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Image Recognition and DAM

Image Recognition and DAM

by | Feb 8, 2019 | AI, Canto Cumulus, Digital Asset Management, Image Recognition

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been on top of everyone’s mind for the last couple of years – will it improve our lives, or will robots be soon taking over?  However, for DAM users it is hard to ignore the benefits of the image recognition (or more accurately – object recognition) and automatic image tagging technology in digital asset management. The most time-consuming (and – important) process in managing your digital assets is tagging your images with accurate metadata so they can be easily searched for and found.

 

What is Image Recognition?

According to Clarifai, one of the providers of this technology, Image Recognition “refers to a computer vision’s ability to identify the dominant subject in an image and apply the relevant “concept” or “tag”. This could be objects, places, people, words, and even actions.”

Simply said, image recognition picks out the central object in an image that the camera was focusing on.

 

What are the benefits?

  • Improved search results – with improved metadata quantity and quality by automatic object recognition and tagging, your search will be a breeze
  • Increased efficiency – the content is automatically uploaded with metadata, saving thousands of hours of manual work and frustration
  • Focus on core strengths – with the labour-intensive manual tagging out of the way, you team can now focus on their core strengths.

How does it work?

Select one or more assets from your collection, hit Run Auto-Tagging in your tool box.

auto-tagging

The tags are generated. Review, edit or delete tags.

tags

And you’re done.

 

Summary

For years customers have been asking if there is an easier way to add metadata to assets. AI has been around for years, however only now we believe the technology has finally reached the level of functionality to be useful in digital asset management. Would you like to save time and money? Learn more about this affordable technology and what can it do for you and your asset library. Contact databasics at info@databasics.com.au or call 1300 886 238.

Why Upgrade to Cumulus 11

Why Upgrade to Cumulus 11

by | Aug 5, 2018 | Canto Cumulus, Digital Asset Management

Have you jumped on the Cumulus 11 bandwagon? Not yet? Here is a summary of what you’re missing out on. For more detailed descriptions of features and enhancements please refer to the resources at the end.

Improved InDesign Client – now supports Adobe InDesign Creative Cloud 2018:

 

  • Select multiple assets from Cumulus at once using the common keystrokes
  • Selected multiple assets can be placed together in documents
  • Right-click on the file and view, modify, etc. that asset in the Cumulus Web Client with the new entry “Open in Cumulus”
  • New “Relink” function – replace any link or resource with an asset from Cumulus Catalog

Portals:

  • Customisation: a new lighter theme available out of the box
  • Transparency support
  • Playback for audio files
  • Static URLs for all main pages
  • Deep link functionality – to facilitate the integration of 3rdparty applications
  • Field labels in overview, search result pages, and the basket overlay
  • Controls for page navigation display on top of search results
  • Show asset relationships if desired, browse related assets
  • Configure the number of assets per page
  • Static URL for Upload Collections

Web Client:

  • Similarity search – detect visually similar files and potential duplicates
  • Define asset actions in toolbox for better workflows – send a sample workflow that supports the similarity search and handling of similar assets, add selected asset functions to workflow states
  • Asset navigation – navigate through list of files in details view, edit or preview modes with controls and keyboard shortcuts
  • Improved container browsing – Vertical Container Tree on the left side of the window
  • Audio playback
  • Support for native language environments: define a default language, auto-tagging in multiple languages, email notifications in multiple languages
  • Easily change your download collections
  • Select All – Deselect All function
  • New Crop Editor Tool to deliver proper renditions of the asset
  • Focus Area Cropping – a “region of interest” can be defined for images and PDFs. This region of interest is saved along with the asset’s metadata

Roboflow:

  • Better overview of workflows – toggle switch
  • New folder filter: combine “including” and “excluding” in a fresh folder filter
  • New action: call-external-script

Cumulus Office Connector (Please note this feature requires additional purchase):

  • Browse in and insert images directly from Cumulus into your Microsoft Word documents or PowerPoint presentations
  • Pull and insert PSD Photoshop files, when placing a PSD file into document a PNG file is generated by Office Connector

Image recognition (AI) and Auto-Tagging – this optional feature allows for all your images to be scanned and auto-tagged by Cumulus. These tags can be added to the metadata of the assets. Please note this feature requires additional purchase.

