FOXTEL Selects Aspera to Power New Broadcast Supply Chain

April 5, 2011

Next-Generation Transport Platform Will Automate Ingest, Management and Reporting of Mission-Critical Media Content While Reducing Operating Costs.

Australian cable, satellite and IPTV service provider,  FOXTEL have selected Aspera to power its new contribution file delivery and workflow management system. A suite of Aspera’s next-generation file transport technologies will automate ingest, management and reporting of content across FOXTEL’s broadcast chain while cutting overall operating costs and improving employee productivity.

Key to FOXTEL’s decision to choose Aspera was the strength of its workflow management platform that will streamline the process of preparing programming content for distribution over its cable and satellite networks. As Australia’s leading subscription television provider, it serves up content from 200 channels to over 1.6 million homes. The Aspera Orchestrator will enable FOXTEL to integrate third-party applications, such as encoding, transcoding, watermarking and content verification, to the file transfer process. Folding in content preparation steps into the file transfer process will boost overall performance of FOXTEL’s broadcast supply chain.

Aspera Enterprise Server

“With superior file transfer technology and its dynamic and flexible Orchestrator workflow management platform that makes it simple to integrate third-party processing tools, Aspera was the clear choice for us,” said Adam Scott, director of broadcast operations at FOXTEL. “Standardizing on Aspera is a smart move given the advanced reporting capabilities that are mandatory for our business and the need to quickly exchange data with other media and production companies. Virtually every major media and entertainment studio and broadcaster in the world uses Aspera, so it makes sending and receiving content routine.”

FOXTEL is in the process of deploying a suite of Aspera software products--including Aspera Enterprise Server, Aspera Point-to-Point, Aspera Console and Aspera Orchestrator-that will work in tandem to distribute and manage digital media assets across its broadcast supply chain. 

“We are very pleased that FOXTEL selected us for its new contribution file delivery system,” said John Wastcoat, vice president Asia Pacific at Aspera. “Having worked with the team for several months to understand their very stringent requirements and architect a solution, it is very rewarding that our software meets and exceeds FOXTEL’s expectations. Digital delivery and file management with Aspera gives FOXTEL the ability to exchange media assets quickly regardless of where they originate, accurately predict delivery times, and provide an end to end customized workflow based on their specific business.”

Aspera's products are sold and supported in Australia by digital media solutions specialist Digistor. Foxtel is their most recent installation. 

"Digistor has been supplying Aspera as part of our digital media delivery solutions for a while now. It has been adopted by a number of our larger customers, as well as our smaller customers, including key Australian broadcasters, Film houses, Post Production facilities and even Sports Headquarters. With the new features set to be released at NAB2011 and the very strong relationship that we have with Aspera we're looking forward to deploying Aspera more and more through Australia and New Zealand," said Digistor Account Manager, Sean Curran.