Qs As.pdf

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

DIMOC Digitization & Storage

Question #1: The SOO provides the estimated volume of media holdings and identifies the source of these estimates as a ‘2010 inventory study.’ As a small, DC-area business assessing whether to invest in developing a proposal to respond to the solicitation, we request that a copy of the study be provided as soon as possible and as much in advance of the bidders’ conference as possible. Will the DMA provide a copy of the study to potential bidders?

Answer: Yes, we will provide the study with redacted proprietary information (we provided the study this same way for industry day).

Question #2: The SOO provides the estimated volume of media holdings. It also indicates that the documentary period of the holdings dates from the 1940s forward. Please provide a table showing the volumes by year and media type. The more granular the information, the more responsive we can be in a proposal.

Answer: We do not have a proper inventory to provide such information about our VI holdings.

Please see attached DMA Physical Media 2010 for an inventory. The SOO provides a time-frame for the vendor to conduct an inventory.

Question #3: The SOO provides the estimated volume of media holdings. DMA.mil and its subordinate web sites characterize the Agency’s ‘products’ by source, subject matters, etc, that is, characterizes them by everyday terms that suggest or define the topics of the content. For example, one of the topic areas supported by DMA, via a web site hosting, is The Historical Office of the OSD, with publications, documents and images. Another is DIFOS DEO training and instructional content, for public affairs personnel. A third example is HometownLink and its print, radio, video and photo content of news releases. Can you please provide an iteration of the inventory by content or subject matter types?

This information is most important to determine if and how a commercial vendor can monetize the collection. Because the bidders conference is in California we need some additional information that will justify the expense to travel to this event. The more granular the information, the higher the probability that we will investigate this opportunity further.

Answer: We do not have a proper inventory to provide such information about our VI holdings.

Please see attached DMA Physical Media 2010 for an inventory. The SOO provides a time-frame for the vendor to conduct an inventory.

Question #4: Reference DMA March 5th Bidders Conference - Will potential bidders be given the opportunity to review how the material is physically organized in DMA’s archives?

Answer: Yes. A tour of the DIMOC Imagery Management facility will be provided during the pre-proposal conference

Question #5: Reference DMA March 5th Bidders Conference - Will potential bidders be given the opportunity to screen, review and analyze film, video, audio and print content described in the SOO?

Answer: No. Only the contract awardee will have this opportunity. The SOO provides a time-frame for the vendor to conduct an inventory.

I noticed it was listed in III.TASKS of STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES that "the govt. is willing to exclude the motion film assets from the contract"...our company is interested in discussing the possibility of just performing the scanning of the "physical (motion) film assets" since this is such an enormous large task in itself. 11,000+ hrs. is over 60 Million Feet of film! We will still consider bidding the whole project if this is not separated out...but regardless - there really is some KEY INFORMATION MISSING FOR SCANNING SPECS. See below:

Question #6: What are the film formats of the film assets (35mm, 16mm, 8mm) and how much of each?

Answer: We do not have a proper inventory to provide such information about our VI holdings.

Please see attached DMA Physical Media 2010 for an inventory. The SOO provides a time-frame for the vendor to conduct an inventory.

Question #7: What are the scanning resolution requirements of the film? Did not see this listed anywhere in the docs and it is VERY important. This is usually answered in DPI or MegaPixels. A typical HD scan these days is scanned at 2000 dpi on the film or 3.1 MegaPixels (2048x1536) while UHD would be scanned at 4000 dpi on the film or 12.6 MegaPixels (4096x3072) for each frame. Scan resolution affects so much...scanning time...storage space, costs, etc. and must be specified. All that was listed in the Statement of Objectives doc. was the output file types (still images as JPEG Q12 and motion video as H.264/MPEG4). These details do not specify what RESOLUTION the film is to be scanned at -but only how the files are packaged for distribution.

Answer: Please see the attached Technical Aspects for Digitization.

Question #8: How will the performance and dollar amount requested be evaluated?

Answer: The GOV will evaluate how much digital content can be provided within the limitations of up to $1m per year in the first four years and $995k in the last year of contract.

Question #9: Can additional information be provided about the subject matter (content) of the DMA collections/holdings?

Answer: The subject matter of the physical motion media holdings can be, to a certain extent, discovered via www.defenseimagery.mil. Conducting a search on DefenseImagery.mil for "tank" permitting all holdings to be searched (e.g. Still, motion, A/V, IMI, and Site Content) will return 1,248 motion media results. Within these results is metadata describing the subject matter (e.g. Caption, date shot, format, etc.) of some of our physical motion media holdings, and some more extensive than others.

Often the title assigned is not following a specific standard or process but at the time and over the course of DIMOC being the VI records center, different organizational methods and structures produced inconsistent metadata. The subject matter for the physical still imagery is unknown electronically (e.g. We may know subject matter from a caption sheet filed with the still imagery).

