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`Electronic Picture Desks . Today, although the story may remain the most important element, pictures, graphics and layout are now major considerations. While the general consensus has always been that newspapers need pictures wherever they can heighten the impact of the news and give it realism, even the most conservative papers are bowing to the market requirements for more colour and more visual impact. There is a trend towards illustrating news stories with better pictures and the improvement in the relative significance of pictures has caused many newspapers to move towards a layout orientated product. Of the new generation of full-page newspaper pre-press systems, they all allow the integration of images and the image sizes and positions deter- mine the space left where the text can flow. In subsequent stages of production, time is saved and quality usually enhanced by digital picture handling. Later deadlines and more time in which to leave the page open is compensation enough. As an adjunct to a more visual and immediate world, picture capture is moving closer to the editorial department. The general aim is to make the two operations more complementary. Editors should be able to share their desk with a terminal that can show pages complete with current text and low resolution images. As part of this digital scenario, electronic picture desks and digital pictutre news services for newspapers have arrived. “t \ Andy Williams Research Engineer February 1992 FOR IFRA MEMBERS ONLY IFRA (INCA-FIEJ Research Association) . Washingtonplatz D-6100 Darmstadt (F. R. Germany) Tel. (6151) 7005-O TX. 4 19273 (ifra d) t Fax (6151) 7845 42
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`Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Advantages of Electronic Picture Desks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Disadvantages of Electronic Picture Desks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Picture Desk Functions for the Front-end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Picture Desk Hardware Considerations ............................................................ 9 Electronic Picture Desks as Graphic Workstations .............................................. 13 File Sizes ................................................................................................... 14 Transmission standards ................................................................................. 16 Transmission format ..................................................................................... 16 Transmission protocol .................................................................................. 17 JPEG, a compression algorithm ...................................................................... 18 Digital Services ........................................................................................... 19 Frame Grabbing .......................................................................................... 22 Hardcopy ................................................................................................... 23 Improving Pictures - Ethical Considerations .................................................... 24 Future Developments ................................................................................... 26 Synopsis of the EPD Market .......................................................................... 27 Appendiz A: Improving 3-colour Analogue Wirephotos ...................................... 34 Black separation from three Wirephoto separations ............................................. 34 Appendix B: Addresses of Electronic Picture Desk Suppliers ............................... 38 Addresses of Frame Grabber Suppliers ................................................. . ........... 41 ? t The term “wirephoto” has been used to refer to a picture transmitted as an analogue signal from a news agency and “newsphoto” to refer to a photo transmitted digitally. In using the term “proprietary” to describe certain types of computer, the intention is to distinguish between computers that have been designed for a single special purpose and “standard platforms” which are widely used general purpose computers. Sun SPARC and Apple Macintoshes workstations are considered “standard plat- forms”, even though they are proprietary and are only obtainable from one manufacturer, as they exist in their hundreds of thousands or millions. 0 IFRA, Darmstadt 3
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`Introduction The development of picture desks started in the late 70’s. Associated Press, AP, had an electronic darkroom in 1979 that gave them the ability to send pictures digitally and to computerise darkroom tasks. Some of the pioneering for digital transmissions lay within the IPTC’s technical committees who, as early as 1979, started to study and specify digital tele- photo transmission systems. Certainly, it would not have been possible to have as many digital services beginning so quickly within such a short time had it not beenfor the standardisation of digital newsphoto formats i.e. “IPTUANPA Information Interchange Model” and the “IPTCYANPA Newsphoto Parameter Record”. The German news agency dpa was the first to use an EPD in day-to-day operations in Europe, even though the network was analogue. 1990 saw the launch of AP’s digital picture service, PhotoStream. AP have increased the quality and expectations of service from photo agencies considerably. The other agencies really have had to try and compete. 0 IFRA, Darmstadt 5
