Picture Media – Image Library System

“Intergy ensures our IT systems advance and keep pace with our business growth.”

Picture Media Pty Ltd is Central Sydney's oldest independent media agency, which delivers quality images, text, graphics and news alerts to local and overseas media. With more than 25 years international media experience, Picture Media is the gateway to the world's media with a hard-earned reputation.

Picture Media approached Intergy to create a complete digital asset management system – including an internal system for managing their catalogs of millions of digital images and associated meta data, and an external system that provides a flexible, fully featured online search and ordering facility for their valued customers.

The Solution

Intergy developed a custom Image Library System to create a highly effective online presence for Picture Media. The external website has many advanced search features, is intuitive and makes the process of finding and ordering images quick and easy. The system integrates seamlessly with their back end Extensis Portfolio 8 to create a complete, robust and proven digital asset management solution.

An internal administration web site was created, which enabled authorised Picture Media staff to set up new web users, control permissions, set up system-wide parameters and run management reports.

Technology Used

The system, built using ASP.NET, includes a centralised Microsoft SQL Server database capable of storing millions of images, image attributes (metadata), and keywords.

All user front ends were developed in ASP.NET using Stylesheets and JQuery with support for all major web browsers. On the user interface side, we worked in close collaboration with Picture Media’s graphic design team (Philter) to deliver a visually appealing yet fully featured website.

Behind the scenes, a Microsoft SQL Server database was used due to its rock solid performance and enterprise-level, advanced feature list including Replication and Full-Text Index catalogues. SQL Server Full-Text catalogues and indexing techniques were used to optimize the search results. Standard table indexes and normal search techniques were not sufficient in this case due to the large number of images in the database (and 100’s of millions of rows of meta data).

Support

Intergy provides ongoing support and maintenance services to Picture Media to ensure the Image Library System is working at its best and remains at the forefront of the industry. During the years Intergy has enhanced the website with advanced search options, hires download and tracking and personality filter and helped Picture Media re-launch to remain the leader in their field, setting the standard for others to follow.