Question #10: There are two main drivers for archive management, one is the long term preservation of content, and the other improved accessibility of content. Access being defined as ability to search, manage video and metadata, and retrieve digital assets from an online system. While our company recognizes that both are important, what is the criticality of access through the preservation effort?

Answer: We are looking for a solution which digitizes, stores and makes the imagery easily retrievable to our customers.

Question #11: There is a requirement for federated search off the DIMOC website but how will DIMOC users wish to gain access to the masters (physical/digital)?

Answer: Master physical material will be returned to the Riverside location upon completion of digitization. It will be available in a physical form to government customers who want access to it.

Question #12: Considering access is important, is there a measure that you can provide that will indicate to us now much of our solution services we should provide in a measure of deal metrics on digitization versus access?

Answer: Need further clarification on this question. However, we would like performance metrics on all aspects of the digitization and retrieval operations.

Question #13: What tools and workflow do the existing DIMOC editors use to provide key wording services to the assets coming into the system?

Answer: Editors currently access the digital assets and review/edit caption data and add keywords in the Artesia based asset management system prior to publishing. All still imagery work is currently accomplished within existing DAMS system. Physical motion caption editing is accomplished via a .xml form which is then ingested as caption only data into the database. Additional workflow and keywording information can be provided upon reward.

Question #14: In terms of digitization, it was stated that there were systems that could enable digitization on-site that could be used. Is there a list that can be provided of equipment that would be available for this effort?

Answer: We will provide space and utilities. We may also be able to offer limited assistance with some legacy motion playback capabilities.

Question #15: Our assumption is that DIMOC will cover all shipping and coordination with remote government agencies for physical assets to be delivered to Riverside of the digitization project. Is this correct?

Answer: Subject to budget constraints, yes

Question #16: Is it possible to leverage existing shipping service agreements and rates that DIMOC uses?

Answer: DIMOC should be able to cover costs for shipping media

Question #17: Will assets that come to Riverside, once digitized, will they remain in Riverside?

Answer: Master physical material not digitized onsite must be returned to the Riverside location upon completion of digitization.

Question #18: It’s assumed that through the digitization project DIMOC may need to have access to digital master content. What is the timeframe for delivery of this content back to DIMOC?

Answer: Subject to negotiation, however it is expected to have incremental return over. It is our expectation is that DIMOC and military customers will have access to digital content via the DI.mil website link to the contractor.

Question #19: Should the delivery back in five years should be priced into the deal?

Answer: It is expected that a mutually agreeable method of transferring copies of the digital content back to the government will be completed.

Question #20: In the meeting on March 5th, it was stated that DIMOC would provide agency access to content by creating an interface with the winning bidder's solution. This solution would work via a federated search and content retrieval process. The assumption is that if we can provide an API that DIMOC staff can enable the federated search, correct?

Answer: Yes, this assumption is correct.

Question #21: Can you tell us how much digital content you are storing today and forecasted broken out into categories: Graphics, Video and Audio (number of assets, storage size), (Existing, future forecast or previous annual metrics) Answer: This will be provided in the metadata dump ASAP.

Question #22: What critical background experience as perceived by DIMOC that the Program Manager should possess? Are there travel expectations associated with the position that would require project support outside of Riverside?

Answer: Response to this question is posted (Addendum to FAR Part 12-Rev2) along with the solicitation.

Question #23: During the pre-proposal conference, it was mentioned that there are 100 million minutes of content, which is about 1.67 million hours of content. We have a few questions related to this figure: We have never given this number to my knowledge and I don't recall hearing it at the conference.

Is this an accurate estimate?

Answer: About two years ago, when this project was first introduced, the amount was closer to 455,000 hours of video, 12,000 hours of film and 39,000 hours of audio. We’re curious what the actual amount of content is. The numbers provided in the SOO which are from the Study are estimates and were acquired in 2010. These are the most accurate count of our media quantities at this time. The contractor is permitted a 60 day inventory at the start of the contract that could be used to more accurately define the count(s).

Question #24: Could you provide a breakdown of the amount of video, audio and film in the current collection (Hours or Minutes of each format)?

Answer: Unfortunately, all we have for a breakdown is from the 2010 Study.

Question #25: Will all of the content be coming from Crystal City? Or will content also be coming from other locations?

Answer: In the original RFP (again, from 2 years ago), other locations were mentioned, such as Alexandria, Anacosta, San Antonio, etc. All of the content is located in our Riverside, CA location. We had previously moved it from this disparate locations in 2011.

Question #26: Do you believe an extension will be offered for responses? During the pre-bid conference, it was mentioned that a 30-day extension was likely.

Answer: An amendment will be posted on FedBizOps extending the solicitation response date.

Answer: No. Only the contract awardee will have this opportunity. The SOO provides a time-frame for the vendor to conduct an inventory.