The Best Way to Transfer Large Media Files Throughout Post Production
Files move most frequently during post production
The early stages of film and television production see very large file transfers, with raw data from cameras sometimes reaching in the Terabytes. Footage then starts to move a lot more frequently during post production, whether within the same company or moving between post-production studios for VFX, sound, color, etc. And while file sizes may be relatively smaller during post production, they are still regularly in the hundreds-of-Gigs range.
Historically, many post-production studios looked to FTP to transfer media files and some still do. However, FTP has severe limitations, especially for media workflows; file transfers are too slow to accommodate client needs and the failure rate of transferring large media files becomes untenable.
With FTP, security is also a growing concern. If not as much to smaller companies, it certainly is to their partners and clients. In fact, in trying to win bigger clients, smaller post-production companies will find that FTP (along with non-media solutions like DropBox and Google Drive) is often a banned solution for security and performance reasons.
Given all of these limitations, inevitably, most companies that still use FTP start looking and asking around for a better means to transfer large media files. What they find is that few have options designed for media use, including security standards, network optimizations and no file size limits.
Signiant vs. Aspera
Signiant introduced Media Shuttle in 2012, the first cloud-native SaaS solution focused on this exact use case. Not only is Media Shuttle sanctioned for use by the largest media companies, it brings all the power of enterprise software at a price that scales for any-sized businesses. Unlike IBM Aspera, Signiant’s core market is Media & Entertainment and so our focus remains on the media supply chain.
Not only do our products reflect years of close relationships with media companies of all sizes, as a thriving independent company ourselves, we are easy to work with and go out of our way to make sure our customers’ needs are being met.
If you are looking for a modern FTP replacement that will level up your business efficiency, win you clients and grow as you do, Media Shuttle is the best solution for post-production transfers.
