LOS ANGELES—While DigitalFilm Tree (DFT) has served the media and entertainment community since 1999, 2020 has been a critical year in terms of showcasing our remote and collaborative innovations. I joined the team eight years ago, but DFT has evolved several times over since then. I’m the director of content & data security, a role that didn’t yet exist on the team, but as our technology and services expanded, so have many of our abilities as a group of interdisciplinary creatives.

DFT has a history of pioneering solutions and workflows across both production and post, and the pandemic has magnified just how much time and effort we’ve put into defining “what’s next.” Our intentional focus on television and independent features—solving for their specific, time-sensitive and budget critical challenges—has given us our greatest ideas and market changing solutions. It’s our clients’ obstacles that have driven us.

Media Shuttle, and our partnership with Signiant, has been fundamental to our evolution and innovations.

AGILE AND WORKFLOW-AGNOSTIC

Well before COVID-19 sent many of us off the lot and into our homes, Media Shuttle was integral to our workflows. DFT is wildly unique in that we make choices and investments based on a balance of future thinking, like developing our own software, and partnerships with formidable authorities like Signiant for immediate needs. This hybrid has allowed us to remain agile, workflow-agnostic, and ready to solve client challenges while avoiding trendy or untested platforms that often encumber others.

For example, Amazon Prime recently released its second season of “The Boys” and DigitalFilm Tree was brought on to work on its companion content, “The Boys After Show,” which was filmed across nine different locations around the globe and delivered, in some cases, more than 35 hours of 4K content or 15-plus TB of media. The turnaround time on this show was accelerated due to the short window between filming and episode release dates, so the speed and the efficiency of our infrastructure was imperative during both dailies and finishing.

Our Media Shuttle usage skyrocketed at this time. DFT staged transfers of the completed footage at night so the producers would receive it via their home internet, waking up to all the necessary files for review. By 10 a.m., they were ready to go into a live remote review session with us. This smooth flow of content and collaboration was largely a result of Signiant’s reliability. Every file we work with is mission-critical, so speed, visibility and security are imperative. These values are tantamount in our industry, and Media Shuttle has them covered in spades.

Using multiple ISPs, working across several storage solutions, and focusing on our own software development to drive meaningful innovation has ensured our ability to get content where it needs to go on time. Where other facilities couldn’t pivot during the initial rush into individual homes, Signiant’s platform gave us the freedom and immediate ability to push massive amounts of data quickly without interruption or the fear of giant hidden penalties. Other file transfer software can limit bandwidth, restrict storage, charge “fine print” fees or fumble important content, but Media Shuttle has none of those obstacles.

With the current climate, our number one goal is helping others get back to work; be it from home or shortening their physical time needed on set by better leveraging the cloud, we’re committed to getting our community up and running again. Having a partner like Signiant has allowed us to show people in real time just how meaningful, reliable and immediately available these workflows are to everyone.

Erin White has been pioneering secure, data focused M&E workflows for 20 years, eight of them on team DigitalFilm Tree. She can be reached at erin@digitalfilmtree.com.

For more information, visit www.signiant.com.

MIAMI—Mediapro is an independent production company in Europe’s audiovisual market. Offering a full slate of technical and creative services, our portfolio includes everything from content production, post production, media and digital asset management, to the acquisition of sports TV rights and the distribution and broadcast of television channels. We currently have 58 offices spread across 36 countries on four continents.

File transfer that is fast, reliable and secure is essential to the success of our operations. Whether we are producing and distributing live coverage of top-tier sporting events, like the Pan American Games, or creating award-winning cinema and television, our geographically-distributed employees and customers overwhelmingly send files digitally. Production and postproduction services regularly send AVC, Apple ProRes and XDCAM files in bundles that exceed 300 GB in size. We also broadcast from 17 television channels that all count on the timely delivery of content via file transfer.

GETTING ON THE SHUTTLE

Signiant’s Media Shuttle provides an ideal SaaS solution for Mediapro’s business needs. Media Shuttle’s Send, Share and Submit portals are accessible on any web browser—providing a simple means for thousands of our professionals and clients to access and deliver content from anywhere in the internet-connected world. Media Shuttle’s accessible and intuitive portals allow us to send files of all kinds to technicians, marketing personnel, production assistants, etc., and there is never a problem in understanding how the system works.

Not only is Media Shuttle simple to learn and use, the application also eases the burden on our IT staff by allowing them to delegate portal administration rights to another user. This designated portal administrator can add and remove users, monitor content flow, enable features, and change the portal design. This ensures that our IT department maintains control of network and storage settings while removing the need for them to spend time managing portals. Using Media Shuttle, it’s easy to manage transfers, configure portals, upload and download material—always independently of the IT guys.

