After graduating from college, I found a job via my ASMP connections from Nathan Benn was starting up a company called Picture Network International (PNI). That was one hell of a cool job.PNI was the second “on line stock-photo shopping service” after Kodak Picture Exchange. I spent over two years there and loved it. That’s where I got my first email address (cabraham@media.sra.com) learned Gopher, FTP, command line, Unix (pre-Linix), Macintosh System 7 (my badass Quadra 900, Quadra 800)
Here’s some more coverage I have been able to find about PNI, online:
From Folio,
“Eight months after Eastman Kodak introduced Kodak Picture Exchange, the first on line stock-photo shopping service, Picture Network International of Arlington, Virginia, has brought out a rival offering dubbed Seymour. With 200,000 images from 26 agencies, including Impact Visuals Inc., Woodfin Camp & Associates and others, Seymour won high marks during its six-month beta test, which ended with its official launch last month.
Marjorie Graham, image archive manager at New York City textbook publisher John Wiley and Sons, and a Seymour beta-tester and KPX subscriber, rates the former’s image bank more appropriate for editorial use, adding that her staff prefers Seymour’s natural search language to KPX’s keyword system. KPX’s 100,000 images from 23 providers are, she finds, geared more toward ad agencies.) Yet, despite PNI’s attempt to find a common language for image retrieval – the perpetual stumbling block for electronic archiving systems – the search language still seems to need refining. Frances Borchardt, assistant photo editor at Nation’s Business and a PNI beta-tester, says that her searches often retrieve unwanted photos. She adds, “I would like to be able to eliminate certain stock agencies from the search upfront.”
Similar to KPX in concept and price, Seymour has the added functionality of calculating licensing fees and allowing users to place orders online. Images are then delivered to customers either as high-resolution digital files from PNI or as slides directly from the stock houses. Still, from a competitive point of view, KPX holds the chronological advantage. As Mike Harrigan, marketing development director at KPX, points out, “It’s out there and it’s working.” And it has 200 subscribers. KPX is also ahead with the release of a Windows version of its software: KPX’s is now available, while Seymour users will have to wait until late 1995. Harrigan also notes KPX’s 14.4 baud transmission speed. While Seymour works with 14.4, PNI recommends the faster, but less common, 28.8 bauds for best performance.
Indeed, KPX is somewhat more forgiving in all its hardware requirements. Though Seymour requires a Macintosh Quadra 610 or higher with at least 12MB RAM (16 to 32MB is recommended) and Macintosh System Software 7.1 or higher, KPX will run on a Macintosh IIci with 8MB RAM and at least the System 7 operating system.
As for viewing, both need a 24-bit video display card and a 14-inch (minimum) color monitor. At least 10MB of free space is needed on both hard drives for viewing images, although 20 or more is recommended. Seymour’s software and licensing package is $175 per computer and $1.50 per minute online charges; KPX runs $199 per station and $1.42 per minute.
Yet for all the advantages of online stock, and despite the burgeoning of virtually all electronic media, users say such systems pose no immediate threat to conventional stock photo agencies. They agree that online offerings are best and most economical for fast, limited searches. And, convenience aside, electronic stock stands to add extra duties to a photo editor’s workload. “When I need something quickly and know what I’m looking for, I can show pictures in a half-hour, not overnight,” says Borchardt. Otherwise, she leaves the heavy searching to agency researchers.”
Via Sun Microsystems about PNI by Bob Griffin, Sun CEO, “We had to be able to count on continued high performance and reliability even after orders of magnitude growth in our online business. That’s what scalability is all about, and that’s where Sun is unequaled.”
(My office was in the image server room. There were dozens of Pizza Box Sun SPARCs everywhere, all chained. One of my responsibilities was to batch upload 6-CD shuttles of Photo CDs of scans from the photo agencies and archives)
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