Street Photography Magazine

Image Database Software | Test

This is the only purely cloud-based image
database in our test and has a browser-only
interface. eyebase offers mediasuiteas a Web
service that can be purchased for a monthly
fee and provides its own hosting service. You
have the option of running the server on your
own network instead, although this only really
makes sense in large-scale environments. The
‘Smart Start’ starter pack costs approximately
US$1,000 to set up and US$140 per month to
run, and includes 4 GB of online disk space.
There are various upload mechanisms,
including Java, e-mail, Dropbox and direct
upload from Lightroom, and we used FTP to
upload several gigabytes of test files. Massed
FTP uploads are not usually an issue, even
using variable bandwidth, and can be
paused and restarted if necessary. However,
eyebase apparently does not support this
basic functionality; it reloads files that are not
completely transferred but doesn’t delete
incomplete transfers. We ended up with a
number of duplicate files during our test,
although we were using an international
upload link to transfer files as large as

170 MB. We assume that transferring smaller

files via local connections should be less of a

problem.

eyebase displays thumbnail previews of

RAW images in its Web-based front end,

which gives it a head start over most other

cloud services. However, it is impossible to

tell whether the service renders its own

thumbnails or simply uses the one stored with

the RAW file, so we haven’t included any RAW

preview results in our table of results. RAW file

recognition rates weren’t nearly as good as

most of the locally installed software we

tested, but the program coped admirably with

the standard formats we fed it.

The mediasuitefront end has a Windows

look and feel and even less experienced

users will find it easy to use, in spite of the

many options on offer. The folder structure is

self-explanatory and, unlike Windows, allows

you to allocate individual files to multiple

folders. You can also build virtual collections

of files and folders.

Superusers can write to all existing IPTC

and Exif metadata fields and define additional

fields as necessary. Keywording is quick and

easy thanks to built-in multi-language

thesauri. The advanced search tool is highly

customizable, but doesn’t include face

recognition or geotagging functionality. One

of mediasuite’s obvious strengths is the wide

range of publishing options it offers, although

the viewer functionality is not as good as

those offered by other Web album services.

With its built-in research and online payment

tools, the eyebase offering is an obvious

choice for anyone looking for an online image

marketing platform.

mediasuite is not a real alternative to a

locally installed database, if only because

cloud solutions are inherently much slower

than locally based systems. However, its asset

distribution capabilities make it a great

add-on for linking Lightroom (using a

dedicated plug-in) to an intranet or the

Internet. Unlike other multi-user solutions, the

eyebase approach doesn’t require a dedicated

server, and the ‘Software as a Service’

approach to licensing makes it a good choice

for small companies.

eyebase mediasuite

ThemediasuiteWeb GUI offers a wide range of highly configurable features, like the search
mask shown here. The software is not a realistic alternative to a local image database but is
a useful add-on if you want to distribute your assets via the Internet.