This IS the Avid L2: Re: [Avid-L2] File transfers?

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Re: [Avid-L2] File transfers?

Tim,

I have used Digital Pigeon for several years now and it has been by far the best file transfer service that I have experienced. You might try it to see how it works with large volumes of large files - they have a 14 day trial.

Plus it has the best name. And they are Aussies :-).

See you next week.

- Rich

Rich Ford

Hot Sprocket Films

On Jan 15, 2016, at 9:21 AM, Tim Selander selander@tkf.att.ne.jp [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Lots of good suggestions; thanks everyone.

We're going to test FTP and Google Drive today with 7GB and 33GB files, and see what happens. I'll report back.

I wondered why Aspera, etc., were so costly compared to others... Pete's explanation helped with that. Very interesting.

FWIW I have 2gbps fiber here, and get over 100Mbps up and down. Don't know what the Australia side gets. I have another client that has 2GB files stored on Akamai. FTP downloads take about 1 hour per file. But interestingly, Filezilla ftp client will download six 2GB files at the same time, all at about the same speed. So within an hour, I've downloaded 12GB of data.

Tim Selander
Tokyo, Japan

On 1/15/16, 4:07, 'Pete Opotowsky' popix@cfl.rr.com [Avid-L2] wrote:
Been spending a lot of time on this lately. Have experience with Aspera, not so much with Signiant (though there's some ex-Avid folks there)
The public internet and most of the suggestions below are TCP/IP. It breaks everything up into pretty small packets. It's OK for text, but gets bogged down with big files which need to be a long string of packets. This in turn increases the overall size of the data stream, because each packet has data connecting it to the next.. If data is missed along the way the process is further bogged down by relatively slow and inefficient error checking/resend. And TCP/IP is effectively throttled by any number of bottlenecks in the path from A to B, both intentional and not.
Aspera/Faspex and Signiant are UDP (and its variants), which can handle much larger file sizes in bigger chunks. They were designed for point to point transmission , though Aspera can handle distribution of a feature to a fairly large number of theaters. Both companies have implemented various checksums which decrease the chance of missing bits (=corrupt file). And the error correction is generally much faster than TCP/IP But be warned, these services generally ain't cheap. If you're delivering to an enterprise scale company they may have invested in this already and can give you an account. Worth asking.

Keep in mind that you are always limited by the connection to your ISP. IP over cable is asynchronous, meaning the download speed doesn't match the upload speed, sometimes by a factor of 10.

There a few good podcasts out there.

HTH

Pete O

POP Pictures Inc.
Orlando

From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2016 12:57 PM
To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com [Avid-L2]; Jim Feeley
Subject: Re: [Avid-L2] File transfers?

See, THAT's the real question. All these suggestions of free services mean nothing if they're not fast enough to transfer VAST amounts of data quickly. Any solution that relies on FTP is going to be too slow. Signiant and Aspera and some others use a different method of checking the packets as they are sent that VASTLY speeds up delivery times. Avid had a product by Digidesign (ProServe LT) that allowed for super-fast deliveries of files over the internet. I think that's the same basic technology that Aspera uses.

For example, Avid had to send me a 3gig file recently and did it using one of those services and the thing was DONE on my HOME cable connection in about 15 minutes… maybe less. You can't get those speeds with FTP no matter HOW fast your connection is.

On Jan 14, 2016, at 11:41 AM, Jim Feeley jfeeley@gmail.com [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Any thoughts on how S3 transfer speed compares to Signiant, Aspera, etc?

Jim

On Jan 14, 2016, at 8:04 AM, blafarm@yahoo.com [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Speaking only of the cheapest option, having virtually no learning curve, no setup time, and no software subscription obligation -- you might consider creating an Amazon S3 account.

There are a number of good S3 browsers, but you might consider buying two instances of CloudBerry S3 Explorer Pro ($39.99 USD each) for Japan and Australia, and syncing them to the same Amazon S3 account.

Then either party can upload files that the other party can access. You and your team could also then take advantage of Amazon Glacier for ultra cheap long-term, offline backup.

Amazon S3 Storage Rates: http://goo.gl/10aP9L

Amazon Glacier Storage Rates: https://goo.gl/CYsJPV

CloudBerry S3 Explorer Pro: http://goo.gl/oEwhtJ