Navigating through the complexities of a digitisation project can be daunting and frustrating. Managing multiple stakeholders, risk assessments,
future-proofing file formats and managing storage requirements are just some of the challenges that face an organisation looking to digitise their
collection. Whether the collection is large or small, having a digitisation partner that brings experience and knowledge to your project will make
working through the process much easier, so that you can be confident of success and that the integrity of the collection will be maintained.
Digitising audiovisual media is what we do - we are digitisation specialists with specialist knowledge. Over the past few years, DAMsmart has been
appointed to undertake many digitisation projects of varying sizes and complexities. To manage these projects we have drawn on past experience,
researched, developed, tested and refined our digitisation processes. The result is a proven, proprietary SMART Logistical Management Process that
guarantees a seamless and efficient experience for our clients as well as maintaining the integrity of the content from start to finish.
The SMART Logistical Management Process sees projects broken into four key areas, including;
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Project Planning and Scoping
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Pre-Digitisation
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Digitisation
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Post-Digitisation
Each of these elements of the project plays a key role in ensuring the success of a project and allows us to deliver a cost effective digitisation
service.
Project Planning and Scoping is the architectural stage of the project. It includes the undertaking of tasks such as defining project parameters,
digitisation environment development, defining metadata protocol, ascertaining quality control indicators, process validation testing and integration
analysis. The result of this phase a detailed migration plan, clearly stating the process, responsibilities and outcomes of the project, which is
agreed to by both parties.
The second stage is the Pre-digitisation. This involves the receipting, registering and storage of the collection consignments. This stage includes a
stringent physical inspection using on the 10-point SMART check as part of the registration process as well as barcode identification. The result is a
Consignment Exception Report that is given to the client identifying the status of the consignment.
Stage three is the Digitisation process. At this time the analogue media, video, film or audio is migrated into a data stream ready to be written to
its new digital format. There is a range of rigorous manual and automated quality control measures in place to ensure the integrity of the process.
Throughout the migration process, each of the media streams being digitised is monitored by both our trained Operators and specialised software that
analyses every frame of video and audio.
The final stage is Post-Digitisation. This involves the new digital files being outputted to the predefined media ready for distribution as well as the
returning of the collection consignment and project closeout reporting and review.
Throughout the process there is a range of comprehensive monthly reporting to ensure a transparent relationship with our clients.
There are significant complexities to digitisation projects and it is paramount that they are managed properly and professionally. DAMsmart's SMART
logistical management process is tested and proven with great results.