DIRECTV Latin America Goes With Aspera To Eliminate Tapes

DIRECTV Latin America (DTVLA), which services more than 9 million customers in Latin America and the Caribbean, has selected Aspera Inc. to streamline content editing, postproduction, and distribution spanning six broadcast facilities on two continents. Since installing Aspera’s technology, the broadcaster has increased efficiency and productivity five-fold and reduced HD-tape usage by 35%-40%.

DTVLA acquires produces and broadcasts content, receiving and editing content from providers across the globe and distributing it to broadcast facilities in the U.S., Mexico, and South America.

The postproduction and distribution process had involved receiving, editing, dubbing and shipping physical tapes, a resource- and time-intensive process. Furthermore, as HD content became the new standard in broadcast, the cost of tape skyrocketed.

DTVLA needed to move to a file-based workflow to create a faster, more efficient, and cheaper collaboration and postproduction process. In turn, the company needed to work with a technology provider that would enable them to make that transition.

DTVLA selected Aspera’s technology because of its security and reliability and because Aspera’s underlying protocol, fasp, proved suited to managing the often 65- to 85-GB files that needed to be shared. Content providers can easily upload content to DTVLA’s Aspera servers at maximum speed. From there, the video editor at DTVLA’s central facility in El Segundo, CA, can download the files directly into the Apple Final Cut program to edit and finalize for distribution and promo production. The editor then sends the file up to the Aspera server, allowing each production center to download the file and push the content onto its own playout servers. The need for dubs is entirely eliminated: every facility can get the same file via Aspera’s servers.

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