CASE STUDY
The Louvre Museum Transforms Video
Asset Management with CatDV
Opened in 1793, the Louvre is one of the world's largest and most famous museums. Live events hosted in the museum's primary auditorium regularly captured on video. Implementing the CatDV Asset Management Platform has helped the museum simplify search and retrieval of those video assets while enabling technical staff to preserve an existing media workflow and maintain tight security.
Samuel Brosset
Enter your quoCatDV's Worker Node provides powerful tools that organize media on our SAN, whilethe CatDV Web Client provides access to the media throughout the Louvre, making search
and retrieval very simplte.
Technical Manager, The Louvre
Samuel Brosset
The switch from our Final Cut Server was seamless. The migration tool meant that all our existing assets and logging were maintained, saving us weeks of work.
Technical Manager, The Louvre
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
∙ CatDV Asset Management Platform
KEY BENEFITS
∙ Simplified search and retrieval
of video assets on the museum's SAN.∙ Streamlined migration, saving weeks
of work.
∙ Preserved the existing media workflow,
rather than being forced into a new way
of working.
∙ Maintained tight security with integration
of a MySQL database
| Located on the historic site of a former fortress |
| and palace, the Louvre is a central landmark of |
| Paris. In operation for centuries, the museum |
| today holds more than 380,000 pieces of art and |
| regularly displays 35,000 of them in galleries that cover 15 acres. With more than 10 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the most visited museum in the world. |
| The Louvre hosts a variety of conferences, |
| symposia, and live musical performances each year in its main auditorium. Those events are recorded on video, and the footage becomes a valuable historical record for the museum and students. The museum had used Apple Final Cut Server, |
| a back-end server-based solution, for managing |
| Final Cut files. But that solution could no |
| longer meet the museum's needs. The Louvre's |
| technical staff required a cost-effective, proven |
| asset management system that would interface |
| perfectly with leading video editing software, including Final Cut Pro. At the same time, a |
| new asset management system had to operate |
| across physically separate networks. |
| TRANSFORMING MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT WITH CATDV |
| After considering its options, the Louvre |
| selected the CatDV Asset Management Platform |
| to transform their media asset management |
| within the museum. The technical staff found |
| that CatDV could integrate with Final Cut Pro |
| and other editing software, and it could meet the |
| requirement of operating across networks. |
| With CatDV, video from live museum events |
| is captured and transcoded using the CatDV |
| Worker automation engine and then ingested |
| into the asset management system. Louvre |
| librarians and editors in charge of asset |
| management can access and log media directly |
| using the CatDV Web Client. |
| SIMPLIFYING SEARCH AND RETRIEVAL |
| CatDV makes it easier for users to find and |
| retrieve what they need in the large volume of |
| assets. Samuel Brosset, technical manager |
| at the Louvre, noted, "CatDV's Worker Node |
| provides powerful tools that organize media on |
| our SAN, while the CatDV Web Client provides |
| access to the media throughout the Louvre, |
| making search and retrieval very simple." |
| The Louvre's video projects have specific |
| file-naming and folder structures that need |
| to be maintained on the SAN. Fortunately, the |
| museum was able to maintain those structures |
| during the migration to CatDV. Ensuring the |
| right media was stored in the right location was |
| a key ingredient in the project's success. |
| STREAMLINING MIGRATION, PRESERVING THE EXISTING WORKFLOW |
| "The switch from our Final Cut Server was |
| seamless," says Brosset. "The migration tool |
| meant that all our existing assets and logging |
| were maintained, saving us weeks of work." |
| Outside technical support further streamlined |
| the move to the new solution. "The support and |
| expertise we've received from our local partner, |
| DID Technology, and from the makers of CatDV, |
| have been par excellence," says Brosset. |
| As the designer of the media workflow at the |
| Louvre, Brosset was also impressed that CatDV |
| could easily adapt to support the museum's |
| preferred workflow. Unlike other solutions, it |
| did not impose a particular way of working on |
| the team. |
| MAINTAINING TIGHT SECURITY |
| Security of assets was a critical consideration |
| in selecting a new asset management solution. |
| The Louvre needs to ensure that assets are |
| only available to authorized personnel. CatDV |
| offers flexible security configuration options |
| through seamless integration of CatDV with |
| MySQL database. |
| LOOKING FORWARD WITH CATDV |
| CatDV has become an indispensable tool |
| for the Louvre's auditorium video projects. |
| Beyond transcoding, ingesting, and organizing |
| assets, CatDV is also used daily to optimize the |
| recycling and reuse of those assets in a speedy |
| media review and approval circuit. |
| Meanwhile, Brosset continues to explore new |
| ways to capitalize on the solution. CatDV's |
| continual evolution and update program have |
| allowed Brosset to plan integration of more |
| new features, such as LTO tape archiving, into |
| the workflow. |
CatDV enabled the |
| museum to preserve its |
| existing workflow instead |
| of imposing a particular |
| way of working. |
| ABOUT THE LOUVRE |
| The Louvre is one of the world's |
| largest and most famous |
| museums. Centrally located in |
| Paris, it is typically visited by |
| more than 10 million people |
| every year. The museum's |
| collections, which are displayed |
| in more than 650,000 square |
| feet of gallery space, include |
| iconic works that span objects |
| from antiquities to paintings, |
| sculptures, prints, and drawings |
| from the modern era. |