Aspera Unveils New Content Delivery Products at IBC2011

High-speed file transfer innovator delivers global transport, workflow, collaboration, cloud and mobile solutions for media and broadcast industry

London and IBC2011, Amsterdam RAI (Hall 7 Booth G11) — 9 September 2011 — At IBC2011, Aspera, Inc., creator of the fasp transport technology, the emerging standard for high-speed transfer of large data at global distances, today announced multiple new software products and capabilities that expand its industry-leading portfolio of software solutions for high-speed content delivery in several key areas: file transfer and synchronisation, ad hoc file exchange, cloud data transfer, mobile data transfer and file-based workflow orchestration.

Aspera Sync enables high-performance synchronisation of large file repositories over the WAN 10-1000X faster than traditional tools like rsync. faspframes™ is a new ultra fast software application providing true 10 Gbps WAN transport for 2K/4K digital frame files, outperforming brute force hardware appliances in a simple software-only package. Aspera On-Demand Direct-to-S3 is a first-in-the world solution for transferring file content of virtually any size to and from the cloud at breakthrough speeds.  fasp-MC™  is a new patent-pending IP multicast transport that provides high-speed, ultra-efficient delivery of large media content in IP-multicast enabled networks.

The popular Aspera faspex server for collaborative exchange of content of any size, at any distance, adds new ad hoc contribution capabilities with fully integrated metadata collection and reporting, and support for new clustered scale-out configurations.  And, the Aspera Orchestrator brings dramatically expanded capabilities for automation of file-based workflows fully integrated with high-speed delivery. Aspera also introduced a new Mobile app for Android, as well as the latest Aspera Mobile Uploader for iPhone and iPad, and a brand new fasp-AIR SDK for embedding robust and efficient fasp data transfer in iOS and Android applications for 3G/4G and wireless broadband connections.

Over 1,200 companies, government agencies, and academic institutes, including hundreds within the media and broadcast industry, rely on Aspera software daily to transfer file-based media throughout the globe with predictability, efficiency, visibility and automation within large and small-scale workflows. The latest solutions bring powerful capabilities to deliver ever more content through low cost, highly efficient file transfer over any IP network, enabling new efficiencies and new revenue models not possible before.

Visit Hall 7, Booth G11 to see live demonstrations of the new Aspera products and solutions detailed below.

Products and solutions on display

Transport

Move, synchronise & deliver file-based media globally at high-speed

• Aspera’s flagship software product suite for high-performance file transfer – Aspera Enterprise Server and Connect Server in version 2.7, as well as the Aspera Client and Connect browser plug-in – have a multitude of new features enhancing transfer automation and user management, and new SDK APIs forever expanding use in media ingest, distribution, and collaboration workflows. Enhanced rate control algorithms allow for high-performance on virtual machines. New advanced options support preservation of file ownership, access properties, linkages and certain extended attributes, and make it easy to automate the transfer of unlimited numbers of source files and directories. User management in advanced Windows domain environments is faster and more robust. New 64-bit browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox and IE) are fully supported within the new Aspera Connect plug-in. Aspera Console 1.5 brings powerful project-based reporting, live tracking, and bandwidth management of very large transfer volumes across all Aspera products.

• Aspera Sync is a new software application for scalable, multidirectional synchronisation of today’s largest file stores and processing pipelines. Designed to overcome the bottlenecks of conventional synchronisation tools like rsync and scale up for maximum speed replication and synchronisation over WANs, Aspera Sync achieves unidirectional and bi-directional replication at speeds 10 – 1000X rsync for large numbers of files or large files over the WAN and offers highly efficient continuous and one-time replication of file system changes.

• faspframes™ is a new software application for ultra-fast and fully reliable transfers of 2K/4K frame files over the WAN, delivers unparalleled 10 Gbps performance for networks of high latency and packet loss with comprehensive bandwidth control and seamless integration with Aspera transfer and management tools. On a 10 Gbps intercontinental network, faspframes can transfer 60 mins of digital film footage at over 8 Gbps – 1 TB of data in under 20 minutes – at least two times the best performance published by purpose-built hardware appliances.

• fasp-MC™  is a new patent-pending IP multicast transport designed for media distribution over IP multicast networks to many receivers, such as digital cinema, VOD or digital signage, bringing the speed and bandwidth efficiency of Aspera technology to multicast distribution applications. A new software development kit now allows fasp-MC to be embedded in third-party products and applications.

Workflow

Automate, integrate and extend large-scale content delivery

• Aspera Orchestrator is a web-based framework and SDK platform for creating and managing automated file processing pipelines, fully integrated with Aspera transfers. New features include a comprehensive suite of third party plug-ins for integrated workflow processes including virus scanning, quality control, transcoding, watermarking, file movement automation, ad insertion, and asset management, a summary dashboard with drilldown details for monitoring individual workflow steps, as well as a journal of activities per file for easy tracking of each file’s history.

Collaboration

Exchange file-based content for collaborating globally at high-speed

• faspex 2.5 is the latest version of Aspera’s person-to-person file delivery software. It empowers professionals to collaborate and exchange files and directories of any size, while benefitting from Aspera’s unparalleled transfer speed. Version 2.5 introduces:
  • o    Built in ad hoc dropboxes for private, project-based submission of content from third parties along with configurable metadata input and reporting through Aspera Console.
  • o    Tiered deployment with a cluster of Aspera servers, achieving transfer capacity scale out to 10 Gbps+ with built-in high availability.
  • o    Seamless integration with all standard LDAP directory services for user management.
  • o    Automatic content distribution via publishing to Cargo desktop clients.
  • o    Previewed at IBC, the Aspera Outlook Plug-in, an upcoming add-on for Microsoft Outlook allows large files and directories to be sent as attachments from Outlook and seamlessly delivered via faspex servers.

Cloud

Move big data to and from cloud storage with unmatched performance

• Aspera On-Demand Direct-to-S3 introduces the first-ever direct-to-cloud storage transfer capability for large file sets (50GB+) that overcomes the I/O bottlenecks of traditional cloud transfer solutions over the WAN. It offers high-speed direct throughput 10x faster than typical transfer speeds of available cloud transfer solutions, transferring to and from an Aspera client to Amazon’s universal S3 (Simple Storage Service) at available bandwidth up to 700 Mbps, independent of client location.

Mobile

Big data sharing and collaboration over wireless and cellular networks

• Aspera’s unique fasp-AIR™ mobile platform that allows for mobile contribution, collaboration and distribution of workflows has been significantly enhanced with an updated version of the Aspera Mobile Uploader for Apple iPhones and iPads, a brand new mobile app for Android, and comprehensive software development kits for both Apple iOS and Google Android.

t: +44 (0)207 403 8878

rachaelt@rlyl.com

About Aspera

Aspera is the creator of next-generation transport technologies that move the world’s digital assets at maximum speed regardless of file size, transfer distance and network conditions. Based on its patented fasp™ protocol, Aspera software fully utilises existing infrastructures to deliver the fastest, most predictable file transfer experience. Aspera’s core technology delivers unprecedented control over bandwidth, complete security and uncompromising reliability. More than one thousand organisations across a variety of industries on six continents rely on Aspera software for the business-critical transport of their digital assets. 

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