Following up re: digital delivery

[Max Kaiser]

Comcast just started allowing digital delivery for spots in our area (seattle).

Originally we had to do their very interesting mpeg-2 encoding to mixed results. Then, recently, they started allowing us to send them prores and they would encode. Spots looked much better.

Now, they are going to let us use HD. This is a first in our region. Still, they say it must be 29.97 prores. Does anyone have any experience with this? What are you using to convert 23.98 – which is all we shoot – to 29.97? Compressor yields okay results but with a slight bit of visible (to me) stuttering. Does DG do the conversion? Well?

Thanks!
Max

Max Kaiser
Director
Hand Crank Films
https://www.handcrankfilms.com

Various Intel
FCP 7
OS 10.5
RED/XDCAM/7D

[Jeremy Doyle]

I’ll start by saying we send out roughly 6 shows weekly to various stations and lots of spots. Between our offices in various states we use FTP. To the stations we air on in the states we send tapes. We also air in Canada and to that network we load up a hard drive and dump all of that weeks programming in Pro Res HQ. It saves on shipping costs and has no problems with customs.

[Mark Suszko]

I like the way Alex thinks about tape. But even I have to look to the future as well. What I would like to do is cobble together an in-house FTP server from off-the-shelf stuff that is fast and easy for users to access. Question for those who own MediaBatch; can MediaBatch be used for the front end of such a system?

What I’m thinking about is that we don’t want to have to pay DG or some other service to load our stuff into an FTP server, if we don’t have to, and if we had our own FTP server, we could cut costs. Maybe. At least we’d have direct control of the ingest and QC issues. We have a mailing list for blast-faxing news directors when we have something they may want. Currently, we book a Ku uplink and feed it to everyone “in the clear” that way, but the asynchronous nature of FTP fits busy station schedules better than having to force all the postential users of our footage to commit to a specific 15 minute window of sat reception time.

We have access to fat pipes already, and can lease the computer hardware. I just have to crunch the numbers to see if I can make a business case for it.

What we would use the system for is to distribute 15 minute raw news footage and VNR packages to news stations in our state markets a couple times a week, to between 5 and 20 stations, as well as SD and HD spots and PSA’s. I want to follow what Zelin’s working on, because it sounds roughly like something that may fit our situation as well.

[Gary Hazen]

We’re looking for a way to handle digital delivery in house as well. At NAB Digital Rapids showed their C2 delivery software.
https://www.digital-rapids.com/Products/IndividualProducts/C2.aspx
It looked interesting enough, with tracking files that were downloaded or delivered.

C2 or some other FTP on steroids. I think these are the types of solutions that are poised for a great deal of growth. IMO, the business model of delivering 30 second HD digital files at $150 – $300 a pop isn’t sustainable. At those prices I can justify adding a server and an application to handle delivery.

[John Davidson]

Well, like I said, we’re talking short form media. If, when using yousendit, you find yourself going over 2gigs, all isn’t lost. I use an app call DMG chopper that breaks up a DMG into smaller chunks. When they’re all downloaded onto the other side, double click on the first one and it consolidates all the parts back into a single file. Very useful.

I will say I’ve been plenty pleased with YouSendIt. A mixer turned me onto it and at first I had some problems – if a client replied to the generated email it went to a null address. That’s fixed now, and I’ve noticed their servers are about 50% faster than mine or most networks internal FTP systems. I suspect network engineers cap server speeds, whereas YSI doesn’t.

If I were delivering via YSI and had a large stringout of spots, I’d just upload the tags in addition to the main spot. The inhouse layback editor can paste the differences onto a stringout – done.

No solution is perfect yet though. Not until bandwidth and compression hit a universally awesome sweet spot. Until then, HDcam will rock us through.

[Bob Zelin]

Jeremy wrote – “we use ftp”. I hate that answer – exactly what does that mean ? What program are you using? Do you have an in house FTP server, or are you using an outside service. When your clients have to receive the video, what program do they use – what site do they go to to download your shows ?

PLEASE be specific, as this is a subject of great interest to me and others. Just don’t say “we use ftp” please.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hey, are we starting a NEW FORUM for digital delivery ?

Bob Zelin

[Jeremy Doyle]

[Bob Zelin] “Jeremy wrote – “we use ftp”. I hate that answer – exactly what does that mean ? What program are you using? Do you have an in house FTP server”

We have an internal FTP server. I personally access it via cyber duck, but it can be accessed via any ftp client or web browser using the proper user name and password.

[Mark Suszko]

Sounds awesome, Bob, I would read such a forum with interest.

[Tim Wilson]

We’re definitely up for it. I started with this forum since I’d seen the issue come up before, but I’m still trying to evaluate the extent to which it might be more than something that warrants some juicy threads now and again.

I’m also hopeful that, as I start putting together some of these discussions into an overview article, it will get the conversation rolling even more. Goodness knows, we agree that this is among the big issues that’s coming, and very much worthy of the spotlight.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear more about the formats you guys are delivering for distribution. It sounds like ProRes is coming on stronger, but it sounds like there’s a lot more as well.

To restate an earlier question about MediaBatch, what software are you using to prepare your files – Compressor? Sorenson? Direct output from the NLE?

And of course, happy to hear any more about the specifics of your experiences with any vendors.

I know that that’s a lot of questions to kick around, but guys, this is really, really helping.

Tim

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine

My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”

Don’t forget to rate your favorite posts!