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By Joel Friedman, on February 21st, 2010
Note to visitors: Xinet Users Group, Inc., ceased operations in the second half of 2009 due to lack of corporate funding. This website remains up for now as a convenience to folks who would like to use its forum features, but it is not an official communications organ of Xinet Users Group, Inc., nor is it associated with Xinet, Inc., or any of Xinet’s affiliate vendors. Xinet users are invited to join the Xinet User Forum group on LinkedIn to continue networking and discussion with other users.
By Joel Friedman, on October 7th, 2009
As promised, here’s the company news on Xinet’s introduction of Video 3.0 for WebNative:
 BERKELEY, California – October 7, 2009 – Xinet, Inc., the leader in digital asset management, today announced the release of Video 3.0 for WebNative Suite. The Video product addresses customers’ need for a cost-effective, easy-to-use video solution that enhances media management, streamlines workflows, and expands client services. With the new release, Xinet also introduces Video Reel Generator, a plug-in that enables the creation of new reels from segments of different videos and documents.
“In a rapidly changing, multimedia world, more and more companies are utilizing video as an important element of many marketing and advertising campaigns,” said Scott Seebass, CEO of Xinet. “With Video 3.0, Xinet has dramatically improved the way our customers manage and incorporate their video files with their other assets.”
 With Video for WebNative Suite, customers can access video files from a Web browser to search for, view, annotate, approve, distribute and create video reels within a secure environment. The Video product generates key frames by automatically detecting significant scene changes in the video. Users can also add comments to the key frames with the Annotations feature, which helps streamline the approval process. For accessibility, the Video product can automatically create a series of low resolution versions of high resolution videos and store them in the WebNative Suite database. These low-res versions are then available for streaming from any Web enabled device. Changes made to the original high-res file on the server are automatically reflected in the low-res versions, keeping file management simple.
The Video Reel Generator plug-in allows users to create new videos by repurposing segments of other videos, PDFs, QuarkXPress, or Adobe documents and images. With access to a Web browser, files can be added to a WebNative Suite shopping basket to build a storyboard from which a new video reel can be made. With the ability to easily create videos for new business presentations or agency reels, Xinet customers save time and resources.
“Video for WebNative Suite saves us time because we can easily search for and locate the video clips that we need. We now have a standardized platform from which to host video files for our end users and we have better control over the distribution of these files.” said Evan Shore, vice president and creative systems manager at Arnold Worldwide, an awardwinning full-service advertising agency. “The video product is a natural extension of WebNative Suite. It really provides the specific tools we were looking for and it allows us to make all of our work available to everyone.”
Xinet is showcasing Video 3.0 for WebNative Suite at the Adobe Max conference, October 5-7, 2009.
Xinet has developed image server software for the graphic arts, communications, publishing and printing industries since 1991. The Xinet digital asset management system, WebNative Suite, streamlines the collection, access, production, distribution and archiving of graphic media. Xinet has thousands of installations worldwide; customers include leading brands such as: McCann Erickson, TracyLocke, Arbonne International, Macy’s, Courier Corporation, and World Color Press Inc.
By Joel Friedman, on October 7th, 2009
As posted earlier today at damTRENDS:
The folks at Xinet, in Berkeley, California (yes, where I saw the Grateful Dead for the first time), have just announced a major new release of their Xinet WebNative Suite for digital asset management. Xinet integrators around the world have already been quietly preparing their thousands of installations for this, but today the news and details are finally available for public consumption. The company also introduced Video 3.0 for WebNative Suite, which I’ll cover later today….
Here’s the press release from Xinet:
Xinet Introduces WebNative Suite 16.0 to Extend Usability and Greater Efficiency to Customers
Major Release Features Tighter Integration, Added Control and More Customization
BERKELEY, California – October 7, 2009 – Xinet Inc., the leader in digital asset management, today announced the release of Xinet WebNative Suite 16.0. This new release presents expanded versatility with an easy-to-use, streamlined, Web-based graphical user interface (GUI), improved tools for administrators, and new features that greatly improve the management of graphic assets and enhance workflow efficiency.
“With this new WebNative Suite release Xinet has addressed many feature requests that we have received from customers,” said Scott Seebass, CEO of Xinet. “The sleek GUI which provides tighter integration of our products, coupled with increased features in the Suite such as Annotations, which speeds the review and approval process, will give our customers an unparalleled level of functionality and control over their assets.”
The highly anticipated new release is an integrated, single product composed of many of the features previously available in Xinet core products: FullPress, a robust file server and production engine; WebNative, a server-based digital asset management system; WebNative Venture, an enterprise-strength SQL database; and WebNative Portal, a secure multi-server asset management system. The new GUI consolidates all control of the Xinet WebNative server into one place to showcase this tight integration of Xinet products. Accessible through an Internet browser, the GUI provides greater consistency of controls and presentation across all areas of administration. The simplified command site and streamlined view of server activity are particularly useful for sites with many administrators and multiple locations.
