Paneikon: Reuters leading the way in new remote photo editing technology

London, Jan. 17, 2007. Given the huge demand for fast photo coverage of international sports and entertainment events as well as breaking news stories – the talented photo editors and software developers at Reuters in London have developed a new system that beats all others for speed, accuracy and quality pictures. A Reuters photographer anywhere in the world uploads all their low resolutions images with the push of a button to the Reuters global server in London.  An editor will then download those pictures, choosing the image he wants.  He can then crop the photo and send it to another editor to tone in Photoshop and add a caption ready for transmitting to customers.

What once took hours with many editors and photographers flying round the world can now be done in a matter of minutes online in any location.

The system, patent pending in the US, has been named Paneikon, a Greek word meaning Global Image and it is now running successfully in a number of countries.  

Paneikon has transformed the way Reuters photo editors perform – editors and photographers can now work together irrespective of their geographical locations.  An editor anywhere in the world can look at any photographer’s pictures and edit them.  

The system was used for the first time during the 2006 World Cup in Germany and achieved great results.  Editors were able to work in a central location rather than travelling all over Germany to edit the story.   Therefore several editors were able to work on one match focusing on different aspects of the game.  Paneikon enabled Reuters to improve their delivery time by as much as five minutes and provide a wider selection of pictures – the image of the winning trophy got to customers four minutes after it was taken.

Although initially developed to cover sporting events Paneikon is now being applied to cover general news worldwide.  Reuters photo editors have the ability to swiftly take photos from the internet-based system for use in specific markets and third party Reuters editors will have uncomplicated access to online photographs for archive and magazine use.

Kevin Coombs, Senior Picture Editor who conceived the idea for the system says:  “Paneikon has transformed the way in which top quality photographs can be sent around the world, ready to publish within minutes.  It has significantly changed the way we edit allowing us to assign specialist editors to picture stories regardless of their geographical location.”  

Yet again, Reuters has achieved a global first in photo technology.  In 1997 Reuters were the first to use Wifi to transfer pictures from photographers’ laptops to editors in a sports arena and were the first news agency to fully operate with only digital cameras.

About Reuters

Reuters is the world’s largest international news and financial information source, reaching over 1 billion people a day.  Known for its speed, accuracy and independence, Reuters content powers newsrooms and financial markets around the world.  Reuters distributes its text, data, pictures and video to professionals and direct to consumers via online and digital services. Founded in 1851, Reuters Group has 16,800 employees in 89 countries and had annual revenues of £2.4 billion/$4.4 billion in 2005. For more information and the latest news, visit www.reuters.com.