History of NAVA

2006

On January 1, 2006 NAVA started performing the tasks stipulated by law.

2005

In April, 2005 NAVA started its pilot operation, which prepared both NAVA’s colleagues and broadcasters designated for the tasks stipulated in the Act on the National Audiovisual Archives, coming into force on 1 January 2006.
From November, 2005 NAVA continued operating as the directorate of the  John von Neumann Digital Library and Multimedia Centre PBC.

2003-2004

NAVA's institutional preparation started within the scope of the Ministry of Informatics and Communications. A project was organized for the preparation of the Technical System Plan, and a team was set up for planning the working process.
The legislation providing NAVA’ statutory background was adopted by the government on 3 November, 2004 and passed by the Parliament on 20 December, 2004.

2002

In January 2002, the NAVA portal started operating, serving as an information source and communication forum for the professions concerned, and a summary, the “Digital Archives Manual”, was issued for archive projectors and operators.
The foundation document of the NAVA Project was completed by 2002. By April 2002, all three professional teams (standardization, metadatabase development and technical) were established.

2001

The pilot system was expanded and further developed (its architecture became closer to the system of real archives with respect to speed, storage capacity, database and media management). In its structure, operation and security solutions, the extended and open system already reflected the operation of real archives; it is suitable for storing and processing video materials of about 250 hours, in broadcast quality. The extended system was finalized in November 2001.

In 2001, after several months of preparations, a proposal was put forward to establish the NAVA Project (with the support of the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage, the Prime Minister's Office and the National Radio and Television Commission). The frame of the project was provided by the Neumann House.

2000

In March 2000, the Preparatory Study was completed: it dealt with the issues of the institution's structure and function; NAVA's technical system; legal conditions and the basic concept of the descriptive database. The Preparatory Study was introduced in the course of a public discussion held at BUTE in March.

An experimental (pilot) system was set up for the practical examination of the principles involved in the Preparatory Study; this work was completed in the autumn of 2000. The system comprised about 100 hours of archive and up-to-date digitalised documents from broadcasters, processed by content. The pilot system proved to be technically operable; the work also provided valuable experience in operation and processing. The pilot system was introduced in the course of a series of professional discussions with IT representatives, the domestic media, librarian professionals and directors of audiovisual archives. It became clear that the professions agreed with the concept of the archives.
By October 2000, based on these results, a Feasibility Study was conducted as regards institutional, technological, legal and economic aspects of NAVA's foundation.

1999

The concept behind NAVA was born in May 1999 in the heads of professionals (Péter György, Gábor Knapp, András Bálint Kovács, Gábor Magyar, Krisztina Rozgonyi and István Szakadát) working for the Media Laboratory of the BUTE Information System Center. The tasks for the digital audiovisual legal deposit archives and the conditions for establishing them were determined from their regular research work and their experience gained upon visits to various larger foreign archives. These ideas were disclosed at a public hearing organized by the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage for a wide range of professional circles, in December 1999.