Before moving to Media Shuttle, we distributed content by FTP. That protocol’s limitations made long transfer time lapses and interruptions a constant issue of concern in our day-to-day operations. In comparison, Signiant’s acceleration maintains a consistent level of performance when transferring large files, even over great distances. The software’s high-speed, intelligent transport mechanism and network optimization allows for the use of all available bandwidth, and its checkpoint restart capability ensures that files transmit reliably when connection is restored after a network interruption.

INSTILLING CONFIDENCE

At Mediapro, we also recognize Signiant’s responsiveness to concerns we may have. We particularly appreciate Signiant always working on improving the system and updating us on any new developments. It shows foresight, competitiveness and ambition. They care about us and anticipate our needs.

Media Shuttle and its portal system have helped our clients feel confident about the delivery and arrival of their content. We never have to cancel a show due to a transfer problem. Media Shuttle’s speed and reliability ensure that Mediapro can keep fans cheering.

Marc Andreu Valls is director of Media Services at Mediapro—his department is in charge of the digital ingest and delivery. They provide services to 17 on-air channels, receive the content, files, do the QC, cut and edit the files and send the programs to the Master Control, and different VOD and OTT platforms. He can be reached at info. us@mediapro.tv.

For more information, visitwww.signiant.com.

DETROIT—Ben Manges has been working with the PR and media arm of the Detroit Lions since 2002; though back then, like most NFL teams, media production was a bare-bones crew of a few camera operators. Now Senior Director of Corporate Communications and New Media, Manges has witnessed an evolution in video production across NFL teams, moving from minimal staff who captured press conferences and occasional practice footage to multiple specialized content teams.

For the Lions, a central aspect of that evolution has been their use of Signiant Media Shuttle, a uniquely simple yet powerful SaaS solution that enables the fast transfer of media files to broadcasters across the state while meeting the NFL’s high media security protocols. The Lions have been using Media Shuttle since 2013, and in many ways are ahead of the curve.

“The NFL has been actively making sure that teams are in compliance with their file transfer security protocols; teams are highly discouraged by the league from using Dropbox, which a lot of people use,” says Manges. “Media Shuttle allows us to quickly, easily and securely make video files available to news outlets and partners and still be in compliance with NFL security protocols. It’s a reliable platform that we’ve used for several years, and something our media partners throughout the state are really comfortable with.”

2017 NEW MEDIA EXPANSION

In 2017, the Lions’ initiated a plan to further expand their video production staff to better serve the team’s internal and external media needs. Part of that transition was Manges’ appointment to his current role overseeing all content teams including editorial, social media and video production, and managing relationships with broadcast partners and other TV affiliates throughout the state.

One of the first priorities when Manges started was to make sure everyone was familiar with and actively using Media Shuttle. Many of their broadcast partners are located hours away and do not have the resources to travel to Allen Park, where the Lions’ practice facility is located, to capture footage. From a public relations perspective, the ability to provide them with resources to accurately tell the Detroit Lions’ story is vital.

“Establishing a rapport and building relationships with our TV affiliates and TV networks throughout Michigan is central to my role, and receiving content from us is first and foremost what they care about,” says Manges. “Media Shuttle gives us a platform to easily distribute video content and take our story to viewers who are interested in what the Lions are doing.”

SIMPLE AND FAST

Moving large video files quickly and securely over the Internet to multiple locations requires sophisticated software with smart acceleration technology and layers of security. But that’s only the core technology. Professional media file transfer software also keeps files organized, tracked and visible to managers; allows for multiple users, permissions and languages; and enables different types of workflows that involve collaborating with an unlimited number of people and organizations, both internal and external. Software that does all of that can get complicated. That’s where Media Shuttle really shines for Manges and his team—in its simplicity.

“Media Shuttle has been so successful for us because it’s such a user-friendly service,” says Manges. “A lot of other media file delivery services overcomplicate things. Media Shuttle makes something that should be easy, easy.”

Media Shuttle brings advanced capabilities often used in large-scale production to businesses of all sizes. As a cloud-native SaaS solution, Media Shuttle has the ability to scale to business needs and budgets, and its simple UI was designed to provide the best user experience for all parties, whether end users, IT administrators or media operations. And of course, it’s fast.

“More than anything, we appreciate that Media Shuttle is not only easy but it’s also super fast,” says Manges. “With the NFL, things are constantly moving and the fact that we are able to make this content available quickly without much effort makes everything that much easier.”

