BASE Media Cloud deploys Aspera Files SaaS to manage clients’ global media distribution

IBM has announced that BASE Media Cloud, one of the most innovative virtual managed service providers in the UK, has selected the innovative new Aspera Files SaaS platform from Aspera to provide its media clients with a fast, easy, and secure media storage and distribution platform supporting high-volume global media workflows and delivery.

To meet the increasing challenges brought about by the rising volumes of high quality media files being acquired, processed and delivered throughout the media production process, BASE Media offers a suite of virtual services comprising media storage, media asset management, file transfer and content distribution. The services are supported by both private and hybrid cloud infrastructure, and offered on a pay-as-you-go model, reducing its media customers’ capital expenditure.

The addition of Aspera’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, Aspera Files, complements this model, while seamlessly connecting the underlying infrastructure and providing access through an easy to use interface. Using Aspera’s secure content access key system, BASE Media was able to securely wrap their cloud and data centre storage in an easy to use package. Non-technical users can easily administer permissions, add users, share files / folders and public links creating a hybrid cloud distribution service supporting secure high-speed business-to-business file sharing.

In January 2016, BASE Media Cloud successfully deployed its first branded Aspera Files distribution platform for boutique sports media agency, Aurora Media Worldwide in support of the FIA Formula E Championship. Formula E is a ground-breaking FIA single-seater championship and the world’s first fully electric racing series, serving as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting clean energy and sustainability. Aurora Media Worldwide uses the BASE Media Cloud and Aspera Files hybrid cloud service to deliver HD packages comprising race material, VT inserts, VoD clips and branded content – amounting to multiple terabytes of media – to race teams, media partners and global broadcasters including FOX, CNN, Eurosport and ITV.

“With Aspera Files we’re putting the keys to the data in our customer’s hands,” said Ben Foakes, founder and managing director of BASE Media Cloud. “It’s effectively doing the job of a CMS, storage and delivery system combined, via the cloud in our case, so clients like Aurora Media can access, transfer, package up and distribute their content through one, easy-to-use, web interface. “

To meet the tight deadline needed to deliver coverage of the first Formula E race of 2016, which took place in Buenos Aires on 6 February, Aspera’s technical team based in the USA worked closely with BASE Media Cloud. Foakes continued, “Deployment felt like ‘one team’. Even though we were on different continents and working across an eight-hour time difference, Aspera’s engineers went above and beyond the call of duty.”

Aspera Files allows any media organisation of any size to establish a branded web-based presence for fast, easy and secure exchange of file-based media content between end users. Partners can be invited to send media files via a simple dropbox without having to provision complex configurations, users, or infrastructure. Administration is simple, with no additional cost to onboard other providers.

“With Aspera files we can securely wrap highly secure cloud storage in an easy to use package enabling non-technical users to administer permissions, add users, share files / folders and public links,” said Kevin Heavey, solutions architect at BASE Media Cloud.

“BASE Media Cloud’s ethos of providing virtual managed services has the opportunity to turn the traditional production and post model upside down,” said Michelle Munson, CEO and co-founder of Aspera. “With Aspera Files, its clients can quickly and securely ingest, manage and distribute media of any size, and from any location, leveraging the benefits of pay as you go cloud storage and Software as a Service.”