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Avalon Update

Jon Cameron

Indiana University Libraries

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Samvera Virtual Connect 2026

May 12, 2026

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What is Avalon Media System?

  • Streaming audio and video access platform designed for libraries and archives
  • Flexible and granular access control
  • Easy transcoding workflows
  • Supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation and IMLS

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Avalon Community

  • Institutions using Avalon
    • https://avalon.samvera.org/features#implementations
    • In-progress implementation: Michigan State University
  • Monthly Roundtable Meeting
    • https://samvera.atlassian.net/wiki/x/KwK0d
  • Public Slack Channel
    • #avalon in Samvera Slack

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Avalon Media System 8.1 – Aug 2025

Dependency Upgrades

  • Rails 8
  • Blacklight 8 + Bootstrap 5
  • Ramp 4

Features

  • Increased WCAG 2.1compliance
  • Filter text fields available on Blacklight modals with many values

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Avalon Media System 8.1.1 Sep 2025

Bug Fix Release

  • Fixed a bug that caused metadata for supplemental files to not save properly
  • Fixed typeahead form fields where styling and functionality were broken due to extra elements
  • A valid and empty response is now provided when no parameters are provided to the IIIF Content Search service instead of a 500 error

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Avalon Media System 8.2 May 2026 (Coming soon!)

Features

  • Accessibility Updates
    • Full WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance
  • Permissions Model Changes
    • Units as full objects with permissions
    • Inheritance from Unit/Collection for view-only users
  • Audio Description Support
  • API Updates

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Ramp: IIIF Media Component Library

MediaPlayer

Ramp 4

  • Support for displaying TextualBody annotations in Annotations component (previously known as MarkersDisplay component)
  • Display time-rail highlights for overlapping or nested timespans in

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Ramp Annotations Component

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Ramp - Annotations Component

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Accessibility in 8.2

MediaPlayer

  • Support for Audio Description text tracks
  • Caption and transcript documents can be added to any media file, rendered in Ramp, and downloadable by user
  • Configurable restrictions on item publishing
    • New flag for “accessibility exemption” – mark whether a media object is exempt from caption/transcript requirements
  • Meets WCAG 2.1 AA

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What’s Next

Avalon 8.3 and beyond

  • IIIF Auth Flow 2.0 and Presentation 4.0
  • LTI 1.3
  • Bulk metadata update tooling for collections staff
  • Adding an admin dashboard for UI-based site customization

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Get in Touch with the Avalon Team

  • #avalon channel in Samvera Slack
  • avalon.samvera.org/contact
  • avalon-discuss-l@iu.edu Mailing List
  • demo.avalonmediasystem.org

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Thank You!

avalonmediasystem.org