High-performance digital transport for the global media supply chain
Written By: Francois Quereuil
Web audiences want high-resolution video content, and to meet this demand, media companies are relying on a multitude of new technologies to help them to deliver better content faster and more efficiently. File-based workflows and digital delivery have been a reality for many years in the media industry, but they’ve become more practical and cost effective since the recent availability of high-performance digital transport technologies.
Until recently, it was simply not practical to use conventional IP networks to effectively move video content in a time-constrained production environment. Traditional technologies such as FTP simply didn’t deliver the level of performance, security, and reliability that media production workflows require in order to move large volumes of digital assets between geographically distributed facilities for tasks such as initial capture, editing, post production, transformation, and final packaging.
Leading film studios, post-production companies, visual effects houses, and broadcasters have been looking at software file transfer solutions to reduce their production cycles and provide consumers with fast access to their best content. Using next-generation digital transport technologies offers them benefits that older technologies can’t by helping them:
- Transfer full-resolution masters, digital film reels, and high-definition Blu-ray Disc images in hours or even minutes on high-capacity networks, even globally.
- Avoid the notorious errors and time-consuming manual processing of shipping drives and tapes and the customs headaches of international deliveries.
- Fully automate media file ingest, transformation, and distribution with integrated transport, tracking, and management to prevent human error, increase security, accelerate time-to-market, and reduce cost.
- Avoid skyrocketing transfer fees from expensive dedicated networks or managed file delivery services.
- Receive breaking news and live event content reliably and on time from even the most remote field locations.
- Enjoy bulletproof protection of master content including transport encryption, data integrity, content storage, and user access control.
High-performance file transfer solutions are enabling file-based production workflows from start to finish, but they can also help media companies cope with the explosion of distribution outlets – including online video portals, video-on-demand services, IPTV and over-the-top Internet TV services – and audiences’ growing desire for more high-resolution media. Content creators, aggregators, and service providers have forged a complex supply chain in which file-based media is constantly created, repurposed, and distributed to global audiences. These companies now want to consolidate their monumental IT investments and leverage low-cost commodity IP networks to securely deliver high-resolution media worldwide without lowering quality of service. The adoption of high-performance file transfer technologies has become a key driver for these companies, enabling them to:
- Receive terabytes of file-based content per day, even from providers at global distances, with simplicity, high speed, and low cost.
- Reduce dependence on third-party distribution networks to cut cost and control quality while delivering a more personalized viewing experience.
- Consolidate the entire network with fewer origin servers, POPs, and edge servers, as content need not be served locally for high throughput.
- Facilitate the transition to all-digital operations, which can help increase productivity, minimize operational costs, expand revenues, and enable new business models.
For organizations that need to move large volumes of data over public and private IP networks, Aspera offers solutions that are easy to deploy, fully cross-platform, and file type and network type agnostic. A simple plug-in to thePlatform’s Remote Media Processor (RMP) connects a video publisher’s account in media publishing system (mps) with Aspera’s high-speed data transfer technology.
To find out more about how Aspera and thePlatform can increase the speed at which files move through your publishing workflow, see the Aspera partner page on thePlatform’s web site.
Francois Quereuil is Marketing Director at Aspera, Inc., and previously held senior marketing positions at digital audio and video production pioneer Avid in Europe and the United States.
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