SharePoint Search Connector – search for Cumulus assets within the SharePoint search, view assets along with metadata and preview, save to SP Document library. Please note this feature requires additional purchase.

 

Useful resources

If you’ve fallen behind a couple of major releases here is what you’re missing from Cumulus 10and Cumulus 10.2

Wondering what does Cumulus Office Connector do? More here.

From Canto:

Cumulus 11 update

Cumulus 11.0.2 update

Cumulus 11.0.4

Cumulus 11.1

Canto Community

DAM for Business

DAM for Business

by | May 16, 2018 | Digital Asset Management

DAM is more than just a marketing solution to make your job easier

Imagine a single photo, taken by a freelance photographer, undergoing some initial retouching, uploaded to a client’s corporate network, reviewed, commented on and changed, all before being searched, retrieved, and used in a marketing campaign. Repeat that thousands of times.

DAM for engineers, architects, designers and photographers

Organisations in nearly every industry could benefit from adopting solutions that better promote the creation, organisation and distribution of content across enterprise.

Whether it is an employee, supervisor, subcontractor or client who is looking to access a blueprint or job site photograph, these assets can be readily available and easily accessible within a DAM to keep a project moving along at a productive pace.

DAM will not only allow end users to view files, such as CAD, product cut-sheets, digital photography, and others, but to also make necessary edits in a collaborative manner, especially when multiple parties are required to provide input on a project checkpoint.

It is hard to imagine a more fitting field for DAM than in a business segment where critical, collaborative files are constantly on the move throughout the network – an expansive web of devices and applications that now includes mobile elements.

DAM for marketers and brand managers

When you’re working with hundreds of graphics and logos, managing your organisation’s brand, and executing multiple marketing campaigns, quickly finding digital assets can be a challenge. Sharing your assets with others, including colleagues, partners, graphic designers, can be an even bigger issue.

How do you handle this torrent of creative assets? How do you manage an increasing number of stakeholders and their different requirements?

If you would like to talk to our team of DAM consultants, send us an email at info@databasics.com.au or call 1300 886 238

What Problems Can DAM Solve For Creative Agencies

What Problems Can DAM Solve For Creative Agencies

by | Jan 29, 2018 | Digital Asset Management

As a creative agency, are you spending long hours dealing with the logistics of getting your creative work to other people, getting it approved, converting files, etc.? All this taking time away from what you do best: CREATE…

Your life without DAM

A new product has been developed. A client sends a request for digital asset creation to the Idea team to create a concept, look and feel for the assets. The Advertiser, Concept Engineer and Designer work on the concept sending concept drafts back and forth between themselves.

“Who has the final concept version?”

“I think John has it.”

“John, do you have the final version?”

The idea/ concept is generated and sent via email to the Creation team. Photographer, writer and graphic designer begin work on the assets, along the way they employ a freelance videographer to shoot some product videos. The assets get emailed back and forth between Creation team and Freelancers for approval and collaboration.

“Wait a minute – I needed the image of the product in blue, not red.. can you change that, please?”

“I did. And I emailed it to you.”

“I can’t find it, can you please resend?”

The finished version gets emailed to Review team and Client for approval. Changes and improvement requests get emailed back to Creation team. A new version is emailed to Review team.

“Where is the latest version?”

“Was this version approved?”

“Why can’t I download the latest version?”

 

Final version is emailed to Production team. Product is being produced and the created marketing assets are being used. However, they would like to use the version 2 of the asset.

“Where do I find version 2?”

Manufacturer adds its logo and would like to set brand guidelines for using the assets.

“How do I make sure everyone follows our Brand Guidelines?”

“What about the copyright?”

“How can I control who sees and accesses these assets?”

“I would like this asset to expire in three months, how do I manage that?”

“Where is that high-resolution image?”

 

The assets go to Distribution team. Partner needs high-resolution image. “Could you please send me a high-resolution image?” Retailer adds a little message to the asset. If Employee wants to share an asset on social media he needs to download it on his computer first, no copyright, permissions applied.

