Abstract: A system and method for creating digital content from a plurality of legacy media formats, such as paper, CD, VHS, DVD, etc. A coordination node is utilized to balance the computation load between the various processing units, particularly those involved in the second stage of operation. Extraction units are used to input various types of information into the system as digital media. Once the information has been extracted, the coordination node and its associated software determine the load on each processing unit in the second stage and based on this and other factors, determine which processing unit will perform the conversion. The output is then stored in storage devices. This approach maximizes system utilization, while being more cost efficient than traditional extraction systems.