As the Lions look to the next season and beyond, they plan on creating and producing even more content for fans and further leveraging their Media Shuttle subscription for content distribution. They will be adding more users and more partners, and producing more content under tighter timelines. However, no matter how complicated the Lions’ media workflow gets, Media Shuttle will keep things fast and simple.

Megan Cater is Senior Manager, Digital Content for Signiant.

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.—The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is one of the world’s oldest and largest providers of faith-based television programming, delivering content to roughly 200 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Its international department is responsible for delivering programming to all foreign CBN affiliates and subsidiaries. Programs include the 3D animation series “Superbook,” which is broadcast in approximately 50 languages in more than 90 countries, and other CBN content, such as the international edition of “The 700 Club” (one of the longest-running programs in broadcast history) and “Turning Point,” a testimonial-oriented show.

CBN recently adopted Signiant’s Media Shuttle to accelerate file transfer and ensure the seamless delivery of content to multiple countries. Before Media Shuttle, a team headed up by Michael Trauffer, senior video editor & post production system administrator at the Christian Broadcasting Network, used FTP to deliver HD files overseas. But FTP was too slow, especially when dealing with large files, long distances and customers' variable bandwidths. One example Trauffer gave was a producer in the Philippines needing to wait overnight for an 18GB file download from the FTP server—a task that now takes less than an hour with Media Shuttle.

Another issue? Some of CBN's clients are in countries with unreliable power. This can result in small transfer windows and frequent connectivity interruptions. For example, if a program recipient is five hours into a six-hour file download, but then the power goes out, the person will need to start the time-consuming FTP download process from the beginning when the power returns.

But with Media Shuttle’s Checkpoint Restart feature, interrupted transfers are restarted from the point where they stopped. Thanks to this and Signiant’s file acceleration technology, CBN has experienced far shorter international transfer times than ever before.

CBN originally explored using a solution from one of Signiant's competitors since CBN was already using the product to move domestic files. While this particular solution improved speeds and solved the reliability problem resulting from frequent transfer interruptions, it also introduced new challenges.

Specifically, Trauffer said the alternative solution was “very cumbersome” and “user unfriendly”. Then there was the cost associated with the solution's bandwidth-based license. The expense to upgrade CBN's system to support the bandwidths it needed for international distribution was significantly higher than the cost of adding Media Shuttle.

Media Shuttle offered CBN a substantially more affordable model based on active users and with no restrictions on bandwidth or file sizes. This aligned better with CBN’s budget and its international needs. As a cloud-native SaaS, Media Shuttle is also easy to deploy and maintain. Its intuitive, user-friendly, web-based interfaces require virtually no training. Plus, Media Shuttle still allows CBN to keep its files in on-premises storage. This made Media Shuttle a far better fit for rolling out to end users at CBN’s partners and customers in far-flung locations all around the world.

“We integrated Media Shuttle into our overseas distribution workflow and our clients haven’t been happier. Single hour downloads compared to overnight FTP downloads; this product is indeed the fastest file transfer system we’ve experienced. For me, Media Shuttle was very simple to figure out. It was very straightforward, and I honestly have never used a file transfer tool that is as easy and reliable as this is,” said Trauffer.

Trauffer also enjoys Media Shuttle's email notifications feature: “If I send a batch of files, Media Shuttle will alert me as each file is being downloaded. So it lets me know, for example, that Israel is getting their files, or have received these two and are working on a couple more. I don’t have to keep logging into the system to see what is going on, or sit there and wait for an email seven days later saying “oh, I haven’t been able to get the files, the link expired.” Instead, I can actually see the progress, which is great.”

Thanks to Media Shuttle, CBN is now able to deliver content to the affiliates and subsidiaries it serves in over 200 countries seamlessly and efficiently.

Click here for more information on Media Shuttle.

Jon Finegold is the chief marketing officer for Signiant

OTTAWA—With its ability to move mega-sized video files efficiently between remote production units and production centers—as well as enabling cloud-based file-sharing and collaborative editing—the accelerated transfer of media files is catching on with TV broadcasters worldwide.

Ian Hamilton, Signiant CTO

“Accelerated file transfer (AFT) is just the fastest way to move digital content these days,” said Ian Hamilton, CTO of Signiant. “Accelerated file transfer solutions leverage all available bandwidth to eliminate the effects of transmission latency and reduce packet loss, thereby maximizing speed and reliability. In comparison, FTP file transfers are more complicated and far slower to execute, while moving hard drives is only as fast as the courier truck they’re on.”

