JSC USE CONVERA’S SCREENING ROOM TECHNOLOGY

CONVERA have announced that NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) has been using Convera’s Screening Room video content management technology to digitally capture and catalogue nearly 550 hours of video footage from the last two space shuttle missions.
JSC, responsible for recording, archiving, and providing agency-wide access to video documenting Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions, recently enlisted Convera to assist in streamlining its video archiving and re-purposing efforts.
The majority of the mission footage was captured and stored in real-time and made instantly accessible to NASA ground control, engineers and scientists via the NASA intranet.
Convera’s Screening Room software, deployed at JSC in September 2000, ingested the live video feeds that were transmitted via one Shuttle and four Space Station Ku-band satellite downlinks; created a searchable database of video clips; and simultaneously published the digitised content to NASA’s intranet. Screening Room also was used to digitally capture and catalogue videotapes that were shot and carried back by crew members aboard the Shuttle. The mission footage contains lengthy scenes of the installation of the U.S. Joint Airlock at the International Space Station, including crew members conducting pressure and leak checks, as well as scenes of five spacewalks from both missions, and more than two tons of experiment hardware, food and logistical supplies being delivered.
NASA uses their video footage for real-time and post-mission analysis, training, public educational programs, the production of public affairs videos and for publishing content to the Internet and NASA intranet.
Footage from the missions is accessible to employees from one centralised search interface via the NASA intranet. The search interface, powered by Convera’s Screening Room, enables employees to retrieve video clips by browsing a directory of mission flight days. Users can perform key word searches or search by entering data into pre-established search fields.
To date, Convera have helped JSC successfully capture over 2000 hours of video from eight Space Shuttle missions and three Space Station Expedition missions. (CD)