Scope: the MediaValet SaaS DAM as documented in its public Help Center and product pages on 2026-10-01 (the "New Experience" UI introduced in October 2024 S128). Help Center statements take precedence over marketing pages where they differ.
Ingestion & storage
- Web upload: drag-and-drop into the library or straight into a category; filename validation with in-flow rename S35. Since August 2026, exact-duplicate detection (byte-identical files) warns during web upload only — not for API, Cloud Connector, integrations or external uploads S30.
- MediaValet Direct: free Mac/PC desktop uploader that turns local folder trees into categories ("add" vs "merge" folders); no maximum file size; throughput capped at 500 assets per minute; not usable when "Filename Versioning" is enabled on the library S36.
- Cloud Connector: admin-only migration jobs that copy folders from Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, SharePoint, OneDrive (OAuth) and Amazon S3, SFTP, FTP (credentials), preserving folder structure, with job history and retry of failed files S67.
- External Uploads: shareable upload links for people without a DAM account; per-link storage and file-size limits (up to 5 TB per link, 100 GB per file), blocked executable/script/archive types, Cloudflare CAPTCHA, virus scanning, admin review before assets enter the library; up to 5,000 assets per batch since July 2026 S66 S31 S32.
- Mobile: browser-based mobile experience for upload, browse, share and download (no native app documented) S76.
- API: SAS-URL upload to Azure Blob Storage (see API) S1.
- Formats: "over 300" file types, previews for photos, video, documents, Office files, PDFs and 3D S93; video page cites 400+ video/audio types and up to 8K resolution S94 Unverified (counts differ between pages). Office 365 documents can be edited in place S93.
- Versioning: upload a new version from the asset panel, revert via the Versions tab ("Make Current Version"); optional asset lock during updates (blocks sharing/download) S37. Check-out / check-in exists in the API S2.
- Limits: file name/title 255 characters; custom attribute name 100 characters; attribute value 32,000 characters; list attributes up to 1,000 items S38.
- Storage: Azure Blob storage with geo-redundancy (GRS) S88; Cold Storage category for archived assets (metadata kept and searchable by approved users; no AI on cold assets; batch retrieval; penalty if retrieved within 90 days) S51.
Metadata & taxonomy
- Categories (hierarchical folders; an asset can sit in several categories) and keywords organized in nested keyword groups, with an approval status on contributor-submitted keywords S40 S58 S1.
- Attributes: "General" (system) and custom attributes, grouped into attribute groups with per-group visibility/edit permissions; attributes can be required, shown as List View columns and mapped to embedded metadata S39. Attribute data types include a Status type since API v1.1 S1; cascading attributes exist in the API S2.
- Embedded metadata (IPTC, EXIF, XMP) is read but not searchable unless mapped to an attribute S43.
- Metadata Templates: reusable sets of categories, keywords and attributes applied at upload, respecting group permissions S41.
- Bulk edit: Mass Attributes Edit (MV Labs) and bulk CSV Export/Import of attributes (max 5,000 assets and 100 custom attributes per export; General attributes Title, Description, Alt Text, Expiry Date importable since July 2026) S42 S31.
- Controlled vocabularies beyond keyword groups and list attributes (e.g. thesaurus): Unknown.
Search & discovery
- Full-text search over categories, keywords, file names, comments and descriptions with AND/OR/NOT, phrase and wildcard operators S1.
- Filters (file type with extension search, upload date, rating, status, attribute values, colour, uploader), search within a category and its sub-categories, sort options, saved and pinned searches, recently viewed in the search tray S83 S30 S33 S1.
- Smart Image Search: natural-language image search without metadata; available in the library, the Asset Picker of Unify integrations and the Microsoft 365 add-in; images only, up to 200 results per search S44 S29.
- Reverse Image Search and Similar Image Search (MV Labs experiments) S92.
- Related assets, most viewed / recently uploaded views and a Custom Homepage per user group (rolled out September 2026) S124 S2.
- Face Recognition filters (search by identified person) S48.
AI capabilities
- Auto-tagging and object, colour and text-in-image recognition at upload ("cognitive metadata") S91 S1.
- Audio/Video Intelligence (AVI): transcripts, keyword/topic/scene tags, faces in video, on-screen text; transcription with automatic detection across 64 languages and translation into ~60 languages; powered by Microsoft's Video Indexer per the language article; index permission required to run it S45 S46 S47 S91.
- Face Recognition (add-on since 2023): baseline images, identified/unidentified people, editable names and thumbnails S131 S48 S30.
