Mandala Audio-Video lets researchers create dynamic and detailed audio and video archives for public or internal use. This guide explains the affordances of Audio-Video for scholars.
What are the benefits of using Audio-Video for collaborative research?
- Integration with existing UVA infrastructure, including NetBadge.
Creating accounts and teams is easy, and you can restrict access to UVA members.
- Highly detailed metadata capabilities.
Unlike YouTube, Dropbox, or other services, Audio-Video lets you record important details according to the PBCore schema. - Interaction with other projects through Subjects and Places.
Labeling audio or video entries with subjects or places lets viewers explore your project alongside related images, visualizations, texts, and more. - Transcription capabilities.
Audio-Video lets you upload and download transcripts of your media, including multilingual translations.
Create a Collaborative Collection
To make a collection, you need to log in to Audio-Video first. Then, you can create a collection. You can also add subcollections to organize your media.
To add contributors to this collection, they first must have an Audio-Video account. Creating an account for UVA members is easy: they go to audio-video.shanti.virginia.edu and log in with their NetBadge account. Logging in for the first time creates the account automatically. Once they’ve created their account, members do not need to be logged in to collaborate.
Adding members to a collection lets them submit files and create entries. To add members, follow the Add New Collection Members guide. Once you’ve added members, you can change their role.
Tracking Workflow
Large archival projects require tracking several tasks or modifications for each file in the collection. In the “Details” for the project, you’ll see several options for workflow tracking, including several generic fields (for example, “Media Problem #1”). You can assign specific issues to these generic fields internally, though you cannot change their names in the “Details.”
Contribute to Collections
Acceptable File Types
You can upload files of less than 2GB in size that are in the following formats:
- .flv
- .asf
- .wmv
- .qt
- .mov
- .mpg
- .avi
- .mp3
- .wav
- .3gp
- .mp4
- .wma
- .mpeg
- .m4v
- .3g
If you need to upload files larger than 2GB, contact shanti@virginia.edu.
Adding and Editing Media
Check out the following guides:
Metadata
The scope of information attached to media in Mandala is much wider than other media storage applications. Metadata tracking in Audio-Video uses the PBCore schema. Public Broadcasting in the US designed the schema specifically for sound and video. This lets people understand and interpret media details across institutions. You can find out more at pbcore.org.
You can see metadata fields in the “Details” of a project, and edit them in the “Edit” tab.
Transcription
You may want to transcribe and translate media in your project. Mandala supports two types of transcripts: .srt Subrip files, and .txt InqScribe files. Use the Transcript Formatting guide for help. Once you've added your transcript, viewers can toggle languages on and off, or download the transcripts to their own computer.
Subjects and Places
You can link your audio and video entries to other media within Mandala with subjects and places Knowledge Maps. These are special labels that let you tag content across all Mandala tools. These