am. The glorious sunny weather in Switzerland in the middle of March 2010 made the 42nd Engadin Ski Marathon an unforgettable experience for the over 11,400 cross-country skiers participating in the event. And for the very first time, participants' friends and family and, of course, all "Engadin" fans were able to follow the marathon action live online, thanks to the transmission of live pictures. From the start to the finish line, two photographers from swiss-image.ch, Rémy Steinegger and Andy Mettler, photographed the race along the entire course with their Canon pro cameras. The Swisscom Live Image Transmission system enabled the high-resolution photos to be transferred to a web server using Swisscom 3G data transmission. The images were immediately uploaded to the Live Image Ticker, and the live photos could be seen in the flash animation no more than 40 seconds later. "We have already used the Live Image Ticker at several major events since autumn 2009," says Andy Mettler, "but this time, even we were flabbergasted by the reception this gained. Even while the marathon was still underway, we were receiving calls from internet users enthusing about this new image service."

Live pictures were also available in print quality to the media within five minutes of being shot

A key advantage of the system: At the editorial office in Davos, the images from the Live Image Ticker were immediately optimized, captioned, and put online on www.swiss-image.ch for royalty-free use by the press by photo editor Silke Blumenstein. Photos from the start line in Maloja could therefore be used by the media as soon as the top skiers had crossed the frozen Lake Sils. The pictures were ready for download in 100% professional print quality. Mettler explains, "The main objective of our development work over the last decade has been to provide the media with printable images of an event extremely quickly. The Live Image Ticker is in fact just a spin-off product, but it has completely taken off and just goes to show what can be achieved with our transmission technology." As in the case of all complex systems, problems cannot be ruled out: for example, the photographer in the helicopter had problems connecting to the internet. His photos were therefore uploaded to the Live Image Ticker with a slight time delay.

From the camera directly to the Internet - the future belongs to Live Image Transmission

The Live Image Ticker from swiss-image.ch is the first system of its kind in the world, and the Engadin Ski Marathon was the first cross-country ski marathon to be transmitted live online with photos. Graubünden-based photo agency swiss-image.ch has been developing and using mobile image data transmission technology for the super-fast provision of press photos online since 2002. The digital photos transmitted have a resolution of 5120 pixel (approx. 5MB JPEG) and are therefore also ideal for use in magazines and advertising. The world premiere of the Live Image Ticker was in autumn 2009 when it was used to cover the Lucerne Marathon. The Live Image Ticker was also successfully deployed, together with state-of-the-art communication technology, such as Live Image Transmission and Remote Picture Editing, at the Spengler Cup and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos. At the Engadinsnow Freeski contest in January 2010, the spectacular press photos were transmitted live from a helicopter on Mount Corvatsch over a period of four hours. Remote Picture Editing, developed by Paul Nolan (USA), was used by some photo agencies at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The time gain using this technology in comparison to conventional photography was enormous. "This method of working is so efficient that I no longer want to work with conventional tools," says Mettler of the new image transmission technology, "it's just a shame that the major camera manufacturers didn't take my predictions over the last eight years seriously and have therefore not yet developed a wireless file transmitter with Wi-Fi and 3G/HSDPA/HSUPA. Putting pictures online directly from the camera is set to be big business, and not just for the professional camera market."

Live Image Ticker of the Engadin Ski Marathon >>

One high quality picture, two immediate uses: thanks to fast 3G image transmission directly from the camera. Users have an immediate view of the lifelike "photo course" in the Live Image Ticker (pictured at top). With almost no delay, the same photo is then also available to the media for downloading as a royalty-free picture (bottom).      (Photos Andy Mettler)

The Internet is becoming more important for events - live photos are an emotional communication medium

am. Will live photos soon be a standard feature of websites that cover major events? Yes, says Andy Mettler, CEO of swiss-image.ch and photographer, following the world premiere of the "Live Image Ticker", a proprietary development for rapidly transmitting photos of events directly from a professional digital camera to the Internet. swiss-image.ch first used the "Live Image Ticker" to cover the 3rd Lucerne Marathon 2009. The lively, flash animated online sequence of images was very well received.

