During the 124th Audio Engineering Society conference in Amsterdam, IU Jacobs School of Music's Department of Recording Arts presented a paper titled:

A New System For File-Based Audio Recording, Preservation, and Access
at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music

This paper outlines the system developed to handle high resolution audio and other digital assets captured during IUJSoM concerts. This is a brief rundown of the system that is described fully in the paper:

• Record concert to workstation and Masterlink as backup
• Prepare/edit file
  • Track Marks.
  • Track Metadata.
  • Track log.
• Burn Reference CD from Masterlink or workstation
• Each night workstations are backed up to Xserve RAID.
  • New or modified files only are backed up.
• Quality Control
  • Production assistants QC files.
    • Check track marks, metadata, and track logs.
    • Create 16/44.1 derivative files for upload to Variations.
• Library/Variations staff upload SRC files.
• QCd files are backed up from RAID to MDSS
• Original files removed from Workstations

As discussed in the paper, most of the above process is automated by perl scripts. Below are example scripts (saved as text files) showing exactly how each task is performed. We suggest opening these text files in a program that color codes the perl commands, variables and comments, such as Smultron for mac.

• Backup.pl (view as colored HTML text)
  
  This example perl script loads variables from a text file, mounts the appropriate shared directory from the originating venue's computer, then backs up all contents to the designated backup directory. The script then examines the contents of each project directory; if an "access" directory is found inside a project directory, the project is copied to the production directory for further processing.
• ToLib.pl (view as colored HTML text)
  
  This example perl script loads variables from a text file, examines the contents of each project directory in the designated production directory, then sends each project's accession files to the library for processing. This script also initiates the "ToMDSS.txt" and "Removal.txt" scripts in series.
• ToMDSS.pl (view as colored HTML text)
  
  This example perl scripts loads variables from a text file, examines the contents of each project folder in the designated production directory, then each project that has been successfully sent to the library is transfered to the designated backup directory on the Mass Data Storage System. This script is only useful for use with a HPSS (High Performance Storage System) due to the use of special transfer commands. However, this could be easily modified to use ssh, sftp, or any other transfer method for use with a different long-term archive solution.
• Removal.pl (view as colored HTML text)
  
  This script loads variables from a text file, examines the contents of project folders in the designated production directory, then deletes project directories from the originating machine that have been successfully transfered to the long-term archive. Any project directories that have already been removed from the originating machine are removed from the backup directory.
• variables.pl
  
  This text file contains commonly changed variables. Having these in a text file allows them to be changed easily without knowing perl.

Any questions or comments can be directed to Travis Gregg and Konrad Strauss.