Help

Starting up

Sputnikmediabank.com can be accessed using any modern web browser.
All items are shown on the screen as thumbnails, called previews. This is a convenient and quick way to review and select photos.
Selected items can be viewed on a separate page (an enlarged image gallery), showing an enlarged photo, or with a video player and a detailed text description. A keyword search option can locate a subject and photo in the site’s image base.

Note! You cannot access the page before confirming registration. If the user is not authorized, he or she can only search and browse items, but cannot sign in and download them.

Password security

  1. We recommend that you use complex passwords. Your password should consist of at least eight characters and have lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers and special symbols such as #,^,& and *. The password should not be a word that is easy to guess.
  2. Use different passwords for different resources.
  3. Do not store passwords openly (stickers on the monitor, under the keyboard, on a piece of paper in your wallet, etc.).
  4. Do not store passwords openly on your computer (in notes, text files, Excel or Word documents, etc.).
  5. In order not to forget a large number of complex passwords, use password managers (software on your mobile device/computer that keeps your passwords encrypted).
  6. Do not give your Sputnik Mediabank account information to other people.
  7. We recommend that you change your email and Sputnik Mediabank passwords at least once every six months. If you suspect that someone knows your password or that there is a virus on your device, you should immediately change your password and contact tech support.
  8. Do not store passwords in internet browsers (Firefox, Opera, Chrome, etc.). However, you can use the built-in features to secure passwords using a master password.

The site’s new search engine uses a smart search (always searches for words) that takes into account all possible word endings. Now there is no need to use an asterisk (*). A search query must consist of at least three characters.

  1. Quick search

    Quick search retrieves results that include the entire search phrase. The search engine will look in all the descriptive fields. If even one word from the phrase cannot be found in the descriptive fields, the search will give back no results.
    Example: “elephant” or “elephant Berlin”. If you search for “elephant” the search engine will retrieve content that contains “elephant” or “elephants” and other possible forms in any of the descriptive fields. If you search for “elephant Berlin” the search engine will retrieve any content that contains phrases such as “elephant in Berlin Zoo,” “elephants in Berlin Zoo” etc.

  2. Using wildcard characters (syntax search)

    * replaces any number of any characters and can be used to search for any part of a word after *.
    * can be put at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word.
    Example: if you search for “car*n” the search engine will find all content that contains the words “cartoon”, “carbon”, “carton” etc. Searching for “*ful” will return all content that contains words ending in “ful”.
    OR is a boolean command that finds at least one word from a search query or optional phrases, unlike quick search that looks for the whole phrase. The query may contain any number of words. Example: if you search for “elephant or tiger or giraffe” the search will retrieve results that contain either “elephant” or “tiger” or “giraffe” or any combination of those. You can use “or” to divide phrases. For example, if you search for “Indian elephant or Bengal tiger” the search engine will find either “Indian elephant” or “Bengal tiger” or both.

  3. Advanced search

    You can use additional options to optimize your search, for example:

    1. Restrict search fields (to any selected field or all fields)
    2. Content type (Photo, Video, Infographics, Cartoon, Official Russia etc.)
    3. Category (search by one, several or all categories)
    4. Location (country, region, city)
    5. Date of event (date of publication, date of event)
    6. Alignment (vertical, horizontal, square)

  4. The enlarged image gallery allows you to search through some fields by simply clicking on a field. Example: if you click on the photographer’s name the search will bring up all the photos by this author. If you click on the key word “tree” the search will find all photos containing this key word. Descriptive fields that you can click on are underlined.

    Note! The search runs in the parent window, rather than the enlarged image gallery.

  5. Unsuccessful search

    If the search was unsuccessful and no items were found, the system will suggest sending a search request.

Announcements and Events Calendar

In news/historical photo or news/historical video you can see announcements of photo shoots, filmings and video postings, and the events calendar under the search box.
You can minimize the box if you are not using it and the website will remember your choice.
Photo shoot announcements: image galleries that have recently been uploaded or are scheduled for shooting.
Filming announcements: videos scheduled for filming.
Video posting announcements: reports, stories, programs, broadcasts that have been filmed recently or are scheduled for shooting.
Events calendar: important dates, anniversaries and other important events.
If a photo shoot announcement is underlined, it means that a photo has already been taken, click to see the images.
If a filming announcement is underlined, it means that the video has already been released, click to open.
Click Photo shoots, Video filmings and Video posts to see today’s announcements.
You can also see past events by selecting a date in the calendar.
Click Events calendar to open this month’s calendar. Select a month to see past events

Viewing

The feed or the search results can be displayed both as a mosaic and as a list with a number of items per page. The corresponding icons ::: and := to the right of the upper paginator are used to manage these functions.
Click on the item’s preview or headline to browse the enlarged item. A page with the item’s large preview (with a watermark) or a player, if it is a video, and the following fields will open:

  • Title
  • Object ID
  • Categories
  • Description
  • Location
  • Event date
  • Author
  • Keywords
  • Source
  • Archive content or original material

The data on the image’s size or format is located underneath.

Note! If the user is not authorized, he or she can only search and scroll through items, but cannot purchase them.

Purchase

The user must enter the site under his or her user name (login) in order to purchase items.
Enter your name (login) and password in the upper right corner of the page and and push the Enter button.
If you are not a registered user, click Registration and follow the registration system prompts.
The user is then instructed to familiarize himself/herself with the License Agreement.
If you agree with the terms, click “Accept License Agreement” under the registration form.
Afterwards, a notification will be sent to your e-mail.

Note! Registration does not grant the user automatic access to download images. To activate this access, you will have to receive a confirmation from our representative or contact us. You may be denied access if you are not a professional user or client.

Orders

The item is purchased in two stages: the first stage is adding the item to the cart (initial selection), and the second stage is ordering the item.

Adding items to the cart

After searching for the necessary information, you can first select an item (initial selection), then confirm the order (final selection) to purchase the item. To add items to the cart, click the Cart button located under the preview while hovering the cursor over it or click on it in the zoom view. You can also add a series of related images to the cart by clicking the same button.
The system will notify you of your purchase: a pop-up window reading that the item(-s) has/have been successfully added to the cart will be displayed. The number of items in the cart will also change in the upper right corner (near the user’s name and link to the personal account). As soon as the initial selection is over, you will be directed to a page on which the previews of the chosen items are located. An “x” is located under each preview. If you click on it, you can remove the item from the cart, or you can clear your cart by clicking on “Delete”. You can proceed by clicking on “Checkout order” after the final selection.

Place order

When you are creating an order, you need to choose the purchased item’s publication settings. You will have to choose the necessary values in the drop-down lists near each item. As soon as you choose the settings, the price for each item as well as the interim price for the whole order will be shown. As soon as you choose the settings for all items, click on “Place an Order”. Then the system will confirm that the order has been successfully created and that the order’s content will be available for download. You will be able to either download one item or all items in a single ZIP-file.

Download

If you are a subscriber, you will be able to download the files directly. To do so, click on the arrow button while hovering the cursor over the item’s preview, or in the zoom view. You can also download the full coverage of an event in a single ZIP-file.

Personal account

Registered users have personal accounts through which they can monitor personal and contact information, change their passwords, browse their history of orders and downloads, check the remaining download limit, download statistics, or change the website’s color scheme.