Shortly before the start, Internet visitors were able to log into the live image coverage and see what was happening in the marathon from new pictures displayed about once a minute. Photos of 8,500 runners at the starting line, on the Lucerne pier, at the culture & congress center, or running along the picturesque Lake Lucerne could be seen at the website www.lucernermarathon.ch about one to five minutes after they were taken. The whole thing was accompanied by music. At the Swiss Museum of Transport, where the finish line was placed for the first time, 14,000 onlookers were also able to follow the live images of the course on the big screen. During their live TV coverage, Tele Tell had no live TV images to cover the "landstrecke", so they inserted live images to fill the gap.

With no real warning, around 7,000 visitors tuned into the Live Image Ticker on the marathon Sunday. Ten days later, somewhere around 40,000 visitors had already viewed the ticker or the sound & slide show that was put online afterwards. That's a lot, considering it was the first time the Live Image Ticker had ever been used, and that not many knew about it beforehand. Photography and communication specialist Metter says: live texts and live images of sports events are simply mandatory on an events website these days. Many friends and relatives of the participants want to keep up with how things are going at the event from home. Live streaming and TV images are simply too complicated and too expensive. A picture says more than a thousand words. Our Live Ticker brings impressions and emotions live to your home. Our image ticker and the sound & slide show also appeal to participants and guests at a special level later on. Around 40,000 visitors had registered for these two photo tools after ten days.



All shots were on target with the winner

After the marathon, Andy Mettler declared himself very satisfied with the ultra-mobile image transmission system for Canon cameras. "Apart from a brief interruption in transmission in St. Niklausen, the UMTS data transmission of the large JPEG files and automatic slideshow generation went smoothly beyond all expectations," the official marathon photographer sums up positively. One must keep in mind that the "Live Image Ticker" is a secondary usage. "We transmit the pictures in high quality in order to provide the media with the quickest possible, high quality, but still royalty-free press photo service. The pictures at 5000-plus pixel resolution are intended primarily for the press photo service, and are now also used for valuable web use - which many users at home will certainly appreciate."



When pictures learn to "fly", or how WI-FI and UMTS make the impossible possible

Thanks to WI-FI and UMTS, swiss-imge.ch has already been transmitting photos directly from the camera to the Internet for many years now. Our photographic editor optimizes and captions press photos on the fly. She even has special technology at her fingertips that lets her view and select the pictures directly on the camera before downloading them over the Internet. "Remote Picture Editing gives you not only quicker availability of press photos, but also a whole new workflow for the photographer," explains Mettler. "The division of work between me and a photographic editor not only saves time, but also allows me to spend more time and patience on the coverage. It also keeps costs down for the event organizer."

The Swiss photography agency swiss-image.ch is blazing new trails for press photography with its "on the fly" image transmission. The Live Image Ticker has now eliminated the distinction between press and public photos. "We have to take new paths in visual communication. A photo in the newspaper is not the only important thing. An appealingly presented photo in the Internet is a very good way to make emotional contact. Our pictures - as in the case of the marathon runs - make sure potential 'customers' can be attracted for the next broadcast," explains Andy Mettler.



When will WLAN and 3G come to Canon EOS cameras?

Live TV broadcasts of marathon runs or cycle races have been possible for decades. Relay planes or helicopters forward the video signal to a satellite or to a terrestrial antenna. There are only seconds of delay for the viewer at home. Hardly anyone in press photography has concerned themselves with this issue until recently. Security forces in the USA, Great Britain and recently also in Switzerland have been demanding such transmission technologies more and more of late. Remote Picture Editing and Live Image Transmission have proven highly successful for event coverage in recent years. The Live Image Ticker by developer Roman Abt is an application that now demonstrates the speed and the advantages of live photos outside the editorial office. An important link in the live chain is still missing, though: WLAN and G3 should be incorporated directly into or onto the digital camera. We will be interested to see how much longer it will take for the major Japanese camera makers to develop such models. Perhaps the Live Image Ticker could demonstrate to those responsible at Canon the advantages and interesting possibilities that G3 data transmission technology inside cameras would offer