When Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman embarked on their latest motorcycle adventure for Apple TV+’s Long Way Home, the production presented unique challenges that pushed the boundaries of traditional post production workflows.
The 10-episode series follows the duo over nine weeks and through 15 countries–from Scotland to Scandinavia, up to the Arctic Circle, and across the Baltics and continental Europe.
The production required seamless coordination between location teams and post production facilities. Notorious DIT, part of the Molinare Creative Group alongside Molinare handled the mobile digital imaging and data management on location, ensuring footage was safely backed up, quality checked, and prepared for transfer whilst the crew moved across continents.
For Molinare, also part of the Molinare Creative Group, handling post production for the series, meant managing constant data flow despite highly variable internet connectivity across remote locations. With the crew essentially living on the road for weeks, traditional transfer methods would have been inadequate for maintaining the pace of editorial review and approval.
“We were dealing with very limited bandwidth in many locations,” explains Henry Beauchamp, data management and logistics lead. “The challenge was getting up to 30 hours of editorial media transferred back to base daily, often with internet connections that weren’t designed for professional media workflows.”
The solution
Molinare deployed Dot Group’s DataSprint solution, powered by IBM Aspera technology, to maximise the efficiency of every available byte of bandwidth. The implementation included a 1Gbps Transfer Server for maximum speed capacity, when connectivity allowed, Aspera on Cloud providing a modern web-hosted GUI for easy access from any location, Aspera Console for monitoring all global transfers in real-time, and API automation for streamlined client approvals in VFX pipelines.
The critical advantage was Aspera’s ability to extract maximum performance from limited bandwidth, ensuring that even modest internet connections could deliver professional-grade transfer speeds. This meant that proxy files and editorial media could be transferred reliably, allowing post-production work to proceed whilst the crew continued their journey.
The scale of daily operations was substantial: up to 30 hours of editorial media transferred daily from multiple remote locations across 15 countries, approximately 200GB per day of proxy transfers to maintain editorial workflow, and 24-hour turnaround enabling real-time editorial review and client approval.
Molinare highlighted the value of Dot Group’s ongoing support throughout the production. “The Dot Group’s competent and insightful support enabled us to optimise our DataSprint implementation,” said Beauchamp. “Their personalised approach means we can focus on the creative work whilst knowing the data transfer is handled reliably.”
Results
The success of the DataSprint implementation enabled uninterrupted editorial workflow despite challenging remote locations and varying connectivity, maximum utilisation of available bandwidth ensuring efficient transfers even with limited internet, real-time monitoring of transfers across multiple time zones and countries, scalable performance that adapted to connection quality without affecting other operations, and secure transfers protecting valuable pre-release content throughout the process.
Whilst proxy files travelled via DataSprint for immediate editorial access, the full-resolution camera originals and audio files were transported physically on a weekly basis–a hybrid approach that balanced immediate editorial needs with the practicalities of remote location connectivity.
Following successful data transfer and initial processing, the project moved seamlessly through Molinare’s post production pipeline, with final grading by Ross Baker and Carlotta Rio, and audio post production by re-recording mixers Tristan Powell and Helen Miles.
Looking Forward
The success of Long Way Home has reinforced Molinare’s confidence in DataSprint for handling complex, location-based productions where bandwidth is at a premium. With their global client base requiring constant, reliable data transfers regardless of location constraints, the solution provides the foundation for taking on increasingly ambitious projects.
“Remote productions like Long Way Home really test your infrastructure,” reflects Darren Woolfson, CTO at Molinare. “DataSprint’s ability to squeeze maximum performance from whatever bandwidth we can find on location means we can take on ambitious projects without compromising our editorial timelines.”