Along the way, all versions of assets are stored in an archive (it could be a cloud storage service, a shared drive, a file server, or even an email inbox).  It is not organised nor controlled. If a Salesman needs a particular asset, he needs to contact someone at the Creation team who then contact the Idea team to locate the asset. If the asset cannot be located it needs to be created, going through the creation process again.

 

Your life with a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution

What is DAM?

 

It is a central repository that an organisation uses to manage, organise, search, edit, store, secure, and distribute its digital assets. Digital assets might be images, documents, video files, presentations, PDFs, audio files, and spreadsheets.

 

How DAM helps

 

With a digital asset management solution, you will have a tool to streamline your digital asset production processes – from idea to distribution, allowing your staff to concentrate on their main responsibilities.

 

You will save money by allowing your creative and marketing teams to focus on their projects instead of answering endless email requests.

 

DAM will increase your return on investment by repurposing already existing assets and eliminating lost files.

 

Improve organisational efficiency through a central, searchable repository for assets that support and power your marketing efforts.

 

In the end, a life without a DAM can end up being more costly than the investment in a DAM solution that controls asset permissions, asset ownership and usage controls.

Top 10 Movie Quotes To Answer Your DAM Questions

Top 10 Movie Quotes To Answer Your DAM Questions

by | Dec 20, 2017 | Digital Asset Management

How do you get people’s attention during holiday season? Talk about movies! Most people love movies. So do I. Here are 10 classic movie lines that can sum up answers to most common DAM questions. Enjoy!

Where is that image?

Having trouble locating assets? Wasting time recreating already created assets? Some of the most common problems we hear from people that have started thinking about a digital asset management solution. Can’t find it, can’t use it.

DAM provides a centralized location for all your digital media, making it easy to access, organise and share the right asset at the right time.

You think DAM might help. But you don’t want to invest in a DAM system just yet.

All your digital media spread out across hard drives, personal computers, storage devices, and different file storage platforms?

The reality is – you should invest in a DAM sooner rather than later to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced digital world. DAM saves you time and improves efficiency on many levels. It keeps your brand secure and on-point.

Assets taking over your storage systems? Is your cloud-storage, such as DropBox, enough for your organisation? It might be. But when is a time you need to move on from a simple cloud-storage solution?

Cloud file storage is a common business practice these days, however the search capabilities are limited, there is no version control or digital rights management. It might be sufficient for a small team, for an outside creative agency that mostly creates new assets instead of reusing existing assets, an agency that doesn’t have internal teams that are interested in those already existing assets.

 

The benefits of using a more capable system, like a DAM, would be to make your marketing team more productive and efficient, to make your brand stronger and brand message more consistent, more collaborative and competitive in today’s market place.

Your choice.

Like Mick Dundee put it: “That’s not a knife, THAT’s a knife.”

Now – you’ve decided you need a Digital Asset Management solution. What’s next?

Unfortunately, one size doesn’t fit all. No two DAM installations are the same. There are many factors that determine which solution is right for you. Some of the things to consider:

  • How do you want to deploy your DAM solution? Do you require an on-premise solution? Or can a cloud (SaaS) solution meet your needs?
  • How many users do you have?
  • What size storage do you require?
  • Get your stakeholders involved and create a list of requirements a DAM should meet.

 

Compare apples to apples. And let us help you in this decision process*.

Show me the money

Investing in a Digital Asset Management solution is usually no just a financial decision – however it is often a core consideration. How do you get the best return on your investment? Just a few money saving benefits:

 

  • Reuse your digital content
  • Improve efficiency
  • Save time searching for assets

 

Do we need a dedicated Digital Asset Manager?

So your organisation got a DAM solution, it is implemented and ready go. You think you can do it.

“Tell him, he’s dreaming.”

A Digital Asset Manager role is a complex role that requires a lot of expertise. Your DAM needs an expert to manage it, to deal with any issues, someone who has knowledge and understanding of metadata, digital assets and analytics. Digital asset manager will make sure your system is correctly integrated with your organisation’s other platforms and systems. A DAM professional will help ensure the success of your solution.

 

 

To infinity and beyond!

Many factors influence the success of a DAM solution – choosing the right solution for your organisation, leadership buy-in, user adoption, and other factors. A successful DAM solution amplifies productivity, increases the value of your digital assets, brand, and your organisation.

 

 

Now – are there any DAM questions?

