Earlier this month MTV Networks UK broadcast its first ever music video received digitally; Unbelievable, by Craig David, was supplied to MTV by Warner Bros TV Promotions department using IMD Fastrax’s broadcast quality digital delivery system.
This broadcast means that MTV Networks joins a number of other broadcasters using IMD Fastrax’s digital delivery service; these include Emap, Chart Show TV, At It Productions and GMTV.
At MTV UK, IMD Fastrax has installed a dedicated 100MB fibre connection with software and hardware that integrates with MTV’s ingest and Quality Assurance systems. This allows high quality videos files, 50 I Frame MPEG 2, to be delivered quickly and securely. The system notifies the broadcaster when a new music video has arrived and a desktop review version can be viewed immediately.
Record companies prefer to send music videos digitally as it means they don’t need to produce numerous expensive Beta tapes and arrange for bikes to deliver them. Television broadcasters choose to receive music videos digitally as it speeds up delivery and they don’t have to return tapes to the record label – all of which takes time and costs money.
Sarah Adams, Director of Promotions at Warner Bros UK explained: “We are always looking at ways of saving time and money and this system with IMD Fastrax helps us to do both. Anything that can speed up the process of getting our videos on air, will receive our support.”