Asset Management Asset management systems—repositories for reusable pieces of digital content—continue to advance from their picture-archiving roots. Today, businesses want a single system that has strong support for a wide variety of data types and associated metadata, with advanced search and retrieval tools. We looked for new products that advance the state-of-the-art in this category. Canto Canto will debut a new technology in Cumulus 5.0. Called the Espion-Visual Search Option, it allows users to perform Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) searches for visual assets, or search for images based on visual attributes. Users can search for modified copies of an image or for similar images. Espion also includes the Sketcher, a feature that allows a user to draw a rough picture of the image they want and then have Espion retrieve all of the images that look like the sketch. The Espion technology was developed by Idée. Its integration into Cumulus marks the technology’s debut in a product. Espion uses patent pending content-based image identification technologies that displays pairs of matched images and details the likelihood of the match as well as the degree of differences between the original image and the match. Espion can also run in a server mode where new images are compared as they appear. Espion’s match reports are viewable and printable via a Web browser. Espion’s next release will add the ability to search video files and include face recognition algorithms as well as a number of plug-able, custom-designed algorithms. Cumulus users should definitely take a look, but anyone who enjoys interesting technologies will be well-served to stop by as well. OTG Software OTG Software will show VideoXtender, which it describes as “infinite storage management for digital assets.” Made to integrate with Windows NT and featuring a Windows Explorer-like interface for locating assets, VideoXtender is built for the high-performance needs of Web sites that regularly serve digital audio and video content. It supports multiple media types and transfer protocols, making it flexible enough for implementation in many types of environments, including Web sites, intranets, or local area networks. It also supports output to multiple servers and systems, so it can take some of the pressure off your asset management system or Web server by storing huge video files in a single scalable repository. As streaming begins its inevitable infringement into publishing, VideoXtender is a must-see for publishers who will have to tackle streaming content in the future. WebWare WebWare will launch version 3.0 of its Mambo asset management system. Mambo 3.0 offers a number of new features, including the incorporation of Adobe’s XMP metadata infrastructure technology (see story). Other new features in Mambo include fully configurable search screens, an improved interface for managing large numbers of users, configurable user groups, improved routing and approvals functionality, implementation of pan and zoom functionality, asset lineage tracking for derivative assets, refine search results and support for the WebDAV protocol for future integration with third-party WebDAV-compliant applications. A new look. Webware’s Mambo 3.0 features a redesigned user interface and support for the WebDAV protocol. WebWare is in use at a number of high-profile organizations, including the NFL, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and The Jim Henson Company. If you’re in the market for a brand/asset management tool, WebWare’s Mambo 3.0 is worth a look. Digital Rights Management   © 2001 by Seybold Publications, PO Box 644, 428 E. Baltimore Ave., Media, PA 19081; phone (610) 565-2480. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.