swiss-image.ch, the official picture agency of the World Economic Forum, used the new picture workflow "Remote Picture Editing", which is based on the Idruna Remote Editing Software (IRES) by Paul Nolan for the first time at the Annual Meeting 2008 in Davos. And it turned out to be a great success. Canon Europe showed its appreciation for Remote Picture Editing at the World Economic Forum with a detailed report on the CPN website.

(am) swiss-image.ch worked with the new picture transfer workflow "Remote Picture Editing" for the first time on a large scale at the Annual Meeting 2008 in Davos. Thanks to the attached WLAN transmitter Canon WFT-E2, two out of four photographers could send the pictures taken with the professional cameras Canon EOS-1 D Mark III to a simple laptop at the press office or to an ultra-mobile OQO computer (attached to the photographer's strap) via the local WLAN network. The program "Idruna Remote Editing Software" (IRES) took care of the rest. Two picture editors at the external editorial office of swiss-image.ch were able to log into the newest pictures from the WEF and select and download the pictures onto their own computers. Thanks to this, the high-resolution photos of Condoleeza Rice, Bono or Klaus Schwab were available on the Internet only moments later and could be downloaded free of charge by members of the press.

Printable "live photos" for the WEF web team and media around the world

The web team of the World Economic Forum used the fast availability of the pictures for real-time updates of pictures on www.weforum.org and for the inhouse "Bulletin Board" - most recent info display at the congress center in Davos. Since swiss-image.ch was primarily responsible for the media picture service, online platforms and newspapers all around the world had faster access to the pictures of the important people in the world. Photographers as well as picture editors of swiss-image.ch were delighted by Remote Picture Editing. "I could concentrate fully on taking photos and did not have to hurry back to my laptop and edit the pictures myself," explains WEF photographer Rémy Steinegger. His daily "yield of pictures", which was already fairly high with the old workflow, virtually doubled. Christina Rohner, a long-term picture editor at a globally known picture agency is happy: "After many years, I felt like a true picture editor again. The responsibility for the pictures was almost 100 percent in my hands - quite as it was in the "analog" 1990s when the photographers used to hand in their rolls of film. And the speed is absolutely unbelievable!"
Silke Blumenstein, Remote Picture Editor with swiss-image.ch, attaches great value to the new division of labor: "I am live in the thick of it and have to decide quickly which pictures are important. The job has become more demanding, but it is also a lot of fun. Of course, you must have close contact with the photographers and there should be a certain mutual trust." The important thing for photographers and picture editors was that the photographer was able to immediately make a preselection on the 3-inch display of the Canon EOS-1 D Mark III and only the pictures he wants to offer to the editor are released via the SET button.

Much faster and highly efficient: photographer and picture editor share the work on a picture

The performance of the swiss-image.ch photo team at the World Economic Forum in Davos was decisively improved by IRES. Head of the project Andy Mettler is convinced that, with a bit of optimization, a team of five "remote" photographers plus four picture editors can do pretty much the same job at future Annual Meetings of the WEF as a team of 15 persons, who do not use this technology. "This is not primarily about saving money, but rather about a more efficient and yet stress-free work which then results in better photos," says Mettler. Being a photographer, he can now concentrate fully on taking photos again. "Due to the fact that I do my own picture editing on my laptop, I loose most of my time and nerves."
The Swiss photographer, who has been grappling with the topic "Wireless Photography" since 2002, is surprised by a further result of the WEF work: "Since photographers and picture editors work parallelly and share the work, hundreds of pictures were already finished in early evening. In the past we had to work until late at night on pictures that could not be worked on before, and edit and upload these pictures with quite some delay. The post production work after the Annual Meeting was also reduced; in the past, we were still evaluating pictures days after the event. This time, 95 percent of the pictures were online 2 days after the end of the WEF. I'd have never expected this."

Successful use of Remote Picture Editing at the White Turf St. Moritz

swiss-image.ch used Remote Picture Editing at the great outdoor event in St. Moritz. At the White Turf, the traditional and popular horse race on snow in February 2008, pictures in magazine quality (4096 up to 5120 pixel!) were made available to members of the media shortly after each horse race round. The time advantage was enormous in comparison with conventionally working photographers. White Turf photographer Andy Mettler: "I partly pitied my colleagues: by the time they would sit down in the press container with their laptops and select their pictures in the late afternoon due to the full racing program, my pictures were already online thanks to IRES and my "Remote Picture Editor" in Davos. Today, I can hardly imagine how I did this job without Remote Picture Editing in the past. The stress was definitely greater then."
Swiss-Image, the free Swiss picture platform for tourism and events, decided in 2007, after a long test run, to use the IRES workflow for all events from January 2008 on.

Remote Picture Editing: when the picture editor has a live view of the photographer's camera...

Remote Picture Editing is a workflow that allows virtually live reports from important events. The photographer and his picture editor at the office share the work: the press or sports photographer concentrates fully on taking photos, while the editor can log into the current photographer's picture selection which is saved on a pocket PC or an ultra-mobile computer (UMPC) like the OQO e2 HSDPA via "Idruna Remote Editing System" (IRES). The image data is radioed from the Canon EOS-1 D/D Mark III to the UMPC via the Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E2. The OQO mini computer is the photographer's constant companion and works with a battery time of up to three hours. The Internet connection is established via WLAN or radio data transmission 3G/HSDPA. In case of a WLAN connection, the camera is connected with the OQO e2 HSDPA via USB cable. For the remote use of a Canon EOS-1 D Mark III (10 mega pixel), a small Pocket PC could be used with the IRES software Idruna Pocket Phojo. The only pocket PC device that supports the USB data transfer from camera to the pocket PC is the Toshiba G900. For the wireless use of the Canon WFT-E2, the HTC TyTN II is suitable, yet the usage time is limited due to the small battery capacity.