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Info

For information on current and previous versions of Avalon, please see the Releases page on Github.

Upcoming 6.x Releases

  • Enhanced structural metadata editing—edit structure for a section visually
  • Import of structure within media files (such as WAV cue points) upon ingest
  • Adaptive dynamic streaming
  • Performance improvements for objects and playlists with large numbers of items
  • IIIF Manifest generation from media objects

Release 7

Moving to Hyrax / and the Modern Hydra Samvera Stack   
For more information on Release 7, please see our standalone road map: Avalon 7 Roadmap
Below are features originally planned for release 7; some of these will be edited or removed as Avalon is written to use Hyrax as its base.
  • PCDM support
  • Exhibits Via Spotlight 
  • Spotlight integration and implementation
  • How-to Documentation
  •  Strategy for QA
  • Staffing and workflow
  • Integrated Automated Test environments
  •  Remove RTMP Support 
  • Drop Flash
  • Investigate HLS on all platforms and its implications
  • Create one player view in Avalon
  • Re-implement media element customization against the main branch
  • Adjust streaming security model
  • Move to standard mediaelement
  •  Better internal permissions setup
  •  Gemification/Break interdependencies
  • Streaming gem for another repo app
  • Bulk metadata/editing gem
  •  Structural Metadata Improvements
  • granular seeking
  • move a master file to a different item
  • merge/split items
  • Better local transcode support
  • Descriptive metadata stored as RDF

Release 8 

Full feature list yet to be determined.

  • Publishing Out to External Media Sites 
  • Dynamic Adaptive Streaming 
  • Deeper integration with Hyrax Community 
  • Further gemification/shredding of core components

Technical work yet to be scheduled:

  • Improve unit testing 
  • SAAS solution 
  • RDF
  •  ImplemenPCDM
  •  Packaging/deployment, e.g. use of Docker. Improving installation experience.  
  • Scalability issues that may arise  
  • Automated functional testing

Unscheduled Features

  • Facebook integration 
  • Reporting and metrics 
  • Collections based group management 
  • Collections based master file handling 
  • Internationalization 
  • Administrative metadata (owner, digitizer)
  • Provenance metadata 
  • PBCore/DublinCore crosswalks 
  • Controlled Vocabularies 
  • Import media from other sources 
  • Image content/auxiliary items (how does Avalon fit with other initiatives?)
  • Integration with oral history tools

...

Our goal with Avalon 7.0 is to offer a full-featured media streaming application based on the modern Samvera stack. To this end, Avalon 7 will be built using Hyrax as a base, offering developers an environment they know and understand, and offering administrators the flexibility to run stand-alone streaming solutions or integrate scalable streaming into existing Hyrax-based applications. As we work toward full-feature parity with Avalon 6, we will continue development and support. Each dot release milestone is estimated to be a 6-week work cycle.

0.1 (Github Milestone) - Using the Avalon Media Player Within Hyrax and IIIF 3.0 Generation and Consumption


The Avalon player will be embedded in a Hyrax app and be initialized with a IIIF manifest generated dynamically from item metadata. In addition, the Hyrax generic work type will be extended minimally to allow streaming via a minimal IIIF manifest or directly. 
  • Core media types (audio and video) can be ingested, transcoded, and attached to a Generic Work.

  • IIIF Manifest generated for consumption by player

    • IIIF gem used in Hyrax updated to generate IIIF Presentation API 3.0 manifests (possible collaboration with community)

    • Necessary technical metadata added to Generic work for IIIF manifest (upstream)

  • Media player consumes IIIF manifest generated by the application from the work's metadata

  • Player streams media (basic http streaming or from specific streaming server)

  • Development, testing and infrastructure needs for Avalon 7 development defined and in place

0.2 (Github Milestone)


This preview will further refine the IIIF Player, auto-generate IIIF manifests based on an Avalonish -work type metadata, and begin discussion and sketches for a branded hyrax-based Avalon solution bundle. Structural metadata will be ported over as is for use in a IIIF manifest.


  • A Media Work type in Hyrax is created to store descriptive metadata and technical metadata. Metadataists work on descriptive metadata for the Avalon work type
    • Order of masterfiles is necessary metadata
    • Order of multi-valued pieces of metadata will wait until later
  • Player consumes IIIF manifest generated by the application (media work type)
    • Time can be navigated via structural metadata
    • Port Structural metadata (structure within) as current XML 
  • Dynamically generated IIIF compliant manifest generated from Media Work type
    • We intend for the manifest to be a central point of interoperability
    • The manifest will be based on the current IIIF-AV 3.0 standard
    • Manifests will be generated based on technical and descriptive metadata
    • Manifests  should ideally use the same endpoints as Hyku (possibly the same generation tool)
    • The manifest contains the structural information, The display should exercise the manifest. 
    • Structural metadata will be stored in XML and crosswalked to the manifest
    • Metadata experts talk through what metadata (descriptive or any other kind) to include. There is already an issue for the recommended descriptive metadata. Need to take a deeper look for technical metadata. (https://github.com/avalonmediasystem/avalon/issues/1772)(https://gist.github.com/jlhardes/1e3adada7410591f46b170e65dce20af)
  • Investigate Matterhorn alternatives
    • Matterhorn gives us the nice interface for monitoring
    • Hyrax may suggest a monitoring interface for job queues
    • Exploring how from a collection manager/depositor perspective: if there are issues, how does that get resolved?

0.3 (Github Milestone)

The goal of this cycle is to continue work on refining a media work type, while building out critical feature endpoints. We will initially focus on building out playlist endpoints as a decoupled service (create, read, update, delete). The service will return an IIIF compliant manifest that can be consumed by Avalon's Standalone Player. The team will also take an initial pass at UI/UX designs for Avalon on Hyrax.

  • Playlist Endpoint (No UI)
    • Can create a playlist 
    • Can create an item in playlist with a stop / start
    • Can read a playlist and playlist items
  • Playlists have an endpoint that returns IIIF manifest(s)
  • Standalone player can play playlist manifest (basic functionality)
  • Descriptive Metadata continues / Version .2 of spec is implemented in WorkType
  • UI/UX work - mockups/ initial skinning of an Avalonish Hyrax solution bundle
    • Further refinements on player itself
    • Structural metadata rendering
    • Start of style guide


0.4 (Github Milestone)


  • Simple UI modifications in Hyrax
    • Work done on how the stock Hyrax interface will need to be modified for Avalon needs
  • Re-evaluating IIIF 3 manifest generation as the spec nears completion
  • Avalon look and feel defined, with mockups for evaluation
    • Style guide documentation written and available
  • Support for streaming servers
  • Starting on derivative generation work/strategy