*DataBasics has more than 20 years in DAM industry and has the largest team involved directly in DAM implementations in the region. We are here to answer your questions and help you choose the right solution for your organisation.

Contact us: info@databasics.com.au or call: 1300 886 238

Happy Holidays!

Top 10 Canto (nee Flight) Features To Date

Top 10 Canto (nee Flight) Features To Date

by | Nov 28, 2017 | Canto SaaS, Digital Asset Management, Flight by Canto

Since Canto (Flight) first took flight in 2015 there have been constant improvements, updates and new features added. Last year we looked back at the top features introduced during 2016. This time we have chosen top Canto features to date, in our opinion. What’s your all-time favourite Canto feature?

 

 

Ease of Use

Always seems to be chosen as the top feature – the ease-of-use and visual appeal seem to be the winners for everyone. The general User Experience improves with every new release.

In our previous Top features of 2016 post, we missed the last update of 2016 – PHL that introduced a whole new look and functionalities to the interface.

There is All Files view option, bulk options, view metadata information in preview mode, add or rename albums and folders easily.

The interface is very intuitive, simple and easy to use.

 

Mobile Accessibility. This on-the-go experience provides responsive design – mobile-responsive interface, sharing and uploading from your any device. More here LHR.

 

Mouse-over preview. See a larger preview by simply hovering your mouse over the thumbnail in list, masonry or thumbnail views is the newest Flight featured released Nov 2017 with the Flight SYD update.

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

 

 

Video Trim before download

Do you really want the entire video or is only a small section important? Under Advanced Download options, you can download a small clip of the video, just select start and end times, then preview the clip before download. Click here for more LHR.

 

Direct URL

This new feature was introduced in LHR. With this Canto made it possible for anyone to integrate content in Flight with any other web channel, website, social media, blog whatever. It’s never been easier to share content with Flight. We found it so exciting that we created a whole blog post about it.

 

Smart Tags

This is tagging for free! Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Rekognition, Flight can now detect objects and other things in an image, and automatically attach relevant tags to each asset. Making it so much easier to find just the right image. Saves time and money. More here CDG.

 

File relations

So simple and so easy to use, group together files that are related to the same project, campaign, or theme. Makes organising your content much more intuitive. See all related files in a file’s preview information page. More here ORD.

 

Upload Links

This makes it possible for you to have as many people as you like contribute content into Flight! Your external agencies, photographers or other independent providers who don’t have access to Flight can use these links to upload files. All this without losing control over your content. Uploaded content needs to be approved by an administrator before it enters the main library. More here ORD.

 

Share Links

Sharing is what it’s all about really. With Flight it’s as easy as clicking a button to take your content to whatever share channel you like. With great options like enable download, watermarks, expiry date, sharing is not only easy but powerful. Then just like Upload Links you can share to as many people as you like!

 

Crop & Resize

How much of an image do you want … the whole of it or just a bit? With Flight you can crop and resize an image when you download it. We’re not replacing Photoshop here … but eh! This is what a lot of people would like to do who don’t have an image editing tool. All this for free with Flight.
 

My Collections

Keep your favourite files in your own personal collection. Simply click the Heart icon and the file will be added to your personal collection of choice. Great for tracking content you are referring to often, a grab bag for a project you are working on … or maybe you need to come back to these images later? More here MIA.

 

Branded Portals

Now this is really cool and takes you into a whole new dimension! Now with Flight you can have a separate brand portal to share and control your brand. Simple and easy to setup this gives you sooo much more value from your investment in Flight. We’ve been so impressed with Branded Portals we created a whole blog and webinar about this one topic, click here for more.

 

Then even more??? YES! With the latest SYD Sydney release Canto extended brand portals even further. Is this crazy or what!

 

Custom branding for Portals was introduced in the FCO update. Create a good-looking portal landing page with albums and search displayed right in front of you. Great if you need to create several differently branded portals for different purposes or for different clients. See our to branding dedicated blog post here.

The latest Flight update – SYD has even more customisation options. Including different layouts and album titles.

 

Flight just keeps getting better and better and the Flight team at Canto really listens to their customers. We are excited to see what 2018 will bring! Are you? What else are you looking forward to in Flight?

You can watch our recorded webinar here.