Digital asset management

Digital Asset Management ( DAM ) refers to software applications for the storage and management of any digital content, in particular media files such as graphics, videos, music files and text modules. In the media sector, it is sometimes also referred to as media asset management ( MAM ) or, more specifically, video asset management ( VAM ). It belongs to the area of content management systems .

Typical functions

The main functions in classic digital asset management systems are:

• Import and export of files, possibly with format conversion
• Enrichment of binary files with meta information for research purposes (e.g. IPTC-IIM standard )
• Find files using metadata, file names, or other properties
• Display, view (if necessary listening and viewing) of files
• Combining files into packages (usually referred to as collections, collections, albums)
• Archiving and versioning files
• Provision of a web portal, often referred to as a “brand portal” or “press portal”, through which advertising agencies, publishers, journalists, as well as employees and dealers of a company can download the latest image or advertising material themselves.

Digital asset management can be addressed manually or automatically. Some systems are also accessible to external suppliers or service providers so that data can be exchanged more quickly during production. In contrast to an image database , a MAM / DAM system can not only manage images, but all types of files, i. H. so-called assets of all kinds, for example documents from different programs, videos, animations.

Digital asset management can be composed of various individual components, computers, storage systems, etc.

The most common architectures consist of either a database or an indexer and locally installed application software or an interface in the web browser. Most manufacturers are tending towards a relational database and browser front-ends.

DAM systems are mostly offered for installation on server hardware on site or as SaaS service, the latter either in a private cloud or public cloud, which can have significant effects on the protection of the managed data .

With newer DAM systems, the focus is on functions for integration in the corporate environment, for example the provision of assets in content management systems , web shop systems, product information management systems and Web2Print systems.

While older DAM systems were primarily understood as "containers" for media assets, modern systems are also used for the production of media files and advertising materials as well as for the control of publication processes. For this purpose, popular application and authoring programs such as Microsoft Office , the Adobe Creative Suite , video editing systems and others are connected either via links or additional add-ons to be installed. The focus is on the function of loading files for editing from the DAM system (usually referred to as "check out"), to edit and re-import them (usually referred to as "check in"). Some providers also integrate process control functions such as correction management, release management or license rights management.

Metadata

All operating systems common today manage files in a purely hierarchical directory or folder structure. This means that the various properties of media files can only be mapped hierarchically and therefore only to a very limited extent, since directory and file names only allow largely uncontrolled input of only a few properties:

• The typing errors that occur during normal use destroy a complete, machine-readable evaluation of file and directory names.
• It is not possible to use a list of desirable terms - a so-called “controlled vocabulary”, in which the terms and spellings to be used are specified.
• As a rule, files can only be stored in a single directory hierarchy. If images of buildings are stored, for example, in a directory hierarchy that is based on geographical terms such as the names of continents, countries, cities, etc., there is no way of clearly defining further properties, e.g. B. the type of building, material, architect, cost, condition etc.
• In order to compensate for these weaknesses, file naming conventions are often used, but compliance with them is a disciplinary problem even in small work groups.
• Duplicates of files are also often created in order to provide them with additional properties via their storage location. For example, a logo that is often used is often stored in folders that contain all the components of an order for the production of advertising material.

To remedy these weaknesses, all common DAM systems use metadata.

Controlled vocabularies are an essential part of modern DAM systems . In order to simplify the input of metadata, enforce standardized terms and avoid typing errors, lists or catalogs are created field by field or across fields in which the permitted or desired terms are listed. The manufacturers of the individual DAM systems go very different ways in the structure of the metadata as well as in the operation, from simple lists that are stored field by field to cross-field thesauruses and taxonomies , automatic suggestions and multilingual thesauruses that are available for the user When entering terms in one language, you can almost automatically translate many terms into several languages.

Metadata standards

In connection with DAM systems, a metadata standard is a defined standard with which metadata can be structured and clearly managed. Part of this standard is a technical description and a number of fields. The technical description includes the file format of a metadata file or the embedding of metadata in the files to be described. With fields are mostly meant fields in the sense of database fields, which in turn have properties, for example that they are used as a date field or as a text field.

Common metadata standards in DAM systems

IPTC (IPTC-IIM and IPTC Core)

The first DAM systems were known as image database systems; the use of other file formats played no role in earlier years. Accordingly, DAM systems almost always support the IPTC IIM standard defined in 1991 , today mostly in the more modern XMP format in the form of IPTC Core. IPTC Core essentially contains the fields that have been common since the early days of the systems.