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`Since AP provided each of its US clients with a digital electronic picture desk (EPD), the numbers of such units and systems has increased steadily. At present AP has about 1200 EPDs installed - mostly in the USA, but extending worldwide. Crosfield has also won orders for the installation of several hundred - over 160 with the German press agency, dpa and over 100 for the Canadian Press press agency. Companies like AFP, Hasselblad, Reuters, Sinclair Imaging and Tecnavia have hundreds of EPDs installed and working continuously. Advantages of Electronic Picture Desks No doubt, there are many forces driving the newspaper industry towards using EPDs: - the move by picture agencies to offer a better service via a digital satellite link. Once committed to using satellites for transmission, the agencies are also committed to encouraging newspapers to use the service to cover their extra investment. - the desire of newspapers to receive colour pictures quickly and in greater quantity. The process is being urged on by photo bonanzas like the summer and winter Olympic games. The need for colour pictures, speed and complete coverage of the events mean digital transmission and EPDs are the best solution. These could be called predictable peaks in picture supply and demand and have a real influence on sales and installations of EPDs. - the multiple economic and qualitative advantages for newspapers of receiving pictures digitally. Darkroom .! Negative scanners have replaced part of the darkroom work which has meant faster handling and better quality. Transmitters now compress and send ihe images in digital form over analog phone lines. The advent of electronic picture desks replacing print receivers means that the image can be kept digital through to the prepress (some day, right to the press). 6 0 IFRA, Darmstadt
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`The coming of still video cameras of sufficient resolution is just about here. Kodak’s new system has reached the minimum level for newspaper use. L All these points are enduring incentives for the installation of an EPD. The almost free installation of a picture desk by a photo agency in a client’s newspaper is another. Even provincial newspapers, who are not big users of pictures concerning national and interna- tional news, are able to justify such equipment because of material costs savings and better work flow. For example, as an option, many picture desks can be used to transmit in the standard Wirephoto format. This can be useful where the newspaper still wants to use the dry silver paper receiver for producing the Wirephoto hardcopy - they can still save money on the cost of this material as only the required pictures need be output. They also retain the advantage that all the pictures can still be archived digitally. Here is a list of the main advantages of EPDs: elimination of dry-silver photopaper with savings in production costs for materials and maintenance. one machine can receive multiple wire services each requiring separate decoding and filtering processes. many pictures can be displayed simultaneously, which helps selection. in most cases, it is possible to work using standard workstations like Mats or PCs. Familiarity with the keyboard and pointing devices speeds operation and training. speed is improved usually around 400 % in the case of digital reception. A colour set, which used to take close to 30 minutes to receive on an analogue recorder, can be captured in about 7 minutes digitally over a 9600 baud network. , manual handling of photos is virtually eliminated in a digital environment. faster and more effective imagi control. The digital picture can be cropped, sized, edited and optimised for produciion far more quickly than its analogue counterpart. digital picture data is much easier to access, caption, transfer and archive. savings in darkrooms, darkroom equipment and personnel, space and time mean reduced production costs. The more pictures that have to be processed, the more significant the savings. 0 IFRA, Darmstadt
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`- quality is improved enormously compared to Wirephotos. “Hits”, white lines repre- senting lost data, are eliminated. “Noisy” transmission lines have far less effect. - editorial picture proofs can be generated easily and cheaply by b&w or colour laser printers or copiers. - no need to process pictures that will not be used. - easier connection to colour and pagination systems via standard hardware and stan- dard software protocols. c What do newspaper want from picture desks? - ease of picture editing/captioning/routing/file management - transparent multi-tasking (and often multi-user) environment - low technical operating skill - networking: to access to other PCs and the Macintoshes for fast enhancement and restoration using off-the-shelf software - access to other picture capture devices like frame grabbers, still-video cameras, scanned picture files, video tapes - ease of access to stored pictures - ability to store unscreened archive copies - reliability - reasonable price Disadvantages of Electronic Picture Desks Some difficulties with the incorporation of picture desks remain: - there is a large amount of data that tends to accumulate; 1-12 Mbytes for a newsphoto. - newspapers with analogue receivers may be reluctant to invest in new digital techniques. Picture Desk F&ctions for the Front-end 1 Even though EPDs reduce the dependence on photographic darkrooms, they still pass through an editorial stage where pictures are selected, cropped, sized and captioned, and a secondary stage, where the image is processed to give the best reproduction on the printed page. The editorial functions are sometimes referred to as the “front-end”, and the prepa- rations for reproduction as the “back-end”. 8 0 IFRA, Darmstadt
