65th Berlin International Film Festival Selects Aspera for Fast, Secure File-Based Film Delivery

IBM selected Aspera as an Official Supplier for the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, taking place on 5 – 15 February 2015. As one of the most important events for the international film industry, Berlinale attracts more than 300,000 attendees from around the world, and screens some 400 films of every genre, length and format. This year’s festival will see various iconic films screened in 4K resolution — including Goldfinger (1964) and In Cold Blood (1967) — requiring a high-speed transport solution capable of moving large amounts of data.

The need to efficiently and securely handle the increased digital file sizes of 4K films significantly contributed to the festival organizers choosing Aspera Shares. The solution enables high-speed, file-based delivery of feature-length films from participants directly to the Berlinale data centre in Berlin. With film files of up to 250GB each, the growing demand to ingest and share large files digitally from multiple locations across the globe drove the need for faster transfer speeds, improved reliability, and a streamlined digital workflow. With Aspera Shares, the organizers can use their full 10GB fiber connection to receive DCP files, regardless of distance and network conditions.

In previous years Berlinale had used various methods including physical delivery and FTP, which were typically slow, costly and difficult to manage. By standardizing file-based film delivery on Aspera Shares, content from contributors can be easily gathered and managed. In addition to Aspera Shares, Berlinale is also using Aspera Console for complete visibility and real-time control over transfers, while the Aspera Connect Server allows the large number of participants to exchange their files over the wide area network.

“With ever-increasing file sizes, media and entertainment customers like the Berlin International Film Festival look to Aspera to help them manage file-based content quickly, efficiently and securely,” says Bruce Brewer, European sales director, Aspera. “Aspera Shares enables the secure ingest and delivery of large files from users located anywhere in the world, and the ability to scale as demand increases.”