Additionally, for administrators the WebNative Suite user interface introduces improved logging and debugging tools. These include automatic checks and repairs of database tables, access to preview generation logs for Microsoft Office, Adobe InDesign, PDF and QuarkXPress documents, overview of image and document preview creation, and viewable status of all WebNative processes, among other new tools.
WebNative Suite also introduces many new features that improve efficiency and workflow for users. The main new feature, Annotations, speeds the approval process by providing an online method for authorized local or remote users to add visual comments to documents during the review process. Annotations, which can be made as text, lines or stamps, can be made on any document that has previews. Customers who maintain the optional Video/Interactive component can also annotate scenes from reels.
Additional features include:
- Previews have been added for supported file types such as Microsoft Office 2007 and 2008, and OpenOffice 3
- XMP panels loaded into the database are read and necessary data fields are created automatically.
- Full text indexes of filenames are faster to build and creation of full text indexes of all metadata fields is now possible
- Default values for data fields and language strings for data field names can be set
- Actions can be triggered by changes to IPTC and XMP metadata fields from Adobe applications.
- ICC Profiles can be applied to (and embedded in) Web previews
Xinet is showcasing WebNative Suite 16.0 at the Adobe Max conference, October 5-7, 2009.
A reliable digital asset management solution that not only manages graphic assets but also automates trafficking, notification and collaboration, WebNative Suite enables customers to see rapid payback on their DAM investment in time and cost savings. Xinet has thousands of installations worldwide with customers across all major industries, including advertising, publishing, retail, and printing/prepress. Xinet customers include McCann Erickson, TracyLocke, Arbonne International, Macy’s, Courier Corporation, and World Color Press Inc [formerly Quebecor World].
By Joel Friedman, on June 9th, 2009
At the Henry Stewart DAM Conference in New York last week, Henrik de Gyor spoke about his role as Digital Asset Manager at K12, Inc., in Herndon, Virginia (USA). On his own blog, Henrik lists these questions management must answer when implementing a DAM System:
- Who is driving the progress of DAM?
- Who is tracking progress, measuring growth and addressing risks to report on a weekly/monthly basis for stakeholders?
- Who will answer DAM questions and support DAM users?
- What happens when something goes wrong?
- Who is in charge of the DAM?
- Who will fix it?
- Who will be the adviser when to file a trouble ticket with the vendor versus what can be resolved in-house?
- Who will create the trouble ticket when the time comes?
- Who will follow up?
- Who will train users and power users of the DAM? (Attrition happens)
Does your company have a dedicated digital asset manager?
By Joel Friedman, on June 8th, 2009
The European-based website IT Enquirer has just published a review of Xinet WebNative Suite. The article applauded WebNative’s strong points and offered opinion on areas the writer/publisher felt needed improvement (mostly regarding video handling and user interface).
The review can be found here.
An example of the praise:
The Xinet system has plenty of these productivity boosting features, which is probably the reason why it sells so well with ad agencies and other companies where images and other digital assets have to be managed carefully and with a maximum of flexibility towards the end-user of those assets.
And an example calling for improvement:
Nevertheless, I do have criticism. I didn’t like the interface much. The demo that was shown to me lacked the smooth modern looks of newer offerings in the market of creative tools. I also think a video module that costs 12,000.00 USD should really offer scrubbing capabilities and setting the scrubber frame from within the DAM.
If you’re curious to compare your own views with those of the author’s, read the article and then come back here and let us know what you think. The article’s actual bottom line reads:
As far as the power of this DAM is concerned, I don’t think that is open to much discussion.
Does the review give a fair representation of the software?
By Joel Friedman, on May 31st, 2009
Xinet Users Group member Evan Shore, of Arnold Worldwide, will be one of the panelists Monday afternoon at the Henry Stewart DAM Conference in New York. Evan will be speaking during the session on DAM implementations at 4:10 pm.
The conference program provides an outline of what he’ll discuss:
Implementing DAM in a Large Advertising Agency
1) Plan ahead.
- Determine your needs before investing in a solution. In addition to DAM, these needs might include archiving, sharing files across platforms, OPI, eliminating repetitive tasks, PDF workflow
- Can you support the system internally, or do you require a hosted solution?
2) Choose a system that will grow as your needs grow. What will be your business needs be in 2 years? 5 Years 10 years?
- Look at licensing costs. How many users will you have next year?
- Types of Mediums supported.
- Hardware and back up media requirements.
3) Choose a file and volume structure and taxonomy that is granular enough to result in effective searches yet broad enough to be adapted across clients and mediums.
4) Make implementation and training mandatory. Even the most resistant users will be quick adapters if you
- Show a benefit
- Show efficiency
- Show cost or time savings
5) Clients appreciate a digitally savvy agency. DAM has allowed us to
- Remain competitive in New Business pitches
- Let our clients and remote offices leverage centralized agency tools
- Automate tasks and capture repetitive clerical work as assets are uploaded into the system.