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`Standard “front-end” functions for electronic picture desks should include the following: -decoding the various formats from different digital and analogue services -date and time assigned to each image as received -display multiple “thumbnail” images -locate pictures based on subject, date etc. -cropping -sizing -rotating a picture in 90 degrees increments or finer -easy grouping of the three separation files into a colour project file -captioning -sharpening -mirroring -optionally apply JPEG data compression for storage and transfer -output picture to laser printer or other hardcopy device -save newsphoto as continuous tone or screened TIFF or PostScript file -send, protect or purge selected pictures. Picture desks can have a secondary function as a general picture workstation, not only being used to process photos from news agencies, but also all other pictures - from the newspapers own photographers, broadcast television, video tapes, pictures archives etc. Newspapers want to improve on local and Wirephoto quality. In many instances, it will not be a case of waiting for the telephoto machines to wear out. They are already obsolete. This report will look at both issues, the specific newsphoto receiving terminal and the wider implications of a digital picture-handling workstation. Picture Desk Hardware: Considerations The technology of receiving wire-photo picture is perhaps deceptively simple. There are more than twenty companies, most of them relatively small operations, engaged in offering EPDs. There are also sometimes close associations between them - having jointly developed the hardware and software (Anaya and The Colour Group; DPS TypeCraft and Neotech). However, making systems work reliably, with a smooth operator interface and in a network environment is difficult, taking years to develop. Perhaps it will be not at all 0 IFRA, Darmstadt 9
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`surprising to learn that those companies who have invested the most man-years usually have the best products e.g. AP, Crosfield (which includes the work of Muirhead), DPS TypeCraft, Harris, Hasselblad, Sinclair, Tecnavia. In terms of numbers of suppliers, only very few will sell large numbers of EPDs. Either the EPD is a system that requires support, which small companies would find difficult to do on a national or an international scale, or the EPD will be based on plug-in boards for standard platforms and proprietary software which don’t require technical support but depend on technical excellence to sell in large numbers. Some manufacturers meet both criteria. l Standard platforms are predominating the electronic picture desk market. In casting a view over the current systems, there is a tendency for the Mat to be given the role of back-end graphic workstation. The file servers and even the newsphoto receivers tend to be built into PC platforms. Both multitasking and moving large files around a network is more widely performed on Intel ‘386 or ‘486 computers. Sun file servers are preferred for data intensive operations. However, for further image processing the Mat is the standard unit and Adobe “PhotoShop” and Letraset’s “ColorStudio” the most used software. On the PC side Aldus “PhotoStyler” and Media Cybernetics “HALO Desktop Image? are popular. Some examples of the polarisation among EPD manufacturers can be seen as follows: Standard Macintosh-based EPDs systems: Visualize (previously Anaya. They are being sold outside of Spain by vendors such as The Colour Group and ND Comtec), Diwan, DPS Typecraft, Neotech and Nikon. The last three are currently virtually the same product in the UK, although Nikon is developing the system independently. Standard PC-based EPDs: Crosfield, Intraproc, In-Line, National Digital Corporation, Media Imaging Technologies, Reuters, SEMA Group. Standard Amiga-based EPD: TLC Total Image Corporation. Standard multi-platform EPD: Harris (editing workstations and file servers, all based on standard platforms, can be HP/Apollo, Mats, PCs or Sun, but tending towards Sun SPARC file servers for larger installations). Proprietary hardware EPDs: AFP, AP, Hasselblad, Sinclair, Tecnavia. This is only a snapshot of current events. Even now both AFP and Reuters will reduce their > efforts on developing their own terminals and concentrate on doing what they have always done well - providing hi$h quality news pictures, news and graphics. Both agencies will be offering an international fgital photo service to their members. As a guideline, there are iight basic points for the selection and use of a picture desk: 1. Use standard platforms and hardware so that: a) People quickly become familiar with the way it works. The learning curve is reduced by standardising the keyboard and operating system (OS) and using a Graphical User Inter- face (GUI). Productivity usually improves. 10 0 IFRA, Darmstadt