MANAGING TRANSFER PROCESS IS KEY

The key to moving mega-sized video files quickly across the internet is effective management; both of the file itself (including how it is uploaded for transport and downloaded at arrival), and the multi-gigabyte/second IP pipes selected to move it from Point A to Point B. In many cases, the high-speed delivery is made to the user’s cloud-based storage. This leaves the usually-slower “last mile” download to the user’s own facilities until later.

Not surprisingly, each AFT software company has their own approach to enabling fast, efficient media file transfers.

Aspera’s software lets broadcasters use ‘byte-streaming’ to process media file data as soon as the upload begins, rather than waiting for the entire file to be received first. “Our new FASPStream technology builds on our patented Fast Adaptive Secure Protocol—FASP—that fully utilizes available bandwidth instead of throttling down the transmission speed when errors are detected,” said Mike Flathers, Aspera’s chief technologist. “Unlike standard TCP communications that respond to data dropouts and latencies by severely reducing the transmission speed, Aspera eliminates this speed-reducing function, while keeping files and streamed data intact.”

FileCatalyst uses a patented, proprietary application layer built on top of “User Datagram Protocol” (UDP) to transmit media files at speeds up to 10 Gbps over IP. (A UDP is a stripped-down internet protocol that puts transmission speed rather than guaranteed delivery first.) When a UDP cannot be used, FileCatalyst combines transfers through multiple concurrent TCP streams with on-the-fly compression to speed files through.

Signiant Media Shuttle, which supports broadcaster-initiated file transfers, uses the company’s proprietary transfer protocol to move media files up to 200 times faster than conventional FTP

Signiant offers on-premises and SaaS (software-as-a-service) AFT solutions. Signiant Media Shuttle, which supports broadcaster-initiated file transfers, uses the company’s proprietary transfer protocol to move media files up to 200 times faster than conventional FTP. This transfer protocol is based on a special UDP, combined with advanced FTP and TCP functionality. Media Shuttle has no file size limits, and its “Checkpoint Restart” feature automatically restarts interrupted transfers from the point of failure within the file: There is no need to start again from the beginning or re-send the whole thing.

WHY THE DEMAND FOR AFT KEEPS GROWING

A growing number of TV broadcasters are using AFT software to move their media files around. Aspera’s customer list includes the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), DirecTV Latin America and Netflix. Among FileCatalyst’s clients are the BBC, NBC Olympics (Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016) and Travel Channel. Signiant’s list includes Discovery Channel, Fox and NBC, among others.

Chris Bailey, CEO and Co-Founder of FileCatalyst

“It is true that many of these broadcasters are using media file transfers to produce and distribute their programming,” said Chris Bailey, CEO and co-founder of FileCatalyst. “But they are also finding AFTs incredible useful for live sports events.”

For instance, a broadcaster may find themselves covering a game with more camera views than they can use on-air. “No problem: Those camera views can all be sent via AFT to a subscription website like NFL RedZone, where they can be viewed by paying subscribers,” Bailey said.

AFT also gives broadcasters a means for transporting “uber-large” 4K video files with minimal delays and signal latency. “As such, this makes AFT software a useful part of any media asset management system, such as Primestream’s FORK MAM,” said David Schleifer, COO of Primestream. “Whether for HD, 4K, or eventually 8K, an effective MAM needs robust, reliable file transfer, and AFT fits that bill.” Primestream’s client list includes VICE Media, Cisco TV and AT&T Sports Network.

Mike Flathers

“Overall, software like our FASPStream addresses broadcasters’ need to move data as quickly as possible over IP,” said Flathers. “We ensure that the internet delivers the fastest transmission speed possible; unlike conventional TCP and other legacy protocols.”

CHALLENGES AND LIMITS

With its ability to push massive media files through the internet at speeds up to 10 Gbps, AFT software is proving to be an essential part of the modern broadcaster’s tool kit. But the technology is not without its challenges and limits.

For example, “although IP bandwidth capacity is growing while per-gigabit cost is dropping, there are still parts of the world where high bandwidth connectivity is not available, or not at affordable prices,” said Signiant’s Hamilton. As well, “the read/write access speeds of the storage media being used by many broadcasters—specifically their HDDs—can limit how much throughput they can achieve,” Bailey added.

Nevertheless, the growing video file sizes being generated by TV broadcasters as they move to 4K, plus the increasing number of distribution platforms they are now serving with content, makes AFT software the right transfer solution for its time. These days, standard FTP sites and couriered HDDs just won’t cut it.