Aspera Facilitates High-Speed Tranfer for BT Sports

Aspera, the creators of next-generation software technologies that move the world’s large data at maximum speed, announced that BT Sport partner Timeline Television has selected Aspera technology as the chosen high-speed transfer and automation platform for its live sport production workflow.

As part of a hi-tech and integrated solution, Timeline Television is providing complete managed services to BT Sport. Aspera plays a key part by providing the orchestration system and underlying high-speed data transport technology that powers BT Sport’s complex file-based workflows.

The combination of Aspera’s high-performance transport technology and Orchestrator workflow automation application delivers extreme scalability and control in high-volume workflow automation. It enables secure, practical ingest, transformation, and delivery of file-based media and the successful execution of all workflows across the production process from end to end.

By integrating Orchestrator with EVS’ IPDirector production asset management suites, Aspera completes the integrated solution for high-speed data replication between BT’s new studio facility and BT Tower, enabling essential disaster recovery and full redundancy.

“This project needed to be completed within a very tight timescale and the new infrastructure needed to provide BT with the most advanced tools on the market,” comments Charlie Tear, technical director at Timeline Television. “It made sense for us to select proven, reliable and leading technologies such as Aspera fasp and Aspera Orchestrator to ensure the project was completed on time and workflow productivity was fully optimized. Aspera has delivered on all these fronts.”

“The BT Sport project shows how Aspera can seamlessly integrate multiple, high-volume workflows and manage the entire end-to-end processes to improve speed, performance, productivity, and reliability,” says Bruce Brewer, European sales director, Aspera. “The project was an impressive feat, as it required high-end technology and the dedication of many to meet tough deadlines. Aspera was thrilled to be involved.”

“At the core of our new studios build is a spirit of collaboration that brings the best of industry – and sometimes competitors – working together towards a common aim: to make the BT Sport studios a world-class hub for the best ideas and talent,” says Jamie Hindhaugh, chief operating officer of BT Sport. “We believe talent attracts talent and our partnership has helped us to foster that mind-set.’

The channels, which include BT Sport 1, BT Sport2 and ESPN, are based in iCITY, London’s new digital quarter in the former International Broadcast Centre (IBC) at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. BT Sport went live on August 1, 2013.