Exif

The Exchangeable Image File Format is the most common standard for managing digital images. Almost every digital camera writes technical image information in the form of Exif data in its image files, for example the aperture used, exposure time or the ISO setting. Most DAM systems read the Exif information and can display it. However, Exif does not play a role in the organization of media files in classic application areas.

ID3

The ID3 tag is mostly used for music files. It is the standard especially for MP3 files.

Full text

Many modern DAM systems extract from files containing text such as B. PDFs , Microsoft Word , Powerpoint , Excel , OpenOffice files contain the text and save it in the database to use it like other metadata for full-text searches. Some production-related systems offer similar functions for files from programs such as Adobe InDesign . In most cases, previews of different sizes are also generated from the title page or all pages of such documents, which give a visual impression of the content.

Metadata standards from other application areas

The focus of DAM projects in companies today is primarily the integration into the existing system landscape. This means that DAM systems are connected to ERP systems, web shops and other systems. As a result, metadata from other application areas often play just as important a role in projects as traditional metadata standards.

For installations in industrial and trading companies, an article number and sometimes other internally used identification numbers play a role. The goal is always to have a consistent metadata inventory in all systems, from the ERP system to production systems to the web shop , content management system and catalog production. As a result, there is occasional functional overlap between PIM systems , some of which also offer the simple functions of a DAM system, and DAM systems, some of which in turn also contain PIM functionalities for product data management. The consistency of identification keys and metadata is intended to ensure that the data is up-to-date and correct and to reduce the error rate.

Important metadata standards in DAM projects are, for example:

• EAN, the European Article Number; this term is out of date, but is still widely used. Since 2009, the name has been Global Trade Item Number (GTIN, global article identification number), an internationally unmistakable product identifier for trade items.
• ISBN, the International Standard Book Number

The variety of metadata used, especially in industrial applications, is enormous and ranges from EDIFACT with its numerous subsets to the type approval of a motor vehicle or the producer code for chicken eggs to in-house codes that a company only uses internally for its customers, suppliers, products or spare parts. Accordingly, it plays an essential role in the requirements of DAM systems today to be able to handle a wide variety of metadata with virtuosity beyond the traditional metadata standards. Some DAM systems offer their own plugins or modules for connection to certain third-party systems or have an extensive programming interface . In the case of systems with a modern service-oriented architecture , the trend is towards the use of standard web services such as SOAP , as this reduces the development effort for integration and project times, and the maintenance effort for updates is reduced.

Metadata from an image analysis

In the current versions of today's DAM systems, there is often a function for finding images and similar files on the basis of image analysis ( Content Based Image Retrieval ). Without the presence of metadata about the image content, it is recognized whether images are similar or identical. The trend is towards "auto tagging". Manufacturers understand this new term to mean the automatic assignment of keywords to images based on the image content without human intervention.

These methods are relatively new and often prove to be useful for general images in practice, but can be improved for specific specialist topics. There is therefore a trend towards machine learning- based methods that use the metadata of an existing database to better assign new, similar images.

Metadata in Assets vs. Metadata in the database

The basic idea of ​​the old IPTC-IIM standard, which comes from the press and news agencies, is to add metadata directly to a photo so that the metadata is transmitted to the recipient as part of an image file. This is done by writing a separate block into the image file. This concept has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• The recipient receives all metadata with an image and does not have to view it separately. The condition for this is that he uses software that can also display the metadata from the header.
• If the DAM system fails and all metadata stored in its database is lost, the metadata can be recovered from the assets.

Disadvantage:

• Subsequent updating of metadata that was written in assets is no longer possible after the transfer.
• Data can be unintentionally transmitted that should not be accessible to the recipient. This includes, for example, fee data, bank details, etc.
• Data can be transmitted that allow undesirable conclusions to be drawn about the author or photographer. Example: the metadata that is automatically entered in digital photos as part of the EXIF ​​header also includes the serial number of the camera and often the GPS position. This can pose considerable dangers for photographers in crisis regions or countries with restricted freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
• Usually less efficient, since write access to files has to be carried out again and again.

In contrast, metadata can only be saved and managed in the database of the DAM system. This concept also has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• No unwanted disclosure of information
• Performant

Disadvantage:

• If files are passed on, metadata is not included.

