One of the four major Television Networks in the US, including over 200 affiliate stations, selected Aspera technology to power its next generation digital media content distribution system, used for global electronic news gathering and media file transfer with its stations and sister film division.

With bureaus in key cities worldwide, and reporters in most regions of the world supporting its broadcast of news, sports, and entertainment, the Network has consistently deployed advanced technology to improve the end-to-end digital workflow for broadcast news. Journalists in the field transfer video footage in digital file format to the studio using tools like FTP or web-based file transfer protocols, often from very remote locations where the available bandwidth is limited, and the network access is wireless, broadband, or satellite media. Transfers over these difficult networks are often unreliable and doggedly slow, and do not fully utilize even the limited bandwidth available. Yet the time sensitive nature of news requires reliable, on-time delivery without exception.

Recognizing these limitations of conventional file transfer technologies, the Network investigated alternative, new transfer approaches and set out to create a new global news gathering system. Among requirements for the file transfer software were full bandwidth utilization when requested; reliable, on-time delivery from even from the most remote locations and over emerging satellite and wireless networks; complete, open-standards security; and support for both Mac and Windows users.

The chosen technology would power file transfers in a new all-digital workflow, with content transferred at high speed throughout a nationwide corporate network of studios for post-production, replication, and off-site archiving. Transfer history would be centrally logged and tracked, and a web services interface on individual transfer nodes would integrate with the Network's existing business systems.

After an in-depth evaluation of alternatives, the Network selected Aspera's software to provide the media content delivery system with high-speed file transfer capability, and worked closely with Aspera in a joint development effort to integrate the Aspera Web Client and Enterprise Server into the Network's web application. Journalists in the field use the Aspera Web Client to upload digital content on location to Aspera Servers in the US via the web interface. The system authorizes users against the Network's internal security systems, logs all transfer history to centralized databases, and inter-operates with Aspera Scp for high-speed transfers throughout the Network's computer network and with external partners.

The Network needed a simple solution that non-technical journalists and correspondents can use to send files from anywhere in the world, and across a variety of networks, to studios in New York and Los Angeles, in a reliable and secure way, in predictable time, and at high speed when bandwidth is available. Aspera was able to meet the Network's needs with a flexible architecture that not only addresses file transfer requirements of correspondents globally, but also allows the Network to extend the same benefits on an ad-hoc basis to other staff and partner who may have video of breaking news or other footage to be aired. The initial goal was to develop a news gathering application with state-of-the-art file transfer capability, but with successful initial deployments, the Network is expanding the media content delivery system to other divisions within its global organization.