Imaging 12 - Fujifilm Graphic Systems

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E-COMMERCE digital asset management For more information on any of the DAM products mentioned here please visit the vendor’s Web site. Artesia TEAMS www.artesiatech.com Banta www.banta-im.com Extensis Portfolio www.extensis.com Picdar Hosted Media Mogul www.picdar.com Pine Tree Systems Mosaic www.pine.dk Quark DMS euro.quark.com Union Technologies Resourca www.utluk.com WebWare Mambo www.webwarecorp.com 14 DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT – THE TECHNOLOGY The heart of a DAM service is its asset management software, or the system that allows storage and retrieval of media, and according to Ursula Connolly of storage networking specialists Sagitta Performance Systems, “this is the bit that costs money”. Connolly’s advice is “spend as much as you can afford – there’s no point committing your assets to a system that restricts your access to them.” There are two levels of digital asset management software: ‘enterprise’, or a system that can be used to offer a service to customers, and ‘in-house’ or ‘closed’ systems. The differences are not necessarily in functionality (although generally an enterprise system offers separate and protected administrator and client access) but more in robustness, level of customisability and cost. Both levels of system are usually set up to handle a variety of media types: images, text, audio, video and laid-out documents. Off-the-shelf systems include Quark’s Digital Media System (DMS), which can track usage and manage revisions, and Extensis’ Portfolio suite of Web-based cataloguing, retrieval and distribution tools. Wellrespected all-round systems designed for enterprise level use include Artesia’s TEAMS, management services, partly because they already have a relationship with customers that centres around the production of collateral, but mainly because they also have expertise in image handling – and for all that many digital asset management databases are set up to handle a variety of media, images still account for the vast majority of current digital assets. Printers can harness their current image handling skills to build up a strong digital asset management service, while at the same Imaging 12 autumn 2002 WebWare’s Mambo and Pine Tree Systems’ Mosaic. There are also systems that handle primarily one type of media, with subsidiary capabilities for others. Some DAM services, such as Picdar’s Hosted Media Mogul, exist exclusively on the Web: typically, an account initialisation fee followed by a monthly subscription buys a set amount of space on a server, together with browser-based software for archiving and retrieval. myfujifilm.com, currently being trialled in the US, is another Web-based system, although oriented more towards inhouse use: the system also includes workflow tools such as online proofing and preflighting. There are also hybrid systems such as Union Technologies’ Resourca, which can deliver via both in-house Web or intranet servers, or via outsourced ASP servers run by Union Technologies. One issue for DAM service providers is rights protection: where copyrighted images or other media are stored and distributed, often the service provider is called upon to implement a royalties levy. Some asset management software has ancillary rightsprotection packages for this purpose. Re-purposing of assets involves any manipulation of the asset for a specific time adding skills to handle more unusual media types. Competition for printers and repro houses is likely to come from advertising agencies, which have long offered their clients an asset management service based on manual cataloguing and storage of transparencies or, more recently, scans. Creative thinking required As DAM develops in the UK, advertising agencies may win over printers simply output channel. Re-purposing high-resolution print images for use on a Web site, for instance, might involve re-sizing, reducing resolution, converting CMYK to RGB and applying a colour profile. Some systems – particularly those tied into pre-press workflow for printers of regular publications – can handle automatic re-purposing, in which a number of parameters determine an asset’s appearance in a given output form. Once the software has been chosen, there’s the infrastructure to be determined – the storage and access hardware. There are primary and secondary storage banks: primary consists of online hard disks and RAID arrays; secondary consists of removable media such as DVDs or CDs. Data security is almost as important as the asset management software itself. This means thinking about physical security, controlling access to data and maintaining data integrity. DAM companies often have multiple back-up practices in place, including hourly, daily, and weekly routines, with a strict rotation of back-ups kept in a variety of secure locations. Web-based systems offer the advantage that their data is stored offsite – security and back-up are the responsibility of the system provider. imber, desert, water, lights, feather, chips > The heart of a digital asset management service is its metadata: short descriptions, thumbnails and/or keywords relating to the assets that are stored in a database and searched by the user. Metadata can be entered per asset or automatically on a batch basis. The metadata is linked to the asset itself, which is normally stored on a central server for because they have in-house designers on hand to take creative decisions about repurposing, as Mark Stephenson says: “Not all re-purposing is about re-sizing – it makes more sense for a customer to place a digital asset management contract with an outfit who can design from scratch where necessary, and printers don’t always have designers in-house.” However, as Stephenson points out, where printers do offer design to strengthen their asset management
