Client Case Study : DALI

Background

DALI develops and manufactures some of the world’s finest Hi-Fi loudspeakers. The company was established in 1983 in modest surroundings. Today the DALI headquarters in Noerager, Denmark, cover 18,000 square metres with R&D, sales and production facilities under one roof. The company has its own sales organizations in Germany, Australia, U.S.A. and China.

The DALI loudspeakers are sold in more than 40 countries worldwide. The top models, Megaline and Euphonia, have several times been chosen as “Speaker of the Year” by the Hi-Fi press.

Today DALI’s selection of loudspeakers contains more than 60 different models in price levels ranging from $300 USD to $40,000 USD for one set.

The challenge

The many different loudspeaker series and models call for an extensive photo archive. The pictures are used for brochures, advertisements, press material, and the Internet.

Before, each of the original photos had to be converted into many different formats according to their use, i.e. print, newspaper, Internet etc. Since the pictures were used worldwide, different techniques for color management also had to be applied.

The original photos were kept at DALI’s ad agency. When a DALI agent abroad needed a set of pictures, an order was placed at the ad agency who then produced copies in the right format, size and quality. The copies were then burnt onto a CD-ROM and sent by courier to the agent. The whole process took up to one week – from order to delivery.

The solution

Today, all DALI pictures, logos etc. are stored centrally in an eRez imaging server. This means quick handling and easy management, since now only one copy of every picture is needed. The server is physically located at the Danish internet provider ScanNet in order to ensure 24h surveillance, uninterruptible power supply etc.

Because of the eRez imaging server the DALI product pictures are now available 24 hours a day and in the exact format and color space needed. Whenever an agent or the media need a picture from DALI, they simply download it from the imaging server. As such, delivery is reduced to minutes instead of days – and the expenses are at an absolute minimum.

The eRez imaging server also presents the user with a whole new level of flexibility since zooming, cropping and scaling the pictures can be done before downloading the picture.

Altogether the eRez imaging server has increased DALI’s level of exposure. Before the imaging server was imple­mented, DALI sent out pictures totalling 200 Mb pr. month. Today a total of 1,4 Gb is downloaded every month – an increase of 700%.

The bonus

The combination of low cost and easy 24h access is in itself reason enough to get the eRez imaging server. How­ever, the server also presents a valu­able bonus: the unique possibility of delivering pictures in real time for use on the Internet.

Today, most of the pictures on the two DALI websites are generated directly from the eRez imaging server. This means that all the pictures are up to date, in the highest possible quality and contains the possibility of zooming and paning. As such, a lot of the DALI distributors around the world generate the DALI pictures on their websites directly from the imaging server.

Easy handling, big savings

DALI’s eRez imaging server is managed by the company’s ad agency, Concept Interest. This guarantees that the pictures are always kept in the right format. The ad agency also keeps the server under surveillance, although there is not much work to this task. The system has not yet been down – despite the fact that the imaging server delivers about 10,000 pictures a day to websites and for downloading.

The savings on freight and handling alone mean that DALI’s imaging server paid for itself in a very short time. Furthermore DALI has obtained the valuable bonus effect of having its pictures exposed more than ever – and on a global scale.