A combination of both methods is common in modern DAM systems. The practical implementation follows very different approaches and ranges from practical to complicated.

System architecture

Since the beginnings of the first image database systems as the predecessors of today's DAM systems in the early 1990s, the IT world has changed dramatically. This resulted in revisions to the architecture of DAM systems. The first applications in the years 1992–1994 were programs for individual users such as "Pixolo" from the Swedish company Hasselblad , Canto Cumulus and later the "Photo Station" from the Norwegian company Fotoware.

1st generation: client-server architecture

Such solutions were expanded to client-server systems in the 1990s . Most of the systems were not based on today's SQL databases , but on proprietary applications for managing indexes such as dtSearch , which are actually used for document retrieval , more precisely for free searches in large amounts of text and which were similar to today's search engines. Due to the rather unstructured data storage compared to a relational database with its precisely defined field definitions, this type of architecture is now considered out of date and is only used in very few systems. Remnants of this system generation can still be found in some systems, e.g. B. by combining a relational database with search engine software.

2nd generation: from proprietary client to browser application

The generation of DAM systems that followed these approaches, which seem outdated today, at the beginning of the millennium, showed a clear trend towards browser-based systems. The main advantage over the early single-user programs and the subsequent client-server architectures was that software distribution of client applications is no longer necessary and central data management can be enforced. The architecture, which was also used for other applications at that time, usually provided for an application in the web server to be connected to a database using PHP or .NET technologies. In many systems of this generation, the very limited capabilities of the web browser for displaying multimedia content at the time of system development are supplemented by additional technologies - in the Woodwing Elvis DAM for example Adobe Flash , in the photo goods systems Apple Quicktime . Among the better-known systems, only Canto Cumulus, Extensis Portfolio and Fotoware still use client software today.

3rd generation: from monolith to SOA architecture

The task for DAM systems was initially straightforward, but grew immensely over the years. In order to simply manage new file types, ever increasing demands on interoperability and an exponentially growing number of files to be managed, customers wanted to automate more and more work steps. The resulting scaling and functional expansions increasingly lead to problems, since the monolithic architecture of most established DAM systems can make additional developments complicated. The connections to other systems, which were mostly developed on the basis of the manufacturer's proprietary APIs , often have to be costly renewed or completely redeveloped during updates.

This problem gave rise to the new approach of building a service-oriented architecture instead of a monolithic architecture with proprietary APIs , in which standardized web services such as SOAP and REST are not only added subsequently and used in the sense of the proprietary APIs to enable simple queries, but are more or less the main component of the system to establish connections within the system and to other systems. This architecture enables a strong scaling of the systems based on it, a considerably easier development of interfaces to other systems, increases security for updates and simplifies maintenance. The open system architecture enables the secure integration of company applications and systems such as B. PIM, CMS, e-commerce applications or ERP systems.

Areas of application

• Music industry z. B. for storing pieces of music for further processing
• Printing industry for managing layouts, customer logos, images, photos, etc.
• Publishers to manage the media and control the production processes
• Marketing or press departments in companies in the advertising industry, NGOs, etc.
• Press and radio archives
• Information and documentation centers
• Film projects
• CG and animation projects (3D modeling)
• Company or corporate archives
• Marketing portals in the B2B or B2C area to manage the media (images, videos, etc.) and control the production of advertising material and to improve product communication in connection with product information.
• Storage and organization of data from medical imaging systems; the term “DAM system” is rarely used in medicine, where most people talk about PACS systems that work with metadata and transmission standards such as DICOM , HL7 and IHE .
• Research data repositories

