2009-10-28: PoINT’s hat trick in the Netherlands - The storage specialist based in Siegen wins three important museums as customers
Siegen. PoINT Software & Systems GmbH recently won three important Dutch museums as customers. The Openlucht Museum Arnheim, the Tropenmuseum Amsterdam and the Kroeller-Mueller-Museum in Otterlo rely on the products of the storage specialist based in Siegen concerning storing and archiving their inventory as well as all the related information and documents.
The function of a museum is not only to exhibit objects to public, but in first place to preserve: Museums collect, evaluate and categorize our world with all its variations, they are a window to other worlds – be it past, inaccessible, foreign or spiritual ones. Those who want to show the world – or at least even a small part of it – need a lot of space. This does not only apply to objects but also to media exhibits and media collections. The demand for storage capacity is enormous, the safe administration therefore is a job for experts.
This was the main reason why the Openlucht Museum Arnheim decided for the integration of a storage solution made by PoINT. The museum is known for the exhibition of historical buildings and objects which gives the visitor an idea of everyday life in the past. The museum holds numerous analogue and digital film and photo material, which have to be stored safely and long term. Especially the digital film material requires a large-scale and reliable storage. On behalf of the museum DISC Benelux, a long standing PoINT partner, integrated a Blu-ray storage system offering a capacity of 5.2 TB. Thanks to PoINT Jukebox Manager, this system can easily be enlarged. PoINT Jukebox Manager is a software solution for controlling and integrating optical jukeboxes as well as single drives in IT-environments. This way cost-effective and energy saving DISC Blu-ray jukeboxes with 50 GB media were installed at the Openlucht Museum Arnheim.
The Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, which has dedicated itself to non-western cultures, is a perfect example concerning the storage capacity dimensions required at museums. Its collection comprises more than 500.000 digital files as JPG, audio files and video files as well as scanned inventory cards and other texts referring to the exhibitions. The exhibition is administrated by a software product called TMS (The Museum System). TMS archives the documents by the PoINT Jukebox Manager file system on a DISC Blu-ray jukebox. The data is archived long term on 50 GB media. As for this installation, the storage solution is not only used for archiving but also for the online availability of data.
At the Kroeller-Mueller-Museum Otterlo, documentation of the exhibitions and the correspondence are more important than the exhibits themselves. The collection of the art museum comprises paintings of famous painters like Vincent van Gogh, George Seurat, Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian. At this museum PoINT Jukebox Manager is used together with PoINT Archiver, a file-based archiving solution with almost unlimited capacity. This way, for example files of the museum employees, information regarding the collection, exchange e-mails and photographies of the collection are stored and archived. E-Mails are written to Blu-ray disc rewritable media (instead of tape) with an exchange backup solution and PoINT Jukebox Manager. PoINT Archiver stores the users’ files automatically on the jukebox. In case a user deletes or alters a file by mistake, it can easily be imported from the BD media. Older files can be recovered selectively by means of versioning. The digital documents are archived by TMS and PoINT Jukebox Manager on a BD jukebox.
“Our continuous market presence and our fully developed products convince anew”, says Marco Voegele, Manager Sales & Marketing of PoINT Software & Systems GmbH. “Our successful projects in three prestigious Dutch museums show that the customers appreciate both our consistency and open-mindedness as well as our innovation energy and our know-how: quality made in Germany”
About PoINT
PoINT Software & Systems GmbH, situated in Siegen, is specialized in the development of software products and systems solutions for storage and management of data using all available mass storage technologies like hard disks, magnetic tapes and optical media. Close collaboration with leading hardware manufacturers enables an early support of innovative storage technologies. Besides these complete solutions PoINT also offers its know-how as Software-Development-Kits, which can be easily integrated in other applications, as well as project solutions and consultancy. PoINT products are distributed by 50 partners in more than 25 countries world-wide and have been installed successfully in more than 2 million installations. The PoINT product portfolio ranges from recording and duplication of CD/DVD/BDs, professional audio- and video recording to business critical network solutions, which are based on automated systems with optical media, magnetic tapes and hard disks.