Download PDF

IBM > Case Studies > Delivering and Receiving Time-critical News Content Anywhere

Delivering and Receiving Time-critical News Content Anywhere

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Process Control & Optimization

Services

System Integration

The Challenge

Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, needed to reliably exchange large, time-sensitive content globally, typically 10GB up to 1TB over the Internet, with partner stations and postproduction companies. The broadcaster must constantly interact with its vast network of partner stations and postproduction companies to exchange newsworthy programs. The number and size of high-resolution video files have grown immensely, varying between 10GB and 1TB for DW. DW must be capable of transferring up to 20TB of media content each month. As transfer volumes have grown, DW was compelled to find a solution that enabled it to receive and deliver content to and from anywhere as quickly as possible while content was fresh, independent of the file size and geographical distance.

About The Customer

Founded in 1953 with its headquarters in Bonn, Deutsche Welle (DW) operates as Germany’s foreign broadcasting company, providing global news, features and documentaries that includes regional television lineups in English, German, Spanish and Arabic, as well as radio and online content available in 30 different languages. While nearly all its radio programs are produced at its headquarters in Bonn, the network’s television broadcast center is located in Berlin. Each week, DW broadcasts to a worldwide audience of over 135 million people using a global satellite network, partner stations and online services, as well as other means of distribution like apps, podcasting, live-streaming, newsletters, mobile and RSS services.

The Solution

Deutsche Welle deployed a multi-product solution that included Aspera faspex™ server software at the main site in Bonn, as well as Aspera Console and the Aspera Cargo downloader. These products were quickly integrated into its existing applications and its entire workflow without any additional hardware or other upgrades. Based on the patented FASP® transfer technology, Aspera faspex™ ensures a fast, secure way to exchange all digital assets internationally between facilities in Germany, its partner stations and cooperating postproduction houses. Globally dispersed partners can now quickly share content at unprecedented speeds. This highly versatile solution enables DW to easily on-board new internal or external users by creating additional accounts with appropriate individualized levels of access control.

Operational Impact

Increase delivery speeds up to five times, enabling real-time collaboration between its headquarters in Germany and its partner stations and business partners located all over the world.
Files that can reach up to 1 TB are now reliably sent and received quickly from anywhere in the world.
Aspera significantly reduces transfer times between the different locations, enabling it to publish the latest news faster than ever with no delays like before, giving it a huge competitive advantage.

Quantitative Benefit

Delivery times to and from partners have improved tremendously, with transfer speeds up to five times faster than FTP and other alternative solutions.
DW users can easily and quickly exchange large data packages that are as big as 1 TB.