The successful introduction of the CIS-Net AVI in 2008 provided an opportunity for CISAC members to review the current management and operation of the Audio Visual Index (AVI).
The decision to fully re-engineer the current AVI came after the CISAC community examined it and determined that there was no need to maintain two separate AVI databases. The goal was also consistent with CISAC’s objective to reduce its costs while continuing to provide an effective tool for societies to access audio-visual information and determine the authoritative source for music cue sheets.
The AVI was first launched in 1999 by the CISAC community and has been successfully hosted and maintained by PRS for Music. After years of proven service, the main goal in re-designing the AVIndex was to respect the established, proven functions while trying to meet the following objectives and anticipated benefits:
- Reduce administration costs and gain efficiencies by enhancing the user interface and automating manual business processes;
- Reduce AV work time to market by making the submission process more fluid and improving automated duplicate matching processes and conflict resolution;
- Improve data quality control and documentation transparency by implementing stricter business rules validation, new mandatory fields and by bringing the Cue Sheet documentation closer to the index;
- Sustain societies’ ROI from CIS-Net AVI Online Search Engine by re-using the data exchange platform and further position the importance of the CIS Audio-visual EDI standard (AVR format);
- Raise interest from potential new suppliers and further globalize the tool acceptance and usage by integrating the AVIndex contribution mechanism with the ‘CIS-Net powered by FastTrack’ product family;
- Achieve economies of scale by implementing and maintaining one database, one user interface, one integrated environment;
- Minimize societies’ implementation costs and provide a smooth and almost transparent transition between the current AVIndex and the re-engineered AVIndex by respecting societies’ established business and technical practices.
We are optimistic that the re-engineered AVIndex’s innovative approach and user-friendly interface will not only be well received by the community but will also raise awareness about future business opportunities. One opportunity already provided by the enhancements to the audio-visual titles’ standardization, duplicate matching rules and existing data exchange is a solid platform of the translated titles initiative between publishers and societies. The same components and integrated environment will be key assets in the development of the AV Batch matching project. While the intended purpose of these initiatives is to improve societies’ identification and research throughput, having the cue sheet documentation integrated to the index duplicate matching mechanism will bring opportunities to further control and track cue sheet documentation quality.
In 2008, we adopted the “AVI the shining light of copyright” slogan for the launch of CIS-Net AVI Online Search Engine; four years later the community leadership has renewed its support to fully revamp the AVIndex and continue to provide the foundation for an even brighter future.
Sylvain Masson, BMI
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