CHORUS is an FP6 coordination action on audiovisual search engines that started in November 2006. It has set up an information exchange platform for the EU projects, national initiatives and key players in the domain of multimedia search engines (MSE). CHORUS activities aim to bridge the gap between researchers view (academia and industry) and the new services for end-user (technology consumers: professional and large public content owners) within a market prospective in the MSE area. Through its different structures and events: working groups, Think-Tank, "A-V Search" cluster and workshops, CHORUS has identified and derived critical issues within technological, socio-economic and legal aspects. The CHORUS coordination action spotlights the convergence of a number of broad categories of information access-based activities to spotlight trends and challenges for future development projects.