Article on digital asset management solutions

Surname	Manufacturer	operating system	approx cost	language	Remarks
Canto Cumulus	Canto	, ,	from € 10,000	multilingual	Since 1992. Client-server system and browser-based; Two products: OnPremise (Cumulus), Cloud / SaaS (Canto); Plugins for Adobe Drive, Microsoft Office, CMS, ERP, PIM, ECM, E-Commerce, Video, SAP. SaaS is based on Amazon Webservice Cloud.
cavok	PEAK-14	, ,	from € 10,000	multilingual	Browser-based, SOA architecture (the core of the system is a SOAP / REST web service), focus on integration and automation with ERP, CMS, PIM, web shops etc., scriptable, Adobe InDesign plug-in. On-premise or SaaS (hosted in Germany), similarity and duplicate search, audio and video conversion and streaming.
CELUM	Celum GmbH	, ,	k. A.	multilingual	Available as a cloud, SaaS solution. Browser based client. Connectors for Adobe CC, SAP Hybris, ERP, PIM, CRM CMS, social media via HootieSuite, eCommerce.
censhare	censhare AG	, ,	k. A.	multilingual	Runs as a cloud solution; Browser-based and native client (macOS, Windows, Linux); Plug-ins for Adobe InDesign and InCopy; Interfaces to WCM, ERP, PIM, CRM, social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), web analytics (Google Web Analytics), video transcoding (Amazon Transcoder, Sorenson Squeeze Server)
easydb	Programmfabrik GmbH	LAMP	k. A.	multilingual	Browser based. Available since 2003. Based on PostgreSQL and the indexing engine Elasticsearch.
eyebase	CMB GmbH	LAMP	SaaS from € 40 per month, license from around € 3000	multilingual	Available as a cloud, SaaS or on-premise solution; Browser based; Plug-in for Adobe InDesign; Interfaces to WCM, ERP, PIM, CRM, social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), compatible with Amazon S3 or Google Drive, eyeSync as a separate Dropbox extension
hyperCMS Content & Digital Asset Management Server	hyper Content Management Solutions GmbH	LAMP	Open source ( GNU ); SaaS from € 19.- per month	multilingual	Available as a cloud / SaaS, on-premise or hybrid solution; Browser based; Workplace integration without a browser (supports all file formats such as MS Office, Adobe InDesign / Photoshop, etc.); Compatible with Azure, Amazon and Google Cloud Storage, supports Google Drive, DropBox, among others
Phraseanet	Alchemy	LAMP	Open Source ( GPLv3 )	multilingual	Browser-based, mainly used in France. Based on the Elasticsearch indexing engine.
Pic2base	Klaus Henneberg	LAMP	Open source	multilingual	Browser based
Pimcore	Pimcore GmbH	LAMP	Open source ( GPL )	multilingual	Browser based. Actually a PIM system with some DAM parts. Modules also for CMS and Commerce
Pixelboxx DAM	Pixelboxx GmbH	, ,	k. A.	multilingual	Available as a cloud / SaaS solution. Browser based client. Interfaces to various third-party systems (CMS, ERP, PIM, CMS, W2P etc.). Customer-specific image publishing via the Pixelboxx Intermedia Framework.
ResourceSpace	Montala Limited	LAMP	Open source ( BSD license )	multilingual	Browser based; image, video and PDF management only, only uses IPTC / XMP / EXIF

See also

• Image management
• Cross media publishing

literature

• Erich Koetter: Data harmonization as the basis for optimal media use. MAM study 2010 , Chmielorz Verlag, Mötzingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-87124-349-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andrea Trinkwalder: IPTC and XMP. In: c't. Heise-Verlag, August 13, 2009, accessed October 4, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Michael J. Hussmann: What are EXIF ​​data? In: website. digicam-experts, accessed on October 4, 2016 . 
3. ^ Dan O'Neill: ID-3 Introduction. Dan O'Neill, December 17, 2013, accessed October 4, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Peter Hausken, Paul Heisholt: Integrating DAM in the enterprise architecture . In: JOURNAL OF DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT . Vol. 2. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., January 2006, pp. 282 .
5. ↑ David Austerberry: Digital Asset Management . Ed .: Focal Press. 2nd Edition. Focal Press, New York / London 2013, ISBN 978-1-136-03362-9 , pp. 99 ff .
6. ↑ Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc (Eds.): Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium RAID 2015 . Springer, Heidelberg January 2015, p. 441 .
7. ^ Haitao Xu, Haining Wang, Angelos Stavrou: Privacy Risk Assessment on Online Photos. (PDF) Retrieved October 4, 2016 . 
8. ^ Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - Photo Image Files. Spy Blog, June 11, 2011, accessed October 4, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Kurt K. Wolf: The Electronic Picture Desk has proven itself in practical use in newspaper operations. HZW for Crossmedia Management, 1994, accessed October 5, 2016 . 
10. ↑ Refatoring a monolith. Retrieved October 7, 2016 . 
11. ↑ What is a PACS? In: itz-medi.com. ITZ Medicom, July 13, 2012, accessed October 4, 2016 .