MEMAT 3.1 is the latest release of MEMAT. It has been built with best practice in mind for both access to media files and long-term preservation of the files.
Advanced Lightbox Features
Site users can create, edit and view lightboxes and then email lightbox links and watermarked comps, as well as share, copy and move media files between lightboxes and lightbox users.
Above: The Lightbox functionality on a MEMAT 3.1 site makes the compiling of media selections a pleasure.
Customer Relationship Management
MEMAT 3.1 is integrated with a professional Open Source Customer Relationship Management programmme – SugarCRM for managing visitors to your site. Users also have their own account page to track their activity on the site.
Digital Asset Management
You can store, manage metadata, organise, display and retrieve digital images, audio files and footage or multimedia files using IPTC and XMP standards. Publishing and broadcast quality media files can be uploaded from anywhere in the world.
Galleries
Galleries can be dynamically created to showcase certain groups of media files within your collection and these can be browsed or viewed as a slide show using the CoolIris plugin.
Above: Viewing a gallery in CoolIris which also allows the gallery to be viewed as a slide show.
Ingestion
Handling images, audio, and video, MEMAT 3.1 has a highly effective Online Upload System for loading media files as well as ftp, DVD or Hard Drive upload options for large numbers of files.
Indexing and Tracking
Based on a stock control system, MEMAT 3.1 can keep track of millions of media files and multiple copies of the same media file.
Metadata
Utilizing global standards developed by the International Press and Telecommunications Council (IPTC) for the embedding of information about media files within the file itself, and extensible to other xml based metadata standards such as METS and PREMIS, MEMAT 3.1 ensures you are building your media collection utilizing open global standards, making interoperability with other systems seamless and avoiding tying you in to proprietary systems that may not endure. The MEMAT Web Interface gives the system administrator access to edit and update metadata online.
Above: MEMAT 3.1 enables you to work with internationally accepted metadata schemas ensuring that the work you do on your files on the MEMAT system is interoperable and exportable to other systems.
Multimedia Support
MEMAT 3.1’s Asset Management Layer has support for all media types and common media file formats with an emphasis on open formats, and formats that are extensively supported internationally, ensuring conformity to long-term preservation requirements.
Open Source Tools
Developed using Open Source tools MySQL database with PHP, Perl and Ruby-on-Rails scripting languages, the base system is non-proprietary. In addition the open standards utilised by the system ensure interoperability with other systems.
Purchasing Pathway
With the option of a full e-commerce purchasing pathway, the system can manage both “rights managed” use rights sales and “royalty free” sales as well as free use options where appropriate.
Above: The first stage in the ecommerce purchasing pathway.
Redundency
MEMAT 3.1′s Digital Vault backs media files up in security boxes maintained in a Raid 5 array and backed up to tape for off site storage as well as to write-once media, ensuring storage migration on an ongoing basis.
Security
Password protected access within MEMAT 3.1 allows you to scale access to media files per user type. For example, System Administrator Access gives full access rights and the ability to administrate access. Browser Access, on the other hand, is the most limited access giving access to browse low resolution versions and preview clips of media files. You have control over the level of access you want to give to users. There is also full tracking of file use. For instance as the system administrator you could give certain users access to download high resolution files and you would be emailed a link every time a file is downloaded allowing you to keep track of who is downloading what files.
Scalability
With no limit to the number of media files that can be handled, MEMAT 3.1 is truly scalable and can be distributed across any number of servers anywhere in the world keeping track of every file.
Searchable
Powerful search functionality returns results from millions of metadata entries in under a second and prioritizes them by metadata type.
Above: Presentation of Audio search results in the MEMAT Web Interface. The search results returned for the same search for other media types are also displayed on tabs at the top of the screen which includes the number of files returned for each media type.
Servers and Hosting
MEMAT 3.1 is highly distributable and can be distributed to multiple servers anywhere in the world and still maintain solid control over media files on any number of those servers. Africa Media Online provides hosting solutions or can install servers in your organisation if an on-site solution is required.
Standards
With over a decade of experience in working with media files at global standards and recent participation in writing the best practices section of a National Digitisation Policy and a digitisation strategy for one of Africa’s leading digital archives, Africa Media Online brings a wealth of experience in assisting organisations produce media files at the right quality. Such standards are built into MEMAT 3.1 and ensure long -term accessibility and usability of media files.
Web-Based Presentation
MEMAT 3.1’s presentation layer can be accessed by any web browser and includes password protected access, search and advanced search, a clean display of search results according to media type, the ability to make a selection of files and place them in lightboxes and to email lightboxes or preview files to other decision makers, and the ability to create galleries which you can use to showcase certain groups of media files within your collection.
Above: Presentation of Photo search results for the search “Ghana Football” in the MEMAT Web Interface. By clicking on the tabs at the top of the screen one could navigate to results in other media types returned for the same search.