Transporting footage from set, between editors and for final delivery has been necessary since the dawn of filmmaking. While the digital filmmaking era has made much of the post-production process easier and brought many new creative possibilities, the critical step of moving assets between people and locations hasn’t improved at all for most smaller media teams. For many of them, the default option is still “put it on a drive”, which is a process that impacts the bottom line in various negative ways. Time is money in this industry, and how much time is lost when you’re waiting on someone to receive and access a drive, regardless of whether you shipped it across town or across the world?

Different size of hard drives in stack, from Shutterstock

Transporting footage from set, between editors and for final delivery has been necessary since the dawn of filmmaking. While the digital filmmaking era has made much of the post-production process easier and brought many new creative possibilities, the critical step of moving assets between people and locations hasn’t improved at all for most smaller media teams. For many of them, the default option is still “put it on a drive”, which is a process that impacts the bottom line in various negative ways. Time is money in this industry, and how much time is lost when you’re waiting on someone to receive and access a drive, regardless of whether you shipped it across town or across the world?

With the advent of software as a service (SaaS) file transfer technologies, post houses are no longer limited to the cumbersome process of shipping hard drives or using FTP (file transfer protocol). Legacy methods like FTP and shipping hard drives are far behind modern cloud-based large file transfer solutions in everything from usability to speed to process. Traditionally, post-production teams haven’t had much choice in how they send and receive files to various locations and through numerous teams, but that is no longer the case. There’s simply a better way to operate.

Why post houses still ship footage

Larger enterprise companies have had access to sophisticated on-premises accelerated file transfer technology for well over a decade. Developed by companies like Signiant using advanced UDP acceleration, this sort of transfer technology can send data up to 200 times faster than FTP, and includes modern enhancements like automation, tracking and security. With the multiple data centers and complex infrastructure required to install and manage such software, enterprises have been able to quickly and securely send files across the world that are so large or numerous that they might not even fit on a single drive.

For most smaller media teams though, the only electronic form of large file transfer technology at their disposal has been FTP. With that as the only realistic option, most prefer to ship hard drives rather than even try to rely on FTP. Why? It’s not because sticking footage on a storage device and sending it off for delivery is easy, cheap or scalable. And it’s certainly not because producers and coordinators like to have the 5:00 Fedex final delivery time constantly circled on their calendars.

With FTP as the only realistic option, it’s no wonder we started throwing everything onto hard drives and shipping them across town or across the planet as necessary. Today though, there’s no excuse for waiting for a file to upload or for a drive to arrive where it should. Not when there’s an option that provides the speed and security users have been seeking for decades.

Software as a Service: The Great Equalizer

It wasn’t until the introduction of the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model with cloud computing that modern large file transfer solutions became a viable alternative for organizations. Today these options are accessible and affordable for operations of all-sizes. Large and small productions have options which allow them to quickly and safely transfer their large files.

Media Shuttle is the first SaaS accelerated file transfer solution to combine the cost-effective advantages of cloud-based software with the power of large-scale data movement technology. Being able to “right size” products like Media Shuttle and Flight has allowed Signiant to package these products in a way that fits for a particular person or use case. The big studios might need a bit more functionality than the smaller production company, and Signiant can give that to them. Customers get what they pay for, which is a concept they can always support at every level.

Many medium-to-small media companies will come to find SaaS to be incredibly cost-effective, both in terms of the time and money they’re saving. The software runs on vendor-managed infrastructure that automatically upgrades and scales to data usage, giving you the freedom to only pay for what you actually use and without a heavy upfront infrastructure investment. Users will also benefit from the highly intuitive web interface that is accessible anywhere in the Internet connected world – giving post houses the speed and reliability they need, when they need it.

If you need a fast SaaS large-file transfer solution, try Media Shuttle for free and stop waiting for an upload or hard drive delivery. Logistics shouldn’t be holding back your project or busting your budget, and you have the ability to ensure they don’t.

 

Disclosure, to comply with the FTC’s rules 16 CFR Part 255 – This article was sponsored by Signiant