Trailer Park Speeds Materials Submission and Delivery With Aspera
Aspera (Booth SL9716) announced that media marketer Trailer Park has deployed a suite of Aspera software solutions built on patented fasp technology to receive content from clients and return completed projects at maximum speed, with comprehensive security and visibility over the entire transfer environment.
In the past, Trailer Park used standard FTP to complete transfers to and from media clients. But FTP proved to be slow and unreliable due to the inherent bottlenecks in the underlying protocol. When the FTP system spontaneously crashed one day after a maintenance window, Trailer Park recognized that it was time to make a switch.
Of key concern for a new transfer solution was security, given the nature of the content and the guidelines set forth by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Trailer Park also wanted to attain greater visibility and control over the transfer environment, having experienced issues with bandwidth saturation in the past when it used a transfer client to send and receive content via customers’ transfer servers, which provided them little ability to throttle transfers.
In response to employee and client requests and under time constraints to implement a solution quickly, Trailer Park selected a software suite from Aspera it knew would meet stringent performance and security requirements: Aspera Shares for file sharing and ingest, Connect Server for high-speed Web-based transfers, faspex for person-to-person file-based collaboration, and Console for centralized management and monitoring of the entire environment.
Clients submit a variety of content in different formats and sizes, which can range from a hi-res full-length feature film to a single Photoshop file. So Trailer Park provides many different options to cater to their needs. Clients can use their own Aspera transfer software, or clients without their own infrastructure can download Aspera’s free Connect Web browser plug-in and initiate high-speed transfers with the Connect Server housed at Trailer Park’s facility. Another option is to deliver files via the Shares Web interface, where content can easily and securely be uploaded to a secure location. Non-technical business users often opt to use faspex, a person-to-person file delivery and collaboration platform that allows users to submit content directly through the Web using an e-mail–style interface.
Once Trailer Park receives the files, it can immediately begin work to create trailers, online or print advertisements, or any other marketing services. When a project is completed, Trailer Park can deliver a hard asset, or clients can use the Aspera Connect Server with the Shares file-sharing Web interface to download the digital files at high speed using a standard browser.
To centrally manage and monitor the entire system, Trailer Park uses Aspera Console, with real-time dashboards that display all transfer activity and provide full control over bandwidth use and transfer priority.
“We’re doing more digital deliveries now than we ever have before, handling files as large as 400 GB,” said Michael Forester, IT director at Trailer Park. “Large file transfers take less time with Aspera than with anything else, and we have complete visibility and control over the entire transfer environment.”
“Industry-leading marketing-services companies such as Trailer Park need the flexibility and variety of ingest and delivery options provided by the Aspera high-speed-transfer platform,” said Michelle Munson, CEO and co-founder of Aspera. “The combination of Web applications, transfer clients and servers, and centralized management ensures Trailer Park can meet the needs of their large client base so they can focus on the creative aspect of production.”