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`b) Purchase costs for equipment as well as any spares required during its life are lowered. Obviously, cards for the i/o and the software need to be special. The rest can be off-the- shelf. c) Upgrading the operating system or moving to a new faster model from the same manu- facturer is easier and cheaper than with more specialised computers. d) Maintenance is easier and servicing locally available. By using standard motherboards, interfaces, disk drives, disc drive and network controller cards, keyboards, power supplies and even monitors, it may be possible to repair and service much of the equipment in- house. Many newspapers have their own electronics engineers to maintain standard equip- ment. Where there is only one wire agency being received and only one terminal for processing the picture, any platform is suitable. 2. When receiving more than two newsphoto services in addition to performing editing tasks, use a powerfid computer as the receiver (‘486 or ‘386, Sun SPARC or other high-end RISC workstation). There is some concern that other platforms are slowed considerably by dividing their processor time between several operations. Receiving newsphotos is the number one priority of an EPD. Output is the number two priority. If a platform with poor multitasking performance is fitted with cards to handle two or more different agencies, and it has to receive two or three pictures simultaneously, it may become irritatingly slow. File reading and writing operations may not be managed at all well and trying to improve a picture with a software program running as a background operation will be difficult. An alternative is to use a receiver card with its own microprocessor to relieve the micro- processor in the main computer - for example, Neotech’s board for the Macintosh. Another alternative is to separate the activities of receiving and editing - using dedicated terminals for each function. 3. Use a power&u1 computer as fileserver (Sun SPARC or other high-end RISC, ‘486 or Mat Quadra workstation) on multi-terminal networks. 4. Use a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system in a multi-terminal network environ- ment. Similar to the difficulties meptioned in 2. above, file management and control of many peripheral devices requires ai thoroughly reliable operating- and network manage- I ment system. There aren’t many that run on standard platforms. UNIX and its derivatives, are the most mature group. 5. In a multi-user, multi-tasking environment, make sure the EPD can safegard files. Safeguards are desirable to prevent two people working on a file at the same time or to prevent system conflicts like outputting the high resolution file while it is being updated by the actions of another user. 0 IFRA, Darmstadt 11
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`6. The picture desk should support IPTUANPA DIT data interchange standards for newsphoto input, TIFFfile formats for output, JPEG compression, and connection to an Ethernet network. Additional useful file output formats are Encapsulated PostScript (EPSF) and PICT and PICT2. Some of these terms are explained later, but they all refer to real or de-facto standards which result in simplified transfer, use and storage of data and the interconnecting of other image processing equipment. Additional information i$ in IFRA Special Reports 2.3.3 Local Area Networks and 2.3.6 Data Formats. 7. Use a good analogue-to-digital converter for handling analogue lines Even though digital technology will replace analogue techniques, analogue is still of some importance because of the great number of devices in the field. How an analogue signal is amplified, sampled and converted to digital values by an EPD can have an effect on the quality of the received picture. The higher the frequency of the sampling, the more exact the description is of the original signal and hence, the original picture. Each newsphoto is built up of around 900 lines. Sampling each line 1024 times produces one level of quality. Many picture desks and services sample at twice this rate, 2048 times per line. Indeed, some over-sampling is desirable. Obviously, there will be a more accurate re-generation of the original image if sampling is performed at the higher frequency, all other parameters being equal. Similarly, the number of discrete voltages levels that can be detected by the A/D converter may vary. This is termed the resolution of the converter. For every voltage sampled, the A/D converter may be able to detect between 0 and 255 (S-bits) voltage levels, or 0 and 1023 (lo-bit) or 0 and 4096 (12-bit) levels, for example. This corresponds to the number of grey levels that can be detected. Although picture data is usually packed as 8-bits per pixel width for compatibility with other digital equipment, as long as the data can be compressed intelligently with a tone compression algorithm, A/Ds with resolutions higher than &bits make good sense. Resolution and sampling rate of the converter used should be a quality consideration for the buyer who will be using the picture desk with analogue lines. High speed digital signal processing (DSP) chips a;e being used on advanced designs of EPDs to improve overall signal quality. Digital newsphotos are re&eived with the same quality that they were when transmitted - irrespective of how great a distance the transmitter is from the receiver. 8. When dealing with analogue picture reception, make sure that the EPD can manage pictures files that have been corrupted or remain open. If the receiver cannot determine where the end of an analogue picture ends, the usual result is that the computer picture file 12 0 IFRA, Darmstadt