By dwirch, on May 28th, 2009
Promoted from Comments
When working in InDesign, I often use the contextual menu commands to reveal the location of an asset in Finder or Bridge. However, I often found myself wanting to “Reveal in Webnative” so I could use the “Show Linked Files” button to display which layouts use a particular image or logo. This would be very useful if, let’s say, I have 10 different variations on a corporate logo. Some might use PMS colors, some might have adjusted tints for certain publications, etc.
At present, if I want to see an asset’s page in WebNative, (besides the direct URL) the only way to get there is to navigate through the folder hierarchy each and every time.
Any ideas?
By dentistw, on May 28th, 2009
Promoted from WebNative open thread
If you create a new asset from an existing asset, how do you get the metadata to follow into the new asset? I’m using Triple Triangle’s InDesign extensions to track job information: art director, copywriter, etc. This comes from our job management system and populates SLUG fields and XMP data fields in Venture automatically. This data is then searchable in Webnative and Bridge.
I’m also using DALiM TWiST for workflow automation. If I export my PDF from InDesign, my job information travels into the resulting PDF. But if I “print” my PDF via FullPress or DALiM, the data doesn’t travel into the new asset. I’d like to use my PDF as my medium for online approval, but I don’t want to have to manually make a PDF on each round or manually apply a metadata template in an Adobe product. I’d like to know what processes others have found that allow transfer of asset data in this situation. In a fashion that I can work into an automated workflow. Suggestions? Findings? Thanks.
By tonygill99, on May 28th, 2009
Enfatico, a dynamic new advertising agency, is currently seeking a Global Digital Asset Librarian who will report to the Global Director of Library Science & Information. The Global Digital Asset Librarian is responsible for managing the agency’s digital assets throughout their entire lifecycle across 13 Enfatico offices and 6 Xinet digital asset management servers worldwide. In this role the Global Digital Asset Librarian will ensure that the standards and procedures for ingest, quality assurance, file-naming, cataloguing and storage of digital marketing communication assets are implemented Worldwide. This position will work with both colleagues in New York, Austin, Copenhagen, Singapore, Beijing and the Digital Asset Management team.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Work directly with digital assets on two U.S.-based servers on a daily basis
- Coordinate the day-to-day work of the Digital Asset Management team to be based at Enfatico’s production hub in Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Directly manage digital assets throughout their lifecycle (from ingest, file-naming, cataloguing and storage to retirement and archiving) on U.S.-based Xinet servers (Austin and New York)
- Apply editorial standards and procedures to create or enhance catalogue records (a.k.a. metadata) for digital assets stored in Enfatico’s Xinet digital asset management systems, and other systems as necessary
- Co-ordinate the day-to-day work to the Digital Asset Librarians based at Enfatico’s production hub in Dhaka, Bangladesh, based on priorities determined by the Global Director of Library Science & Information Management
- Develop and document appropriate editorial standards for digital asset metadata e.g. metadata schema, controlled vocabularies, cataloguing rules, file and folder naming conventions, mapping specifications and data conversion methodologies
- Liaise with Enfatico, client and external third-party personnel as necessary to ensure timely availability of high-quality digital assets
- Stay abreast of developing standards, practices and tools in the field of digital asset and content management
- Assist in the tracking and reporting of workflow and productivity
- Provide training and advice to other staff members as necessary and appropriate
- Undertake any other duties commensurate with the position as required by the Global Director of Library Science & Information Management
ESSENTIAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:
- ALA-Accredited MLS/MLIS, or equivalent relevant professional experience
- At least 2 years’ professional experience organizing and cataloguing digital assets
- Excellent written and spoken English
- Self-motivated, with outstanding organizational skills and the ability to effectively cope with multiple priorities in a fast-paced advertising production environment
- Visually literate, methodical, meticulous, and capable of attention to detail bordering on the obsessive
- Experienced in the application of metadata standards, controlled vocabularies and cataloguing rules
- Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite and a generally high level of technology literacy on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.
Highly Desirable
- Experience with an enterprise digital asset management system, especially Xinet’s WebNative suite of digital asset management products;
- Familiarity with data management standards, tools and technologies (e.g. XML, XSLT, XMP, RDF, SQL etc.);
If you have an ALA-accredited MLIS (or equivalent), at least 2 years’ professional experience organizing and cataloguing digital assets, excellent communication and organizational skills and want to work in an exciting, fast-paced advertising environment, this position might be for you.
If you’re also an energetic techno-savvy self-starter who is passionate about using library science to bring order to chaos, can produce high-quality results under pressure, and want to help build tools and workflows to help people around the world get their jobs done more efficiently, we definitely want to hear from you!
To apply, please visit:
By Joel Friedman, on May 20th, 2009
In our Polls section on the left, we’ve posted a new question for the coming week:
Which features planned for Xinet’s next software release are you most looking forward to using?
You may choose up to three of the following features:
Unified GUI
Annotations
Configurable and fast index creation
Previews of Office 2007 and 2008 documents
Streaming video previews
Video reel building
We’ll leave this posting open for comment in case you have any questions or…hmm…comments.
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