File transfer specialist Aspera has worked with news distribution platform SendtoNews to help British Columbia Royal Canadian Mounted Police (BC RCMP) fight crime on the move, writes Adrian Pennington. Since early 2010, the BC RCMP has endeavoured to keep the public informed of their activities by giving broadcasters access to SendtoNews’ cloud-based b2b (business-to-business) relationship management platform. The proprietary software allows reporters to quickly and securely share their stories (including HD video, high-resolution images, audio files and text) directly with newsrooms across the province. Early last year, the Mounties wanted to expand the scheme to allow reporters (the content owners) to record more content and upload it using mobile technology.
The previous scheme was felt to be restrictive as it relied on broadcasters providing videographers and cameras to shoot and edit footage, while transmitting large multimedia files is notoriously slow, particularly from mobile phones. Marc Hoelscher, marketing director at SendtoNews explains: “It wasn’t unusual for transfers to fail at the worst possible moment and that simply shouldn’t happen.” SendtoNews turned to file transfer specialist, Aspera. It suggested and implemented its Mobile Uploader client software to offer high-speed predictability and end-to-end control of uploads and file movement across SendtoNews’ newsroom management workflow. Through SendtoNews, any user familiar with an Apple iPhone, iPad or web browser would be able to easily upload large images and HD video to newsrooms at maximum speed, in a single click. SendtoNews then integrated its distribution solution with Apple iOS, Aspera transport, and the Amazon cloud. The implementation has already proved a hit with both the police and the media. It has meant media agencies simply have to subscribe to the service to collect newsworthy content through its turnkey content management system and news stories and footage are now uploaded at speeds 2-3 times faster than FTP. “There’s no doubt that without Aspera, the platform simply wouldn’t be viable. It’s SendtoNews’ life support,” Hoelscher claimed. “Not only has the scheme helped the RCMP reduce news and event coverage costs by encouraging their reporters to carry iPhones and upload directly from the field, but it’s also helping them take charge of the message that’s being portrayed to the public.” There are plans to launch the SendtoNews service in the UK and Australia. www.asperasoft.comwww.sendtonews.com