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`keeps growing. This can create huge files that fill the disc with useless data and cause the system to crash. Special precautions are needed with analogue picture files to secure the system. No doubt, manufacturers of proprietary hardware systems may not entirely agree with these guidelines. Specialised motherboards with image processing hardware certainly have the advantage of speed because of their optimised performance. But this may be their only advantage. Unless there is adequate back-up in the form of extra t*erminals or quick and full maintenance support within easy reach, newspapers may be taking unnecessary risks. For standard platforms, the best recourse is to have a replacement newsphoto receiver card (sometimes called a “fax” card) for back-up. For proprietary hardware, two receiver terminals should be considered the minimum recommended. The operating system Some merits of a multi-user, multi-tasking operating systems have already been men- tioned. For small installations, receiving one newsphoto from a picture agency is easily accom- plished as an interrupt driven process and can therefore be performed at the same time on the same terminal as other tasks like picture processing. Some picture desk programs are written like this - using task switching and interrupt processing to control several processes. It is not necessary for the processor to be operating within a multi-tasking operating environment like UNIX. In fact, many of the well-known systems need to use basically single-tasking operating systems like MS-DOS or Apple OS 7 to maintain com- patibility with off-the-shelf programs. In assessing the pros and cons of the OS, it is unlikely to make any significant difference one way or the other for newspapers with low newsphoto requirements. However, as described earlier, it can be recognised that some systems are using a multi-tasking OS for use in a large networked environment. Where the digital picture traffic from agencies, staff photographers and remote digital picture libraries is high, more powerful’ terminals are required, including multi-tasking computer operating systems. In the future, much more use shall be made of telecommunications for picture transfer but by that time, perhaps the ’ performance of standard platform? shall have improved sufficiently to cope too. Electronic Picture Desks as Graphic Workstations Sophisticated black and white or colour picture processing on any standard Macintosh or PC-DOS platform can be accomplished, but not always easily, in off-the-shelf packages like Adobe PhotoShop, Letraset ColourStudio, Pre-press Technologies SpectrePro, CIS Color Access etc. These plug-and-play systems can provide good solutions. 0 IFRA, Darmstadt 13
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`However, at the top of the market, the most powerful electronic picture desks, notably AP Leaf, Crosfield and Hasselblad, are able to handle colour picture enhancement well and not just on newsphotos. One new perspective is that the sophisticated picture desks can act in a multi-purpose role by supplementing other picture handling systems or even fulfilling all the picture processing requirements of a medium size newspaper. It should be remembered that in the majority of provincial newspapers there are perhaps only one or two agency pictures per edition. It might not be called overkill in having a picture desk because of the savings in silver paper, but they can be made to do more than the minimum. Here is a list of some other “back-end” features that should be supported: - tone curve manipulation - grey balance customised by user - print characteristics customised by user - colour correction - 3- or 4-colour separation - “dodging” (lighten) and “burning” (darken) selected areas of the picture - pixel editing/cloning - generate ruled boxes around the cropped photo automatically - generate the optimum halftone screen angles for reproduction - generate a true black colour separation - grey component replacement, GCR, to replace colour inks with black ink and reduce costs - calibration: - grey scale - colour Some caution is needed in differentiating between picture desks in terms of speed of operation. Picture desks are somewhat similar in making changes on the screen. The real differences in speed are noticeable when making the changes to the high resolution file. File Sizes t .\ While black and white pic.ures are sent as one file, colour files are sent as three files from the news agency corresponding to cyan, magenta and yellow separations. (The data is a direct derivative of the scanned/transmitted RGB data). This contains all the information needed for a three-colour picture or for making a fourth printer, black. There is no advantage, and several disadvantages in having the news agency generate the fourth colour and transmit it. 14 0 IFRA, Darmstadt
