IBM Case Studies Christian Cinema: Powering the aggregation of Christian movies on a custom VOD platform

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	Christian Cinema: Powering the aggregation of Christian movies on a custom VOD platform IBM

Christian Cinema: Powering the aggregation of Christian movies on a custom VOD platform

IBM

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Applicable Functions	Logistics & Transportation
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services System Integration
Challenge	Christian Cinema, a company that hosts the largest selection of faith-affirming and family-approved films on the Internet, was looking to move most of their 4,000 DVD titles to their online platform in the cloud for digital streaming. They needed a fast, secure, and reliable transfer solution to transport filmmakers’ titles directly to the cloud. Traditional technologies such as FTP were not viable due to network interruptions and latency over the WAN, which resulted in failed transfers. Shipping hard drives was also not a viable option due to the time it took for the shipments to journey from filmmakers located around the world to Christian Cinema’s headquarters. Plus, the files still needed to be uploaded to the cloud anyway, which would take additional time and effort. Read More
About Customer	Christian Cinema is a company that hosts the largest selection of faith-affirming and family-approved films on the Internet. The company has been selling DVDs since 1999, but in recent years they have expanded into the digital Video On Demand (VOD) arena, allowing customers to stream movies directly to their TVs, mobile devices, and computers. With around 4,000 movies on DVD, Christian Cinema set out to move most of these titles to their online platform in the cloud for digital streaming. The company built their own fully cloud-based platform in house. By leveraging cloud infrastructure, Christian Cinema is able to combine all of the pieces of their media distribution workflow in one centralized location – including content ingest, encoding, storage, and streaming to the final consumer. Read More
Solution	Christian Cinema selected Aspera Application Platform on Demand and IBM® Aspera® SDK to enable filmmakers to submit videos at maximum speed to the custom content management platform. Aspera’s rich set of APIs was an important factor in Christian Cinema’s decision to select the solution. Using the Aspera SDK, Christian Cinema embedded Aspera’s high-speed file transfer technology into their custom VOD platform, creating a seamless end-to-end video management experience for their content suppliers. Filmmaking partners that have signed a licensing agreement with Christian Cinema can go to their individual account page to upload the titles and add any metadata, artwork, pricing, and trailers. As soon as they hit the upload button, it triggers the IBM® Aspera® Connect Browser Plug-in. The plugin client initiates the transfer in the background, and the real-time transfer status shows on the page within the browser window. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

System Integration

Challenge

Christian Cinema, a company that hosts the largest selection of faith-affirming and family-approved films on the Internet, was looking to move most of their 4,000 DVD titles to their online platform in the cloud for digital streaming. They needed a fast, secure, and reliable transfer solution to transport filmmakers’ titles directly to the cloud. Traditional technologies such as FTP were not viable due to network interruptions and latency over the WAN, which resulted in failed transfers. Shipping hard drives was also not a viable option due to the time it took for the shipments to journey from filmmakers located around the world to Christian Cinema’s headquarters. Plus, the files still needed to be uploaded to the cloud anyway, which would take additional time and effort.

About Customer

Christian Cinema is a company that hosts the largest selection of faith-affirming and family-approved films on the Internet. The company has been selling DVDs since 1999, but in recent years they have expanded into the digital Video On Demand (VOD) arena, allowing customers to stream movies directly to their TVs, mobile devices, and computers. With around 4,000 movies on DVD, Christian Cinema set out to move most of these titles to their online platform in the cloud for digital streaming. The company built their own fully cloud-based platform in house. By leveraging cloud infrastructure, Christian Cinema is able to combine all of the pieces of their media distribution workflow in one centralized location – including content ingest, encoding, storage, and streaming to the final consumer.

Solution

Christian Cinema selected Aspera Application Platform on Demand and IBM® Aspera® SDK to enable filmmakers to submit videos at maximum speed to the custom content management platform. Aspera’s rich set of APIs was an important factor in Christian Cinema’s decision to select the solution. Using the Aspera SDK, Christian Cinema embedded Aspera’s high-speed file transfer technology into their custom VOD platform, creating a seamless end-to-end video management experience for their content suppliers. Filmmaking partners that have signed a licensing agreement with Christian Cinema can go to their individual account page to upload the titles and add any metadata, artwork, pricing, and trailers. As soon as they hit the upload button, it triggers the IBM® Aspera® Connect Browser Plug-in. The plugin client initiates the transfer in the background, and the real-time transfer status shows on the page within the browser window.

Impact #1	Filmmakers are able to upload, encode and set the pricing for films, all within 24 to 48 hours.
Impact #2	Filmmakers can submit files from anywhere in the world, directly to the cloud.
Impact #3	Aspera on Demand allows Christian Cinema to transport content from filmmakers directly to where it needs to be – in the cloud.

Impact #1

Filmmakers are able to upload, encode and set the pricing for films, all within 24 to 48 hours.

Impact #2

Filmmakers can submit files from anywhere in the world, directly to the cloud.

Impact #3

Aspera on Demand allows Christian Cinema to transport content from filmmakers directly to where it needs to be – in the cloud.

Benefit #1	Reduced time to upload videos and have them ready for customers on the site from weeks to just 24 to 48 hours.

Benefit #1

Reduced time to upload videos and have them ready for customers on the site from weeks to just 24 to 48 hours.

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Overview

Christian Cinema: Powering the aggregation of Christian movies on a custom VOD platform

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit