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    Data Infrastructure
    20 min read
    Updated 2026-03-28

    How to Build a Multimodal Data Warehouse

    Step-by-step guide to building a multimodal data warehouse with Mixpeek — from namespace creation to feature extraction to multi-stage retrieval pipelines.

    Multimodal Data Warehouse
    Tutorial
    API

    Prerequisites



    Before you begin, you will need:

  1. A Mixpeek account — sign up at mixpeek.com
  2. An API key — generate one from your Mixpeek dashboard
  3. Sample data — video, image, audio, or document files to ingest
  4. Python 3.8+ with the Mixpeek SDK installed:
  5. pip install mixpeek
    Initialize the client:
    from mixpeek import Mixpeek
    
    client = Mixpeek(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

    Step 1: Create a Namespace



    A namespace is the top-level container in a multimodal data warehouse. It is analogous to a database in SQL or a collection in Qdrant. All collections, documents, and retrieval pipelines live within a namespace.
    namespace = client.namespaces.create(
        name="my-warehouse",
        description="Production multimodal data warehouse",
    )
    print(f"Namespace created: {namespace['namespace_id']}")
    
    # Every later call is scoped to this namespace through the client.
    client = Mixpeek(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY", namespace=namespace["namespace_id"])
    A namespace provides isolation for your data and configurations. You might use separate namespaces for development, staging, and production, or for different business units.

    Step 2: Define Collections



    Collections are processing pipelines. Each collection defines how incoming objects are decomposed into features. You configure one feature extractor per collection.

    Face Detection Collection

    # Collections read from a bucket, so create the bucket they share first.
    bucket = client.buckets.create(
        bucket_name="raw-assets",
        bucket_schema={"properties": {"video": {"type": "video"}}},
    )
    
    face_collection = client.collections.create(
        collection_name="faces",
        description="Face detection and recognition",
        source={"type": "bucket", "bucket_ids": [bucket["bucket_id"]]},
        feature_extractor={
            "feature_extractor_name": "face_identity_extractor",
            "version": "v1",
            "parameters": {"detection_threshold": 0.8},
        },
    )

    Reference Logo Collection

    # Mixpeek has no logo detector. Logo matching runs on image similarity: this
    # collection embeds your reference logos with SigLIP, and a search compares
    # frames against them.
    logo_bucket = client.buckets.create(
        bucket_name="reference-logos",
        bucket_schema={"properties": {"logo": {"type": "image"}}},
    )
    logo_collection = client.collections.create(
        collection_name="logos",
        description="Reference logos for similarity matching",
        source={"type": "bucket", "bucket_ids": [logo_bucket["bucket_id"]]},
        feature_extractor={"feature_extractor_name": "image_extractor", "version": "v1"},
    )

    Audio Fingerprint Collection

    audio_collection = client.collections.create(
        collection_name="audio",
        description="Audio fingerprinting",
        source={"type": "bucket", "bucket_ids": [bucket["bucket_id"]]},
        feature_extractor={
            "feature_extractor_name": "audio_fingerprint_extractor",
            "version": "v1",
            "parameters": {"segment_duration_sec": 5.0, "segment_hop_sec": 2.5},
        },
    )

    Text Extraction Collection

    text_collection = client.collections.create(
        collection_name="transcripts",
        description="Speech-to-text transcription",
        source={"type": "bucket", "bucket_ids": [bucket["bucket_id"]]},
        feature_extractor={
            "feature_extractor_name": "multimodal_extractor",
            "version": "v1",
            "parameters": {
                "run_transcription": True,
                "transcription_language": "en",
                "run_transcription_embedding": True,
            },
        },
    )

    Step 3: Ingest Objects



    Ingestion in a multimodal data warehouse follows the pattern: upload to a bucket, then trigger the collections that read from it.

