Ripley's sorts unstructured data with Autonomy

Virage MediaBin has been rolled out across 13 countries

Ripley's rolls out Autonomy product

Oddity museum Ripley Entertainment has rolled out a meaning-based management platform from Autonomy which allows it to make better use of its digital assets.

The platform, called Virage MediaBin, will archive and analyse the organisation’s 275,000 digital assets as well as all its unstructured data-comprising emails, videos, blogs and other social media.

At the core of Autonomy Virage MediaBin is Autonomy’s Meaning Based Computing platform, Idol, which automatically forms a conceptual understanding of all rich media assets located in any internal or external repository.

Autonomy Virage MediaBin can automatically convert video and audio into natural language and can also synchronise with streaming content and pull out content at any point along its timeline.

The system means the organisation no longer needs to tag its content, and uses a series of pattern-matching technologies and algorithms such as Shannon and Bezier.

Ripley's MediaBin has 400 connectors that allow it to take information from any repository. The MediaBin comprises a combination of bespoke and standard connectors, these will vary according to the complexity of the repository being accessed.

Annie Weinberger, vice president of marketing at Autonomy, said: “Once employees have the right permission, they will be able to find all assets related to any one theme."

"The tool can also be used to understand customer behaviour and alter the products on offer accordingly. If there is a rush of calls in the UK referencing a particular kind of oddity, the marketers can help create shows around that.”

Video assets can be located to the exact location within a video where a word or phrase is spoken. The product also delivers an intuitive user interface according to the company, and supports a wide range of rich media asset types and languages, including the ability to search foreign multimedia in the marketer’s native language.

The company was unwilling to say how much the deal was worth.