An international CEPIC congress took place in France from May 10-12th; annually, it gathers the key players of the creative industry to exchange knowledge and best practices, communicate and find new opportunities.
Our media agency Picvario Media has been participating in CEPIC since 2006. This year we were a sponsor of the congress; in addition to discussion with long-standing partners on the development of the agency network, we were able to present the Picvario Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform that we had developed.
What is CEPIC?
CEPIC, from CEnter of the PICture industry (former: Coordination of European Agencies Press Stock Heritage), is a registered European Economic interest Grouping (EEIG) and international umbrella organization. It representing the interests of 11 national Picture Associations in Europe and further individual Agencies in EU-Institutions and international organizations.
What is IPTC? Picvario is not a regular participant in CEPIC events but contributes to the development of the community. We represent the organization in the international telecommunications council IPTC.
IPTC Photo Metadata sets the industry standard for administrative, descriptive, and copyright information about images.
Participation in working groups and events of international organizations allows us to strengthen and expand the agency’s partner network, which today includes over 70 organizations from around the world.
Our presence and active participation in the metadata centre allow us to design and create DAM Picvario in accordance with the best international practices. After all, the correct use of metadata helps to build effective media management processes.
The first day of the congress was dedicated to inclusivity in visual communications. Google presented a key panel and raised issues related to putting more diverse content online and making it accessible to various populations.
In April, with our participation, one of the IPTC standards was developed and adopted. Allowing ALT-TEXT fields to be included in the metadata that allows screen readers to read out the texts describing the content of photos and illustrations. This feature enhances the accessibility of content on the Internet for the blind and visually impaired.
It was nice to learn that the IT giants Adobe and Google supported the use of the new standard.
By the way, this functionality is available to Picvario platform users.
The second day was dedicated to artificial intelligence. It was significant for the visual communications industry, given the recent AI revolution. On the day, experts shared how visual AI is affecting the world and how we should treat synthetic media in the future. Participants learned about new AI technologies and commercial opportunities, discussed ethical issues, looked at examples of AI law violations, and discussed changes to EU legislation.
CEPIC presented a guide to ethical principles for the use of artificial intelligence in content production. As well as discussed together with Adobe the Responsible Practices Initiative for Artificial Intelligence for Synthetic Media.
CAI (Content Authenticity Initiative) provided an update on the Creative Content Authenticity Initiative. CAI has been developing specifications and open-source software for over 3 years, working with camera manufacturers and software developers so that consumers can know the origin story of content and its actual creator. Based on the work of the initiative group, a new metadata standard, C2PA, is emerging that allows not only to reflect but also to include the history of creation and modification of media files but also includes «traditional» metadata fields — IPTC, EXIF.
Picvario is a member of the CAI initiative. We are closely following the development of the new standards and are preparing to implement them as soon as it has been validated.
The last day of the event opened its doors to content creators: the participants discussed trends in the video market, options for the distribution of visual materials and NFT platforms and promotion tools. Google presented tools for SEO optimization and the license icon, emphasizing that the image is available for licensing.
Picvario’s results and achievements
- Agreements have been reached for the distribution of the Picvario platform by companies from India, South Africa, Spain, and Portugal.
- Agreements have been signed agreements with two new partner agencies. Now more than a million new stock images will be added to the agencies’ sites. We are also waiting for the new, unique collection of medical images.
- Preparing for the introduction of new AI systems in the Picvario platform.
- The EyQ Lab team has developed a solution for automatic photo and video correction. The solution will allow our customers to save time and money on processing content.
- Mobiusis develops technologies to train neural networks based on unique client datasets and to augment search algorithms based on semantics.
