Audio/Video Consultant

Description

PEN American Center seeks an Audio/Video Consultant to work under contract on a project funded by The Mellon Foundation that will span approximately 7-8 months. The project will provide the background and planning work for the assessment of PEN’s archives in three locations to determine the feasibility and cost of preserving and digitizing the archives to make them available online free of charge to a global audience. The Audio/Video Consultant will report to PEN’s Website Editor and Project Lead and will work closely with the project’s Archive Consultant. The Audio/Video Consultant will be responsible for assessing the physical condition of and developing best practices for digitizing, editing, and optimizing for online availability of the audio and video materials in PEN’s archives.

Key responsibilities include:

• Assess the physical condition of a sample of PEN’s aging audio and video materials recorded on various sizes of magnetic audio tape, Beta tape, MiniDV, hard drives, audiocassettes, DVD, CD, DAT, and possibly others to determine their stability, as well as whether and how they can be digitized
• Assist Project Lead in developing best practices for digitizing, editing, and optimizing the audio and video materials for online availability
• Develop cost estimates for digitizing, editing, optimizing for online use, and long-term digital storage of the audio and video materials

Requirements include:

• Extensive knowledge and experience handling and working with magnetic audio dating back to the 1960’s
• Access to necessary equipment and ability to assess the physical condition and estimate cost of remastering a wide array of audio and video media including but not limited to various sizes of magnetic audio tape, Beta tape, MiniDV, hard drives, audiocassettes, DVD, CD, and DAT
• Extensive experience in adapting older media to new media usage and formats
• Ability to justify cost estimates to Project Lead
• Strong organizational and communication skills and professionalism

PEN is an equal opportunity employer.