Shadow
14-03-2013, 11:02
*UFC taps Aspera for digital video distribution * Parent Category: News | 13-03-2013 The mixed martial arts (MMA) organization known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has deployed Aspera's high-speed transfer software to power its file-based content delivery workflows. The implementation is geared to its internal teams during production of live events, for global distribution partners and for fans accessing content on the Web or mobile devices globally. With more than 30 live events taking place annually worldwide, the UFC needed to implement a digital transport technology solution that would overcome wide area network challenges to deliver video content quickly to the production crew ahead of each event and distribute it internationally within hours of each event, the company said. UFC deployed Aspera as the backbone of its digital asset management system, allowing field production teams to pull existing content from venues all over the world for inclusion in the live broadcasts. The same system links UFC's Las Vegas headquarters and Los Angeles office, with video editors transferring gigabytes of file-based media on a daily basis. Exclusive footage includes fighters in training, event week activities such as workouts, weigh-ins and press conferences, and behind-the-scenes interviews. UFC programming is broadcast to 800 million TV households throughout 145 countries, and content is hosted on UFC.com and delivered through various major digital platforms including iTunes, Hulu, Xbox, Amazon, Roku and Sony PS3. "We needed to push large volumes of high quality content from locations that sometimes have poor connectivity, so we developed a solution using Aspera," said Christy King, vice president of digital and technology research and development at UFC. "There is simply no way we could have ever distributed this much content as broadly as we can today without the ability to deliver video as quickly as Aspera does." Adept Mobile worked with UFC to build the video ingest, transcoding and distribution platform that allows UFC to upload high-resolution video clips for transcoding into various mobile device formats before posting them on UFC's website. Aspera is also at the heart of UFC's content delivery to over 150 international partners. In the past year, UFC shifted its workflow from 90% physical tape delivery to 95% digital delivery via Aspera. "We are thrilled to support UFC in their exponential growth by allowing them to scale and accelerate their content delivery workflow," said Richard Heitmann, vice president of marketing at Aspera. "With Aspera software deployed on-premise and in the cloud, UFC can confidently rely on its technology investments to meet the growing worldwide demand for mixed martial arts content."