    Upload Objects

    # Land a video in the bucket the collections above read from. Each blob names
    # the bucket_schema property it fills.
    client.buckets.upload(
        bucket["bucket_id"],
        blobs=[{"property": "video", "type": "video", "data": "s3://raw-assets/video.mp4"}],
    )

    Trigger Processing



    A collection is bound to its source bucket when it is created. Processing starts when you trigger the collection, which batches the bucket objects it has not processed yet.
    # Trigger each collection that reads the bucket. A trigger batches the objects
    # that collection has not processed yet and returns the batch and its task.
    runs = {name: client.collections.trigger(name) for name in ("faces", "audio", "transcripts")}

    Monitor Processing



    After upload, objects are processed asynchronously. Monitor batch status:
    # Check processing status through each batch's task
    for name, run in runs.items():
        task = client.tasks.get(run["task_id"])
        print(f"{name}: batch {run['batch_id']} is {task['status']}")

    Step 4: Build Retrieval Pipelines



    Multi-stage retrieval pipelines are the query layer of your warehouse. They compose filter, sort, reduce, enrich, and apply stages into expressive queries.

    Basic Feature Search

    retriever = client.retrievers.create(
        retriever_name="face-search",
        description="Search for faces by similarity",
        collection_identifiers=["faces"],
        input_schema={"face": {"type": "image", "required": True}},
        stages=[
            {
                "stage_name": "match_faces",
                "stage_id": "feature_search",
                "parameters": {
                    "searches": [
                        {
                            "feature_uri": "mixpeek://face_identity_extractor@v1/insightface__arcface",
                            "query": {"input_mode": "content", "value": "{{INPUT.face}}"},
                            "top_k": 50,
                        }
                    ],
                    "final_top_k": 50,
                },
            }
        ],
    )
    
    # Execute search with an image
    results = client.retrievers.execute(
        retriever["retriever_id"],
        inputs={"face": "https://example.com/reference-face.jpg"},
    )

    Multi-Stage Pipeline

    pipeline = client.retrievers.create(
        retriever_name="ip-safety-check",
        description="Face matches, one per source video, with transcript context and IP risk labels",
        collection_identifiers=["faces"],
        input_schema={"face": {"type": "image", "required": True}},
        stages=[
            # Stage 1: Search for matching faces
            {
                "stage_name": "match_faces",
                "stage_id": "feature_search",
                "parameters": {
                    "searches": [
                        {
                            "feature_uri": "mixpeek://face_identity_extractor@v1/insightface__arcface",
                            "query": {"input_mode": "content", "value": "{{INPUT.face}}"},
                            "top_k": 100,
                        }
                    ],
                    "final_top_k": 100,
                },
            },
            # Stage 2: Put the scores on a common scale before anything reads them
            {
                "stage_name": "normalize",
                "stage_id": "score_normalize",
                "parameters": {"method": "min_max", "score_field": "score"},
            },
            # Stage 3: Keep one match per source video, then the top 20
            {
                "stage_name": "dedupe",
                "stage_id": "deduplicate",
                "parameters": {"strategy": "field", "fields": ["_internal.lineage.root_object_id"]},
            },
            {
                "stage_name": "top_20",
                "stage_id": "limit",
                "parameters": {"limit": 20},
            },
            # Stage 4: Attach the transcript from the same source video
            {
                "stage_name": "add_transcript",
                "stage_id": "document_enrich",
                "parameters": {
                    "target_collection_id": text_collection["collection_id"],
                    "source_field": "_internal.lineage.root_object_id",
                    "target_field": "_internal.lineage.root_object_id",
                    "fields_to_merge": ["transcription"],
                    "output_field": "enrichments.transcript",
                },
            },
            # Stage 5: Apply taxonomy classification
            {
                "stage_name": "classify_risk",
                "stage_id": "taxonomy_enrich",
                "parameters": {"taxonomy_id": "tax_your_ip_risk_taxonomy", "top_k": 1},
            },
        ],
    )

    Step 5: Apply Taxonomies



    Taxonomies classify your unstructured data into structured categories. Configure them based on your use case.

