The Technicolor Services Division of Thomson, is a leading provider of production, post-production, manufacturing, distribution and network management services. The company is a principal developer and supplier of services for end-to-end digital cinema distribution, channel origination and broadcast playout, out-of-home advertising and electronic content delivery services. Technicolor uses Aspera software as its key file transfer solution within its global production network and has now incorporated fasp™ high-speed transport technology into its new MIDAS integrated media platform.

Global production and online distribution

Technicolor has been using Aspera solutions for nearly 3 years and is now relying on the company’s complete high-speed file transfer software suite to power global production and online distribution workflows that would simply not be possible with traditional technologies. Aspera Point-to-Point is used extensively between Technicolor Creative Services (TCS) sites, located in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, New York, London, Rome, Bangalore, Bangkok, and Beijing. Aspera’s digital package delivery system for individuals and groups – faspex™ – is used for exchanging files with remote clients or where fixed lines are unavailable. Additionally, Aspera software is used for file transfers with Technicolor Theatrical Services (TTS) and Technicolor Network Services (TNS) sites in Atlanta, Madrid, and Singapore.

“Even with WAN acceleration, FTP is very inefficient when transferring large image sequences. By using Aspera’s fasp™ 2.0 technology, we are now able to transfer those same sequences much faster, without having to archive the file sets in advance”

Ken Spickler, Director, Production Network Operations, Technicolor

Media transfers initiated through Aspera Point-to-Point and faspex™ fully utilize the available bandwidth of multiple 100-155 Mb/s links between international locations. Aspera technology allows Technicolor to effectively moderate bandwidth usage, protect other network traffic and precisely monitor all file transfer activity, while providing the uncompromising level of security required for its high-profile projects.

“In addition to giving us the ability to reliably transfer large amounts of data very quickly, Aspera has added security and visibility into our global workflow,” commented Ken Spickler, Director, Production Network operations, Worldwide Technicolor.

Moving large files as fast as large collection of small files

Aspera software was selected by Technicolor to meet the stringent demands of its global digital workflow, including the ability to both transfer very large files (such as a finished feature film or a high-bit rate MPEG2 file) as well as large collections of small files (such as DPX image sequences that include several hundred 12MB frames), at maximum speed, in multiple formats and resolutions, totaling hundreds of GB multiple times daily. While Aspera’s fasp™ protocol is well known for its ability to maximize bandwidth usage and transfer large files at link speed, it also features a new file streamlining technique that allows large collections of smaller files to be transferred at nearly the same speed, without time-consuming pre-archiving, zipping and post-transfer extractions.

“The new file streamlining functionality greatly improved this critical part of our workflow”, added Ken. “Even with WAN acceleration, FTP is very inefficient when transferring large image sequences. By using Aspera’s fasp™ 2.0 technology, we are now able to transfer those same sequences much faster, without having to archive the file sets in advance.”

Technicolor recently reported the ability to transfer a 1000-frame image sequence to their MPC facility in London in about 22 minutes, while sending that same sequence as a single archive took 20 minutes to transfer, with an additional 10 minutes for the archive/extraction process.

Integrated media transfer platform

Enabled by the integration of Aspera’s fasp™ transport, the efficient and secure movement of digital content between facilities and customer sites across the globe within guaranteed timeframes is a key component of Technicolor’s new MIDAS™ integrated media platform. Additionally, Aspera software is widely used among Technicolor’s business partners and customers, allowing them to immediately take full advantage of the system’s advanced transfer capabilities.

The broad adoption of Aspera transport technology by Technicolor is a testament to a successful three-year collaboration between the two companies. With more media and entertainment organizations making the switch to all-digital operations every day, Technicolor and Aspera are working together to enable an industry transformation based on systems integration and technological breakthroughs.