When you have a hard copy of a document to stow away for safekeeping, where should you place it? The filing cabinet, of course. But what about clients' digital files?
What should I do with my client's new video, which I need to permanently file for safekeeping?
This question used to be hard to answer, but at JMG we've got it covered. And organized. And convenient to access.
CatDV: the Tool of Choice
We now have an asset management tool that allows users to file, view and catalog media for all of our clients. This system is called CatDV, yet it is anything but catty. It is a great tool for viewing, delivering, converting and processing video – even across our intranet!
Like a traditional file system, it takes some initial work to get entries in the system. Yet it is the smart and responsible thing to do, all-in-all. (YouTube does have a How to Archive and Retrieve from CatDV video but the voice instruction is hard to understand.)
Once media is properly filed, simple 'key-phrase' searches can be used to pull up a video. Or, if you want, you can just visually search through thumbnails on the catalog you access. And for those who really know what they want, the ability to perform advanced queries is easy and a click away.
Best of all, this isn't just a job for us 'teky AV guys.' Other JMG personnel are already taking advantage of these tools and have benefitted by seeing and hearing a video with relative ease. This is a real solution for managing our clients' assets – assets that we have been entrusted for safekeeping.
Share your filing system in the comments below. File on!
