Convera’s video management solution digitally captures and catalogs video footage from space shuttle missions, provides instant access to ground control, engineers and scientists.NASA&singlequot;s Johnson
Space Center (JSC) was in need of a video content management system. And there
was a major requirement—the system would have to be able to capture and catalog
nearly 550 hours of video footage from NASA’s space shuttle missions—including
the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-104 Mission and Space Shuttle Discovery STS-105
Mission.
JSC, responsible for recording,
archiving, and providing agency-wide access to video documenting Space Shuttle
and International Space Station missions, recently enlisted Convera’s Screening
Room video content management technology to assist in streamlining its video
archiving and re-purposing efforts.
The majority of the mission footage
(315 hours worth) was captured and stored in real-time and made instantly
accessible to NASA ground control, engineers and scientists via the NASA
intranet.
Convera&singlequot;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
digitized content to NASA&singlequot;s intranet.
Screening Room also was used to
digitally capture and catalog 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 its 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
centralized search interface via the NASA intranet.
The search interface, powered by
Convera&singlequot;s Screening Room, enables employees to retrieve video clips by browsing
a directory of mission flight days. Users can perform key word searches (i.e.
"docking target," "Joint Airlock hatch opening," "Canadarm2") or search by
entering data into pre-established search fields (i.e. "Mission ID," "GMT Time
Code," "Record Date," etc.).
"We see NASA&singlequot;s use of Convera&singlequot;s
solutions as a testament to the value of using Screening Room to manage digital
video content in the government and corporate environment," says Ben Plummer,
senior vice president, marketing, at Convera. "NASA flight controllers,
engineers, scientists and other personnel often need to be able to review video
documenting different events that occur at different times during one or more
missions. Convera&singlequot;s Screening Room is ideal for providing the necessary
segment-level access to such an inter-related collection of video."
To date, Convera has helped JSC
successfully capture more than 2000 hours (or 250 GB) of video from eight Space
Shuttle missions and three Space Station Expedition missions.
Web Design 