    Materialized Taxonomy (At Ingestion)

    import requests
    
    API = "https://api.mixpeek.com/v1"
    HEADERS = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY", "X-Namespace": namespace["namespace_id"]}
    
    # A flat taxonomy labels each document by matching it, through a retriever,
    # against a collection of labeled examples. The SDK has no taxonomies
    # resource, so this call is REST.
    taxonomy = requests.post(API + "/taxonomies", headers=HEADERS, json={
        "taxonomy_name": "content-type",
        "description": "Classify content by type",
        "config": {
            "taxonomy_type": "flat",
            "retriever_id": "ret_your_content_type_matcher",
            "input_mappings": [{"input_key": "query", "source_type": "payload", "path": "transcription"}],
            "source_collection": {"collection_id": "col_your_labeled_examples"},
        },
    }).json()
    
    # Materialized: attach it to the collection, and documents are labeled as
    # they are written.
    client.collections.update(
        "transcripts",
        taxonomy_applications=[{"taxonomy_id": taxonomy["taxonomy_id"], "execution_mode": "materialize"}],
    )
    Once the taxonomy is attached, every new document the transcripts collection writes carries its best-matching label.

    On-Demand Taxonomy (At Query Time)

    # On demand: run a taxonomy inside a retriever, so labels are computed for the
    # results of each query and nothing is written back to the collection.
    labeled_search = client.retrievers.create(
        retriever_name="transcripts-with-sentiment",
        collection_identifiers=["transcripts"],
        input_schema={"query": {"type": "text", "required": True}},
        stages=[
            {
                "stage_name": "search",
                "stage_id": "feature_search",
                "parameters": {
                    "searches": [
                        {
                            "feature_uri": "mixpeek://multimodal_extractor@v1/multilingual_e5_large_instruct_v1",
                            "query": {"input_mode": "text", "value": "{{INPUT.query}}"},
                            "top_k": 50,
                        }
                    ],
                    "final_top_k": 50,
                },
            },
            {
                "stage_name": "brand_sentiment",
                "stage_id": "taxonomy_enrich",
                "parameters": {"taxonomy_id": "tax_your_brand_sentiment", "top_k": 1},
            },
        ],
    )
    On-demand taxonomies are applied at query time, making them ideal for exploratory analysis.

    Retroactive Taxonomy (Over Historical Data)

    # Retroactive: apply a taxonomy that is already in the collection's
    # taxonomy_applications to the documents written before it was attached.
    requests.post(
        API + "/collections/faces/apply-taxonomy",
        headers=HEADERS,
        json={"taxonomy_id": "tax_your_new_category_scheme"},
    )

    Step 6: Configure Storage Tiering



    Storage tiering moves a collection between the vector store and object storage.
    # Move a collection out of the vector store. Its vectors stay searchable
    # through object storage, and "active" brings them back.
    requests.patch(
        API + "/collections/faces/lifecycle",
        headers=HEADERS,
        json={"lifecycle_state": "cold"},
    )
    An active collection is served from the vector store. A cold collection's vectors are evicted from it and remain searchable through object storage, and archived removes the vectors permanently. Each transition is an explicit call on the collection.

    Putting It Together: IP Safety Pipeline End-to-End



    Here is a complete example that builds an IP safety pipeline from scratch:
    from mixpeek import Mixpeek
    
    client = Mixpeek(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
    
    # 1. Create the namespace, then scope the client to it
    ns = client.namespaces.create(name="ip-safety-prod")
    client = Mixpeek(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY", namespace=ns["namespace_id"])
    