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`Press photo 8” x IO” (20 x 25 cm) 35 mm transparency 35x24 mm I Analogue CCITT Module 352 circa 1000 lines Digital 2046 pixels/line i.e. 2 million pixels/picture i.e. circa 16 million bits -------------------------> Scanning direction Digital newsphotos via satellite: the scanned picture. Electronic picture desks require three versions of a newsphoto: - thumb-nail images, often only 128 x 128 pixels, for displaying multiple pictures as a matrix of 12 or 16 pictures on the screen simultaneously - full screen image (low resolution file - commonly 72 dpi for a Mat, 512 x 512 pixels for DOS computers) - high resolution. The main file is 900 lines x 1024 pixels x 8-bit uncompressed, which means 8 Mbits or 1 Mbyte of data for your file server, at least. Colour projects mean 24 Mbits or 3 Mbytes of data. If the newsphoto service sends 2048 pixels per line, then each picture/separation will be double the size e.g. 16 Mbits per picture. High resolu- ’ tion TIFF output data files typqally contain about 3 Mbytes of data for black & white and 9 Mbytes for a colour set. Fhese TIFF files no longer contain scanner pixel-map continuous tone data, but scale@ bit-map CMY(K) information for screening. An important ingredient is that there should be no limit on the size of data file that can be handled. The EPD must not just be capable of handling newsphoto resolution pictures. Also, the quality of the separations is related to the sophistication of the software and how much the operator knows and has done to set-up the parameters for producing colour. 0 IFRA, Darmstadt 15
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`Transmission standards Any transmission of data requires that it is sent in a particular way that the data can be reconstructed at the receiver - analogue or digital. What is needed is: - a format for the data A digital newsphoto is made up from text (caption) and a picture; the format specifies how text data and picture data are organised within the overall “packet”. F - a transmission protocol This is the means with which two computers can control the transfer of information - virtually the “language” to be used. - a compression algorithm Digital is good, but each newsphoto may represent several megabytes of data. For storage or transmission, compression algorithms can be used to reduce the amount of data in a newsphoto. Transmission Format IPTC/ANPA Information Interchange Model - a transmission format The International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) and the American News- paper Publishers Association (ANPA) have formulated an information interchange model to define the format of digital newsphotos. Details are published in the two documents IPTC-ANPA Information Interchange Model and IPTC-ANPA Digital Newsphoto Parameter Record. Within each complete digital newsphoto “packet” are “sub-packets” called records which contain individual descriptor data relating to the newsphoto, namely: - Envelope record (mandatory) provides technical information about the item itself and its transmission (file format - service identifier - envelope number.. .) - Application record (optional) provides pertinent editorial information about the object - Digital Newsphoto parameter record (mandatory for newsphotos) provides all necessar$ technical information about the newsphoto itself - Pre-Object descriptoi record (mandatory) provides a means of describing the size of the object - Object record provides the actual data of the object - Post object descriptor record (mandatory) gives the size of the object file 16 0 IFRA, Darmstadt
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`1 Perhaps the most interesting and powerful feature for editors is the Application Record which is composed of separate areas of information in a standard format, much like the fields of a database record, such as the picture caption, classification, priority level, keywords, byline etc. From this data it is possible to automatically identify and group colour picture separations, route the picture to one or several different editorial desks like politics, sport, art & entertainment, and later to simplify the storage and retrieval and archiving of pictures. Next to quality and speed, this feature provides a most significant advantages of digital news pictures over the analogue form. ‘ Transmission Protocol IPTC will endorse certain protocols. To be considered for endorsement, protocols must meet some criteria such as: - the protocol supports the IPTC ANPA Information Interchange Model - the protocol is “open” i.e. for anyone to use. Several have been studied and accepted: the Digital Information Transfer, DIT3.x (currently 3.2) protocol presented by AFP and Hasselblad Electronic Imaging. This is for serial communication from point-to- point. This protocol is the most significant because it is used by these two companies and also AP, dpa, Eastman Kodak, Press Association, Reuters, Sinclair and others. There are indications that AFP, Hasselblad and PA will register themselves with IPTC and adopt the new “open” DIT 3.0 standard (or its updates) in the future. the Modified Handshake Protocol and GPIB presented by AP for local high speed parallel data comunication. The above point-to-point protocols are used for the transmission from one point to Ooze other point. Photo agencies broadcast their data from one point to many points, very often several hundred points. Such a transmission requires a point-to-multipoint protocol. It should have the following features: .! - compliance with IPTUANPA standards. - some form of data error detection based on Forward Error Correction to correct for errors in