Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)
Creating a connected digital collection for one of the world's leading museums.
Aetopia modernised how the V&A manages, protects and shares its collections, migrating 1.4 million assets and launching a secure video streaming portal for the National Video Archive of Performance.
The background.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is one of the world's leading museums of art, design and performance. Across its family of museums and cultural venues, the organisation cares for more than 2.8 million objects spanning over 5,000 years of human creativity.
As its collection continued to grow, the V&A needed a modern approach to managing digital assets and making them accessible to staff, researchers and the public. The organisation wanted a single, trusted source for digital content that could integrate with existing collections systems while supporting future growth.
The challenge.
Four goals, agreed at the outset.
Create a single source of truth
Provide a central platform where digital assets could be stored, managed and accessed consistently across the organisation.
Improve metadata quality and discovery
Reduce manual administration while ensuring assets remain accurately classified, searchable and connected to collection records.
Expand public access
Support the delivery of high quality collection imagery through the V&A's public collections website and digital services.
Modernise specialist archives
Provide secure access to performance recordings through the National Video Archive of Performance, whilst maintaining licensing and rights controls.
A connected digital collections ecosystem.
Aetopia implemented a DAM platform designed around the scale and complexity of the V&A's collections. Rather than operating in isolation, the DAM became part of a wider ecosystem connecting collection information, digital assets and public-facing services.
- Migration of approximately 1.4 million digital assets into a central platform.
- Live two-way integration with the collections management system.
- Automated asset ingestion and metadata creation.
- Rights and permissions management across the collection.
- Delivery of over 1.2 million assets to the public collections website.
- Ongoing support, consultancy and platform development.
The work, step by step.
From first migration to the relaunch of the performance archive.
Each stage removed friction for staff and opened access for the public.
Discovery and migration
Scoped the digital estate and migrated around 1.4 million assets into one central platform, with direct linking between collection records and their associated media.
Integration and automation
Built a live two-way integration with the collections management system and automated asset ingestion with rights metadata, reducing manual administration across the organisation.
Public delivery
Delivered over 1.2 million assets to the V&A's public collections website, extending the reach of the collection to online audiences worldwide.
National Video Archive of Performance portal launch
Launched a secure, IP-controlled cloud-hosted streaming portal with on-site kiosks and a usage dashboard, giving visitors and staff access to over 500 performance recordings.
From vaulted to visible: National Video Archive of Performance.
In 2024 the V&A approached Aetopia as their trusted DAM provider to create a highly functional video portal with an interface that aligns with the organisation's branding standards. Aetopia built a cloud-hosted streaming portal, linked to the DAM, which is IP-restricted so it can only be accessed under controlled conditions from museum locations.
"The changes to the system of delivery have massively streamlined our processes, enabling us to deliver access to new recordings more quickly than before. The presentation is far more modern and in line with user expectations than what we were previously able to offer. It also allows visitors to discover other recordings. The ability to deliver access across V&A sites and directly to staff desks has broadened usage and resulted in wider staff engagement with the collection."
The results.
Where this goes next.
With core systems integrated and established, the V&A is well positioned to continue expanding digital access across its collections.
Aetopia DAM
Built for collections at any scale.
Aetopia's Digital Asset Management platform helps museums, archives and cultural institutions preserve, organise and provide access to their most important collections, with powerful metadata management, system integration and the scalability to grow with your digitisation programme.