Assets Server use cases

Small studio

A supermarket chain wants their current local DAM with product images to be accessible by others inside the organization and they want it to function as a repository DAM to feed their webCMS.

#Actors

• The studio department uses Assets to import new product images they receive from (external) photographers and other sources. Instead of waiting to receive images outside of Assets Server, they also send upload requests by e-mail to photographers and other sources so they can upload images directly as guest users. They manage and collect assets for weekly folder production with "week" collections made by marketing.
• The marketing department uses Assets to manage metadata of assets (file name and tags) to make sure new media assets are searchable by product number, product category and product group. They create "week" collections for the studio for weekly folder production.
• Sales & promotions uses Assets Server with a separate webCMS. The webCMS uses the Assets Server API to get previews for their web content.

Configuration

The server is installed on a single xServe or Mac Pro with 4TB of large storage RAID.

The amount of new product images added weekly is small and the size of the originals is fairly large (300 dpi, RGB PSD files with an average of 32MB).

Workflow

• File names of all media assets are the subject product number
• Tags are created using the tag convention for product category and product group
• A hotfolder with predefined folder structure is used to import new media assets.

Optional additions

• Implement Enfocus Switch with Assets Server configurators and Elpical Claro Single to automatically optimize colors of all image assets.
• Implement Enfocus Switch with Assets Server configurators, Enfocus Pitstop Server and a Color Proofing solution to create a certified PDF workflow for PDF production and automatically print a Color Proof for review.

Newspaper

A news desk wants to centralize all image wire feeds coming into the organization, to improve image selection within the various license agreements of different providers.

Actors

• The news desk uses Assets to search, select and collect assets for production. They change and add extra metadata for usage and costs administration.
• The web department uses Assets to search, select and collect assets for web production. They change and add extra metadata for usage and costs administration.
• The studio uses Assets to search (article) collections and drag the result images into their InDesign layout inside an editorial system (for example WoodWing Studio Server).
• The sales department uses Assets to search, select and collect assets for promotion, marketing and sales activity.

Configuration

The server is installed on a Windows 2008 Server with 4TB of large storage RAID and 2 Mac mini's as processing node.

The number of new images added weekly is +12500 and the size of the originals is small (300 dpi, RGB JPG files with an average of 4MB).

A scheduled custom ANT script is changing metadata for all assets older than 10 days to have a flag to inform users that there are license restrictions for these assets.

A scheduled cleanup module deletes all assets older than 30 days which are not used unless they have metadata set to prevent deletion.

Workflow

• Several image wire feed providers (news or press agencies) deliver over 2500 images per day via FTP and these are added into the Assets Server with a hotfolder. The images from these sources can also be kept locally for one month and require extra payment if they’re used after the first ten days. Unused images are removed automatically from the Assets Server system after 30 days to prevent unauthorized use and with configured flags users are notified when assets are over 10 days old.
• Production documents (layouts, articles, articleXML and PDF) from the editorial system are automatically archived into Assets Server daily, which automatically creates links between the different media assets for easy searching later on.
• The news desk uses custom metadata for administration of their production usage and they create image collections for production use
• The news desk or studio can import images manually from their own in-house photographers and they will add appropriate metadata
• The studio uses image collections to create InDesign production material in an editorial system

Optional additions

• Implement Enfocus Switch with Assets Server configurators and Elpical Claro Single to automatically optimize colors of all image assets.
• Implement Enfocus Switch with Assets Server configurators, Enfocus Pitstop Server and a Color Proofing solution to create a certified PDF workflow for PDF production and automatically print a Color Proof for review.
• Add old PDF archives (with OCR text embedded) into the Assets Server system to be able to search on text inside the PDF.

Corporate

A corporation that produces construction materials, industrial adhesives, paints and cleaning products wants to organize the staggering amount of digital assets for their offices in 9 countries worldwide.

Actors

• There are a lot of asset modifications made every day by internal and external designers that need to be kept organized. The marketing department needs to be able to monitor changes in an asset without the need for specific software or having to ask the designers for previews or proof-prints.
• The design department uses Assets to access, create and/or modify assets. The external designers are sent e-mails with temporary links for exchanging new assets and corrections. This way all designers use a central common repository.
• The sales department uses Assets to search, select and collect assets for the sales process. Assets Server is also used to archive office documents, spreadsheet and presentations. This way all sales-representatives use a central common repository for all sales documents.

Configuration

The Assets Server system is implemented as a SAAS solution and runs in a datacenter.

In the datacenter, the Assets Server is installed on a Mac mini Server with 2x500GB in RAID 1, since the amount of new product images added weekly is small and the size of the originals is fairly small (300 dpi, RGB PSD files with an average of 32MB).

Additional options

• Upgrade to a faster Mac Pro or Windows server (with the Mac mini as processing node)
• Move the Data folder to a larger external storage solution (SAN solution with RAID)
• Implement Enfocus Switch with Assets Server configurators and Elpical Claro Single to automatically optimize colors of all image assets.