service, there is plenty of business to be found: “Not all customers need a full-scale ad agency. The vast majority of a printer or repro house’s asset management customers would be happy with sensible, functional design services to work alongside the re-purposing offering.” Stephenson believes the market for digital asset management services in the UK is set to ‘explode’ in the next few years: “It’s here to stay, and there’s a lot of money to be made – printers should get out there and dive in.” Golden opportunity Someone who has been doing just that is Peterborough-based independent repro house Gildenburgh which five years ago was under siege from falling prices. One part of their solution was to introduce digital asset management. “We had been keeping archives of our customers’ work for a few years, and it occurred to us that this was a potential revenue stream,” technical director Rob Gutteridge says. “And because a high proportion of our repro customers are publishers, they were interested.” The team installed Valiano FullPress and WebNative asset management solutions from Fujifilm, and began a full DAM service, predominantly working with text and images. Initially offered to existing publishing clients, the service began to attract photographers and design agencies as word spread. “Repro is still the core business, but asset management brings in customers we couldn’t otherwise attract,” Gutteridge says. Pricing was initially a problem for Gildenburgh: “Customers have enjoyed many years of free data storage, albeit hidden, and they aren’t prepared to start paying for it unless there are immediate rewards,” he explains. “In general it’s the forward-thinking publishers, those who can see the opportunities for additional revenue streams by syndication and repurposing, who can see past the costs to the benefits.” Working with its clients by joint venture, Gildenburgh settled on a pricing structure based on the customer’s activity level. Gutteridge concurs with Fujifilm’s Mark Stephenson that DAM is an essential step for repro houses. “I think DAM will become a core part of any independent repro house’s offering in the next few years. Those who don’t have it will be losing business.” ■ WORKFLOW & BUSINESS MANAGEMENT case study – Vertec Vertec’s Valiano Rampage W oolwich-based Vertec was finding by 2001 that being tied to analogue proofs was an increasing competitive disadvantage. Prepress manager Colin Gilham explains: “We were losing ground to competitors. There was client pressure to provide digital proofs and we were sometimes losing out at the quote stage.” However, not just any digital proofer would do: “We had to have bullet-proof digital contract proofing but it was hard to decide what – the technology keeps changing,” he adds. Having examined various options he settled on the Epson 10000 large format inkjet plotter, calibrated to match the press rather than viceversa, as Gilham says that it’s the press that provides the final product. The proofer was only half of the equation, though. “The only way you can guarantee the proof is if it’s made from the same data that will be used to image the film and plate.” Gilham wanted a ROOM (RIP once output many) workflow, in which the same processed data would be used to drive both the proofer and the filmsetter – “We needed a complete new and faster workflow that would eventually support CTP.” After a variety of extensive demonstrations, the “Valiano Rampage can drive almost anything, so we’re not tied to any particular vendor’s output device.” Colin Gilham, prepress manager, Vertec Commercial printer Vertec is providing contract digital proofs and accepting a wide variety of job formats thanks to a Fujifilm Valiano Rampage RIP. Fujifilm Valiano Rampage solution was selected. “The product is mature and stable, and most importantly it can drive almost anything so it means we’re not tied to any particular vendor’s output device,” Gilham says. Valiano Rampage offers a choice of working modes: in the ROOM mode PostScript or PDF files are trapped and then RIPped before imposition. The RIPped data can then be sent as single pages or complete impositions to the Epson proofer as required, with complete confidence that the proof will match the eventual film output. There is also a NORM (normalise once render many) workflow, in which PDFs are generated as necessary, normalised (made to conform to a predetermined PDF standard) and then sent for RIPping on each output device. Although the NORM workflow allows greater flexibility in handling potential errors in PDF files without having to repeat the full-resolution RIPping stage each time, Gilham prefers to stick with the ROOM mode as he feels that only this can offer the guarantee of fidelity between proof and final output. Working with RIPped data means handling much larger files, but Gilham says, “Rampage is quick enough that this is not a hindrance.” Imaging 12 autumn 2002 15
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