and identification of filmed indigenous tribes which are now near to extinction. A very moving film clip showed the father of a tribe whose daughters had since died looking transfixed at the sight of his daughters on film. The value of the preservation heritage of film!

The afternoon session on the Changing role of the archivist was introduced by Eva-Lis Green, SVT, who talked about new skills and new roles – Preservation and Migration Strategist, File Specialist, Media Manager, Content Curator, Archive Logistics. This was followed by three Case Studies on the changing role of archivists in media organisations and AV archives. Anne Couteux, INA, highlighted their valorisation activities on contextualisation and editorialisation, quality control and the development of a multi-lingual thesaurus and the new concept of a Data Lake. Luciana Savaget, Chief Editor Archive News, GloboNews described the relationship between archive staff and researchers in researching and producing archive news programmes. Hernani Heffner, Chief Conservator, Cinemateca do MAM described the history and development of the film department into an Archive and the associated skillsets and roles. A panel debate mediated by Maria Byington, AV Researcher, Globo, discussed the “AV archivists of the future: the archivist as editor, the editor as archivist?” with Hernani Heffner, Brecht Declercq and Jose Maria from TV Cultura.

Eva-Lis Green, Chair of the FIAT/IFTA Media Management Commission ended the Seminar with a question for the delegates to sum up in one word what they had learnt from the 2 days.

Preservation of the Memory is Possible INTEGRATION People Connection KNOWLEDGE
FOSTERING NEW IDEAS Innovation OBLIGATION Inspiration ACCESSIBILITY Passion
PARTNERSHIP Future COMMITMENT Inspiration PERFECT ORGANISATION Good Speakers
Archives are a gift for the future – in order to find it – it needs good metadata exported in xml:)

Let’s hope that all the networking and collaboration will continue until the next Rio Seminar.

With thanks to the Sponsors for their generous support – Vizrt, VSN, Tedial, Sony Brazil and GLOBO.

Jacqui Gupta BBC and FIAT/IFTA MMC