    # 2. A bucket for the reference assets (the protected content to detect), and
    #    a collection per detection channel over it
    bucket = client.buckets.create(
        bucket_name="reference-assets",
        bucket_schema={"properties": {"asset": {"type": "video"}}},
    )
    channels = {
        "face-detection": {"feature_extractor_name": "face_identity_extractor", "version": "v1"},
        "audio-fingerprint": {"feature_extractor_name": "audio_fingerprint_extractor", "version": "v1"},
    }
    for name, extractor in channels.items():
        client.collections.create(
            collection_name=name,
            source={"type": "bucket", "bucket_ids": [bucket["bucket_id"]]},
            feature_extractor=extractor,
        )
    
    # 3. Upload the reference assets, then process them
    reference_asset_urls = ["s3://reference-assets/talent-a.mp4", "s3://reference-assets/jingle-b.mp4"]
    for asset_url in reference_asset_urls:
        client.buckets.upload(
            bucket["bucket_id"],
            blobs=[{"property": "asset", "type": "video", "data": asset_url}],
        )
    for name in channels:
        client.collections.trigger(name)
    
    # 4. The pre-publication check: faces in a frame of the new content, one match
    #    per reference asset, top 10
    retriever = client.retrievers.create(
        retriever_name="pre-pub-check",
        collection_identifiers=["face-detection"],
        input_schema={"frame": {"type": "image", "required": True}},
        stages=[
            {
                "stage_name": "match_faces",
                "stage_id": "feature_search",
                "parameters": {
                    "searches": [
                        {
                            "feature_uri": "mixpeek://face_identity_extractor@v1/insightface__arcface",
                            "query": {"input_mode": "content", "value": "{{INPUT.frame}}"},
                            "top_k": 50,
                        }
                    ],
                    "final_top_k": 50,
                },
            },
            {"stage_name": "normalize", "stage_id": "score_normalize", "parameters": {"method": "min_max"}},
            {"stage_name": "one_per_asset", "stage_id": "deduplicate", "parameters": {"strategy": "field", "fields": ["_internal.lineage.root_object_id"]}},
            {"stage_name": "top_10", "stage_id": "limit", "parameters": {"limit": 10}},
        ],
    )
    
    # 5. Check new content before publication
    results = client.retrievers.execute(
        retriever["retriever_id"],
        inputs={"frame": "https://example.com/new-content/frame-0120.jpg"},
    )
    
    matches = [doc for doc in results["documents"] if doc["score"] >= 0.8]
    if matches:
        print(f"IP conflicts detected: {len(matches)} matches")
        for match in matches:
            print(f"  - {match['document_id']}: {match['score']:.2f}")
    else:
        print("Content cleared for publication")

    Next Steps



  6. API Reference — Full API documentation at mixpeek.com/docs
  7. Architecture Deep Dive — Read the architecture guide for technical details on the inference engine, storage layers, and retrieval execution
  8. IP Safety Solution — See the IP Safety solution for pre-publication copyright and trademark detection
  9. Live Demo — Try the IP safety demo to see detection in action
  10. Contact — Reach out at mixpeek.com/contact for enterprise deployments


  11. Related Resources



  12. What Is a Multimodal Data Warehouse? — comprehensive overview of the category
  13. Architecture Deep Dive — Ray Serve, tiered storage, and retrieval internals
  14. Multimodal Data Warehouse vs. Vector Database — full comparison
  15. Multimodal Data Warehouse vs. Data Lakehouse — Snowflake/Databricks comparison
  16. Best Multimodal Data Platforms (2026) — 12 platforms compared
  17. Glossary: Multimodal Data Warehouse — technical definition
  18. Managed Mixpeek

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    Connect a bucket and Mixpeek runs the whole multimodal search pipeline for you: extraction, indexing, and search over your own objects. No models to wire up, nothing to host.

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    Keep your embeddings on your own cloud and run dense, sparse, and BM25 search directly on object storage. From $25/mo.

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    Point Mixpeek at the storage you already have and search your video, images, audio, and documents the way this guide describes. Build starts at $25/mo for up to 1M vectors.

    Search your own archiveRead Docs