The Avalon Media System project, a partnership between Indiana University and Northwestern University, aims to create an open-source system for libraries and archives to manage and deliver audio and video collections. Funded by a national leadership grant, the project's first release is expected in February 2013, focusing on installation support and functionality for various media types. The project encourages community participation and outlines plans for ongoing development and improvements beyond the initial release.

1. Variations on Video:
The Avalon Media System
Jon Dunn, Indiana University
Michael Klein, Northwestern University
Digital Library Federation Forum
November 4, 2012

2. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
About Us
• Jon Dunn
– Interim Assistant Dean for Library Technologies
and Digital Libraries, Indiana University
– Project Director, Avalon
• Michael Klein
– Senior Software Developer, Enterprise Systems,
Northwestern University Libraries
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3. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Agenda
• Project overview and status
• Demo
• Release 1
• Technical and metadata architectures
• Plans beyond Release 1
• How to participate
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4. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Project Overview
• Funded in part by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of
Museum and Library Services
• Original name: Variations on Video
• Planning grant:
– August 2010 – July 2011
• Implementation grant:
– September 2011 – October 2014
• Partnership between libraries at Indiana University and
Northwestern University
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5. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Project Partners and Collaborators
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6. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Project Objectives
Goal: Create an open source system to enable libraries and archives to
provide online access to video and audio collections
• Digital audio/video management and delivery
system, focused on needs of libraries and
archives
• Follow an agile, open source development model
• Leverage existing technologies, where feasible
• Communicate and market the project broadly to
increase awareness and grow the community of
users and developers
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7. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
What needs are we trying to serve?
• Libraries and archives (and museums?)
• Wide variety of audio/video collections, uses, and
access needs
– Licensed educational video collections
– Video/audio e-reserves
– Archival collections
– Open access collections
• Research and teaching & learning use
• Long-term management and access
• Tie-in with preservation

8. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Existing Solutions Insufficient
• Institutional and digital library repositories
– DSpace, Fedora, Digital Commons, ContentDM
• Web video services
– YouTube, Vimeo
• Streaming servers
– Flash Media Server, Real Helix, Wowza, Red5
• Classroom lecture capture
– Echo360, Mediasite, Opencast Matterhorn
• Digital asset management systems
– OpenText, NetXposure
• Online video environments
– Kaltura, Brightcove

9. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Project Progress
• Most of development team hired
• Trained on agile development (Scrum)
• Community demo releases:
– Release 0, July 2012
– Release 0.5, October 2012
• New name
• Active participation in Hydra and Matterhorn
communities
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10. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Current Activities
• Northwestern hiring one more developer
• Website design
• Marketing and communication planning
• Release 1 development
• Metadata and object modeling
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11. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Development Team
Northwestern University
• Stu Baker, project director
• Steve DiDomenico, scrum master
• Stefan Elnabli, metadata/preservation
specialist
• Michael Klein, lead developer
• Karen Miller, metadata analyst
• Julie Rudder, product owner
• Claire Stewart, product owner/director
• Andrea Zielke, project assistant
Indiana University
• Jon Dunn, project director
• Chris Colvard, lead developer
• Phuong Dinh, developer
• Julie Hardesty, metadata analyst
• Brianna Marshall, project assistant
• Mark Notess, product owner/manager
• Nathan Rogers, developer
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12. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Demo
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13. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Release 1
• Expected in February 2013
• Goal is to support installation and piloting by
partners
• Functionality
• File upload, transcoding & descriptive metadata: manual or batch
• Batch loading via dropbox and tabular data file
• Authentication and authorization – optional integration would require use of
LDAP or some minor programming
• Red5 and Adobe Flash media server support
• Discovery via Blacklight faceted search & browse
• Playback on desktop browsers & mobile devices (iOS & Android)
• Basic monitoring & troubleshooting
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14. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Release 1 Pilot Support
• Distribution packages
• Both source distribution and some form of preconfigured
package, e.g. VM image
• Installation & configuration documentation
• Email support
• Advice on hardware & software requirements by Jan 1
• Goal: Small pilots/tests can be run on one server or VM;
larger scale use may require distributing functions across
multiple machines
• Content & metadata from pilots can be migrated
forward to future versions
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15. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
R1 Architecture
Avalon Media System
Archival
Storage
Solution
AuthN
LMS,
websites
ILS
Hydrant Rails App
Hydra
Head
Black-
light
Ruby-
horn
Media Player
(Matterhorn Engage)
Fedora Solr Matterhorn
Media Server
(Red5, Flash)
All
Desktop,
Mobile
Browser,
Drop box
Search, browse,
view media
Ingest (batch or
manual): video,
audio, metadata
Integrations Users
Collection
Manager
Can-
Can
Omni-
Auth
AuthZ
 after R1
 Avalon code
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16. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Authentication
• OmniAuth
• Multi-provider authentication middleware for Rails
applications
• Providers are known as “strategies”
• Dozens of turnkey “provider strategies” including
Google/Google Apps, Facebook, Twitter
• Easily customizable “developer strategies” exist for
CAS, LDAP, Shibboleth, OAuth/OAuth2, OpenID,
Kerberos, and many others
• As long as the provider returns an email address,
Avalon will identify the user

17. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Metadata for R1
• Descriptive metadata
• MODS
• Structural/content metadata
• METS
• Technical metadata
• Will be a focus after R1
• Still looking at PBCore, for technical metadata
and/or as an export format
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18. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Beyond R1
• Releases every three months
• Workflow & batch loading improvements
• Authorization improvements
• Structural metadata for navigation
• Playlists and clip making
• Easy player embedding
• Transcripts
• Publishing out to other systems
• More optimization for mobile
• Focused accessibility work
• We want to know what your priorities are!
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19. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Help with Requirements
• Survey:
– Media server
– Authentication methods
– Metadata
– Media formats
– Distribution packages
– Importance of VM image
Take the survey:
http://tinyurl.com/AvalonWebinarSurvey
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20. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
Participation
• Try out release 0.5
http://pawpaw.dlib.indiana.edu/
• Try out release 1 in February 2013
• See what we’re up to via the project wiki:
http://avalonmediasystem.org/
• Watch bi-weekly demos:
https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/x/NxKKHg
• Browse user stories, tasks & bugs in Jira:
https://bugs.dlib.indiana.edu/browse/VOV
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21. DLF 2012 11/4/2012
For more information
• http://avalonmediasystem.org/
• IRC: chat.freenode.net #projectvov
• Avalon e-mail list:
E-mail avalon-l-subscribe@indiana.edu to subscribe
@avalonmediasys
facebook.com/avalonmediasys
• Jon Dunn: jwd@iu.edu
• Michael Klein: michael.klein@northwestern.edu
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