MY NIS4 ARCHIVIST WORKFLOW

Archiving content doesn’t sound the most exciting of tasks, but without storing all the information from our news operations with the appropriate data to be able to search and retrieve it at a later date, the researchers and journalists in my organisation would have a far more difficult job and the efficiency of the whole operation would be reduced. This is why NIS4 is so helpful to my role, giving me the tools to automatically or manually archive all the information generated in NIS4...

GETTING STARTED / ARCHIVE AUTOMATION
Even before I start my work NIS4 has started working for me. Overnight all the information that we as a station want archived without additional checking or metadata added is automatically archived by NIS4. This may include all Event cards, TV Scripts, Rundowns, To do lists and even Video Cards. But in practice we need to control what is archived to prevent the database becoming cluttered with data that is not really needed. In particular, Video Cards that contain all the metadata about specific media items need manual input before archiving. NIS4 even helps me here, automatically creating a list of Video Cards that currently need archiving.

ADDING METADATA AND ARCHIVING
So now its time to add that extra data that makes the video files easier to find in the future. First I select the Video Card to be archived from the list created by NIS4. I add my metadata, including presentation text and key words and then simply save the file. It disappears from my list of Video Cards to be archived and I move onto the next one. I can also choose to delete Video Cards for unwanted content (such as commercials) or NIS4 can be configured to automatically delete those that have not been archived after a certain time. It is worth noting that the actual video file is not stored by NIS4, this is done by an external MAM system. But the integration between NIS4 and this system means that all that is invisible to me. I can archive and search and retrieve video clips from NIS4 with ease.

So, my view? NIS4 makes my archiving tasks a lot simpler, taking the more tedious work away by using automated archiving or deletion where applicable, leaving me to work on adding my value to the newsroom operation—entering the useful metadata that will make content access and retrieval more efficient at a later date.