- Duplicate detection by MD5 hash of the original file S50.
- Generative AI: none documented as generally available. A "Conversational AI Assistant" is listed as in progress in MV Labs S92.
- AI governance/opt-out: Labs features can be disabled per organization on request to Support S49; a broader AI data-use policy is Unknown (Trust Center not readable).
Organization
- Categories (library tree, drag-and-drop reorganization since September 2026) S29; Collections (personal/shared lists with collaborators "Add/Remove" or "View Only") S52; lightboxes in the API S2.
- Branded Portals: section-based public or access-key-protected portals, sections synced to categories/collections, optional search and download, bilingual EN/FR publishing S53.
- Experience Portals (from Beam, 2025): CMS-style brand centers with pages, menus, forms, member groups, SSO, search scoped to the portal, reports; emails come from a
gotbeam.comsender S54 S98 S32. - Custom Homepage with pinned categories, saved searches and quick links per group S124.
Workflow & collaboration
- Approval: Contributors upload "approval required"; Approvers review internal submissions (bulk decisions, comments kept on the asset, history recorded — new page September 2026) and download requests S58 S77 S29.
- MediaValet Proofing (PageProof): proofs with final approver, reviewers, due date, markup; asset locked during proofing S55.
- Comments, ratings, follow/notifications on assets S2.
- Templating (Marq): on-brand editable templates for sales/marketing collateral S56 S130.
- Creative tools: Adobe CC, Figma, Sketch, Canva via CI HUB S102 S111; project tools Asana, monday.com, Wrike, Jira (see Integrations).
- Video trimming (clip saved as new asset or downloaded) S81.
Rights & governance
- Permissions model: seven default roles (Administrator, User Administrator, Library Administrator, Approver, Contributor, Member, Guest) with a published permission matrix; Members/Contributors get renditions only, not originals S58. Custom permission groups recommended over system groups S145.
- Category Access Management (which categories a group sees) and Category Level Permissions (CLP) for upload and download/share per category; CLP indicators in the category tree since September 2026 S82 S59 S29.
- Expiry dates on assets (system attribute, reports for expired assets) S42 S64; user accounts can also expire S147.
- Watermarking: generated watermarked renditions on share/download (custom watermark configurable) S57; forensic (invisible) watermarking via Steg.AI S106.
- Custom terms and conditions on access S148; audit trail of asset operations S88.
- Embargo dates, usage-rights fields beyond expiry, legal hold/retention policies: Unknown (not documented).
Distribution & delivery
- Share as CDN link, asset link, Collection, Web Gallery, Zip file or Branded Portal S79.
- CDN links / "CDN Express": per-asset public links (optionally unique and individually revocable), dynamic transformations in the UI since June 2026 — resize (max 2,000 px per side), crop, auto-format (AVIF/WebP/JPEG), background-video mode, embed code for video; supported input images JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, HEIC S65 S32 S95. Per-link analytics (views, bandwidth) S84.
- Advanced download (size/format/resolution for images, video, audio), crop-and-download, trim-and-download S75.
- Print workflows: via Templating (Marq) collaboration/print S149; no dedicated print module documented.
Video & rich media
- Transcoding to renditions, adaptive streaming (quality adjusts to bandwidth since May 2026 in portals), trimming, transcripts/subtitles in 60+ languages S94 S33 S81. API deprecated Azure Media Services stream URLs in favour of
streamingManifest(2024-05-22) S1. - 3D Preview for Autodesk (AutoCAD, Revit, Fusion 360 files; zoom/rotate/walkthrough), sold as an add-on S74 S112.
- Audio intelligence via AVI S45.
Analytics & reporting
Administration
- Settings: Metadata Management (attributes, keywords, export/import, templates), Groups, Categories, Integration Licenses, whitelisted sites for the Asset Picker (self-serve since July 2026), branding (logo, colour theme, custom terms), watermark S39 S68 S78 S31.
- Users: manual creation, expiry dates, notification settings; bulk creation only through Customer Success (CSV); SSO group mapping via Authorization Rules; no SCIM found S80 S62.
- Multi-library / multi-brand: organizational units with several libraries and portals exist in the API S2; how this is packaged commercially is Not public.
- Sandbox: Enterprise API plan includes a dedicated testing library S6; the FAQ mentions a free sandbox account for evaluation S93.
- MV Labs: experimental features enabled by default for all customers, best-effort support, can be disabled on request S49.
- Languages: UI available in English and French S150.