DPP launches practical guide to connectivity services for production

The Digital Production Partnership (DPP) has published what it describes as the first-ever guide to help producers find the right kind of connectivity for their business. The DPP Survey Report: Connectivity Supply to Production helps producers to identify the kind of connectivity provision appropriate to their needs, with an indication of costs and type of service.

“Our previous research with production companies has revealed that many still rely on inadequate broadband connections, and don’t always feel they understand the alternatives,” says DPP managing director Mark Harrison. “So we have conducted some research, and sought the advice of DPP Member companies, to pull together a user-friendly view of what the market offers.”

The survey report considers the needs of different sizes of production company, and whether the connectivity they need is for general office use, for working with video, or out on location.

The needs of media production companies are unusual when compared to other sectors. The workload can expand and contract dramatically, and this makes for huge variations in the bandwidth required. Video files are also much bigger than the files being transferred by most other industries.

“There is no doubt that connectivity suppliers find the media production community difficult to serve,” says Harrison “But provision is getting better all the time and now might be the right time for producers to explore the benefits they could get from professional supply.”

DPP Survey Report: Connectivity Supply to Production is the fifth in the DPP’s Survey Report series, and follows on from the 2016 Survey Report Connectivity & Production, which shared DPP research into how production companies view their connectivity services.