The challenges of live sports production and how accelerated file transfer features assist

1. Webinar: Accelerated File Transfer in Live Sports
Production

2. Introduction
• John Tkaczewski, President and Co-Founder
john@filecatalyst.com
• Christian Charette, Director of Software Development
christian@filecatalyst.com
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3. Overview
• Challenges of Live Sports Production
• Accelerated File Transfer Introduction
• Accelerated File Transfer as a Solution
• Live Sports Production Specific File Transfer Features
• Demo
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4. Challenges of Live Sports Production
• Video files tend to be very large in size, up to 100 GB for a full
resolution video file making file transfers lengthy
• Geographical distances when editing from remote locations further
slow file transfers
• Non-standard MXF (Material Exchange Format) files are extremely
difficult and unreliable to transfer using traditional file transfer
methods
• Large sporting events often require multiple files to be transferred
simultaneously
• Transferring dynamic file sets (transferring video files as they are
still being recorded)
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5. Accelerated File Transfer Software as a Solution
• MXF issues encountered:
– File is growing for long periods, and needs to be followed during
growth so that it arrives soon as it finishes writing to disk on source.
• Transfer using “progressive” feature. After every transfer, transfer checks
for growth and restarts transfer until file does not change.
– Multiple growth files in progress. Don’t stop transfers while tailing a
specific growth file.
• Multi-client transfers allow tailing of multiple concurrent files while still
allowing static contents to go through.
– Proxy file (low res) are slow to grow compared to network
throughput, meaning growth file may be interpreted as static file.
• Provide a file filter (ie: for all *.mxf files) and a pause duration, where a
transfer will wait to see if the file grows before considering the file to be
static and complete.
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6. Accelerated File Transfer Software as a Solution
• MXF issues encountered:
– Headers in MXF file are updated after completion of the file.
This causes issues, as headers are found in the first few blocks of the file, and have
already transferred across when they are modified.
Two solutions are provided to resolve this issue:
• Wait until a file is completely written to disk before transferring. Provide
a file filter (ie: for all *.mxf files) and queue up files until the timestamp
sufficiently old enough before starting a transfer.
• Transfer the file using progressive (tailing the file), wait a specified
interval (ie: 60 seconds), then initiate a retransfer using Deltas (RSYNC
feature) to capture all binary changes in the file. While computationally
more expensive, it allows for any types of header changes to be
performed and properly captured, while minimizing network utilization.
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7. Speed Gains with Acceleration vs. FTP
HotFolder v3.3.1
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8. What is File Transfer Acceleration?
• File transfer acceleration technology allows large files, or “big data”
to be sent quick and in many cases over large geographical
distances without being impeded by network impairments such as
latency and packet loss
• This is accomplished by transferring files using the UDP protocol
instead of the TCP protocol, the protocol used for FTP
• The main difference between UDP and TCP is that UDP wastes no
time communicating about the receipt of a block of data so
that regardless of network latency, data transmission remains
constant, thus overcoming the peak and valley effect that occurs
with TCP based protocols on links with high latency
• Application layer protocol can be added to UDP to add a layer of
reliability and rate control while not sacrificing its the other
desirable properties
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9. Speed Gains with Acceleration vs. FTP
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10. Accelerated File Transfer Software as a Solution
• While a high bandwidth link and an accelerated and managed
file transfer solution in place is a good start for live sports
production workflows, there are still certain distinct
challenges that must be addressed
• These challenges can be addressed with specific software
features tailored specifically to sports & events production
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11. Accelerated File Transfer Software as a Solution
Challenge Solution
Video files tend to be very large in size, up to
100 GB for a full resolution video file making
file transfers lengthy
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Standard accelerated and managed file transfer
solution & high connection speed
Geographical distances when editing from
remote locations further slow file transfers
Standard accelerated and managed file transfer
solution & high connection speed
Non-standard MXF (Material Exchange Format)
files are extremely difficult and unreliable to
transfer using traditional file transfer methods
Special rules to handle dynamic files which
have non-standard behaviour.
Large sporting events often require multiple
files to be transferred simultaneously
Extreme concurrency transfers feature
Transferring dynamic file sets (transferring
video files as they are still being recorded)
Transfer growing files feature

12. Live Sports Production Specific File Transfer Features
Partial deployment for major sporting event
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13. Demo

14. About FileCatalyst
FileCatalyst technology is developed by Unlimi-Tech Software Inc., a world
leader in file transfer solutions. Founded in 2000, the company has more
than 1000 clients with a user base of over 1 million. FileCatalyst provides
software-based solutions designed to accelerate and optimize file transfers
across global networks. Being immune to packet loss and latency, FileCatalyst
can send files much faster than methods such as FTP, HTTP or CIFS, while
adding security and reliability.
To learn more visit www.filecatalyst.com
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15. Thank you!
Questions?