Select and prepare media files

You can directly upload images, documents and audio files. Videos must be uploaded to your YouTube channel before you can use them within the Cultural Institute platform.

Supported media formats & requirements

The Cultural Institute platform accepts a variety of media types. Use the table below as a guide to the accepted formats:

Format	Requirements
Images	JPEG, PNG, single-image TIFF 2500+ pixels on the shortest side of the image (4000+ pixels recommended) No more than 200 MB or 150 megapixels No borders No watermarks
360 Images	Requirements of regular Images format apply (as above) Equirectangular projection format Horizon at vertical center of the image Image must be of a 2:1 width to height ratio
YouTube Videos	Videos must be uploaded to YouTube YouTube supports a range of formats including MP4, AVI, WMV and FLV
Audio Clips	MP3 or WAV format No more than 50 MB (for audio items) or 10 MB (for audio captions)
Documents	Must be submitted as scanned page images Follow same format and resolution as images
3D objects	Please read the full specifications

Please only upload content you have the right to upload, and ensure that all content uploaded complies with the appropriate Terms of Service and Content Policies.

Images, documents and audio

We recommend you gather all the media files you want to add to your account. Once the files are selected, make sure that:

Your file formats are accepted and images are in the correct resolution
The uploaded media files have file names that match those provided in the metadata file. This is important because you cannot directly rename files uploaded through the Google Developers Console. To make changes to file names after items are uploaded, you would either need to re-upload them or re-import the metadata file with the corrected name

Please only upload content you have the right to upload, and ensure that all content uploaded complies with the appropriate Terms of Service and Content Policies.

Videos

Videos must be uploaded to your YouTube channel. We encourage you to upload testimonials, news footage, and other relevant video content.

If you don't already have one, create a dedicated YouTube Channel
Upload your videos to that channel
Once upload is successful, take note of your YouTube video IDs, as you will need to specify these in the metadata file in the next step. For example, the YouTube video ID for www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-TxebxUD54 would be:
q-TxebxUD54

Important tips for video media:

Make sure you own or have the rights to use any content you upload to YouTube. This includes soundtracks.
Use a YouTube supported format e.g. MP4, AVI, WMV or FLV
Ensure the privacy setting of your videos is either "public" or "unlisted", and that embedding is enabled (default setting)

3D models

GAC Supports the display of 3D models across the platform. Additionally, if appropriate files are provided, 3D models can be projected in Augmented Reality (AR) on the GAC mobile app for iOS and Android.

In order to ingest 3D models for the Google Arts & Culture platform, you will need to provide a ZIP archive which contains the media specified below. The name of each zip file should be unique per 3d asset, and specified in the filespec column. The names of the contents of the zip file should be:

Filename	Mandatory	Purpose	Requirements
thumbnail.jpg	Yes	Model preview shown when linking to the asset from other pages.	JPEG, PNG, single-image TIFF. 1200+ pixels on the shortest side of the image. No more than 200 MB or 150 megapixels
model.glb	Yes	3D Model for the on-screen viewing experience (not AR).	Binary GLTF 2.0 format. No more than 100 MB. This file is used for the on-screen model viewing experience, not for AR (for AR, use the files below).
model-ar.glb	No	AR model for Android. Must be present to enable AR on Android devices.	Binary GLTF 2.0 format. No more than 15 MB. Can be a copy or resized copy of model.glb or an AR optimized model The model is represented in meters (1 unit = 1 meter). For the best experience, models meant to be viewed indoors should not exceed 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 meters.
model-ar.usdz	No	AR model for iOS. Must be present to enable AR on iOS devices.	USDZ format. No more than 15 MB. The model is represented in meters (1 unit = 1 meter). For the best experience, models meant to be viewed indoors should not exceed 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 meters.

Please note: The filenames must match exactly the filenames listed above and be at the root of the archive (rather than in a sub-folder). The filenames are case sensitive.

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