Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Friday, March 29, 2024

Gener8 Deploys Aspera’s Fasp Software 

Aspera, Inc. announced that Gener8, an industry leader in 3D conversion services for the entertainment industry, has integrated Aspera’s Emmy award-winning fasp high-speed transport technology into their state-of-the-art Cumul8 management and analytics system.

To help filmmakers manage the flow of digital assets between visual effects vendors, Gener8 launched a unique cloud-based asset management system, Cumul8. Content ingest and distribution is now powered by Aspera Connect Server to deliver media assets quickly and securely between clients and third-party vendors. It is also used internally by Gener8 to move media files through each stage of processing. The seamless integration of Aspera’s technology into the state-of-the-art Cumul8 management and analytics system delivers speed, ease of use and efficiency for their customers.

For 3D conversion projects, Gener8 uses Aspera to pull in visual effects composites and all the associated elements from several visual effects houses. After files are uploaded to the inbound watch folder and ingested into the pipeline, Gener8 then outsources pieces of the project to third-party vendors. Gener8 simply provides account logins for each vendor, and they can immediately log into the system and begin uploading and downloading files via the Aspera Connect Web Browser Plug-in.

The Aspera integration within the Cumul8 API allows Gener8 to automate file movement through each step of the process while Cumul8 tracks the piece-by-piece progress of projects through the pipeline. For major projects, VFX vendors set up automated transfers to send in pieces of content to the Aspera server housed at Gener8’s stereo conversion house, at which point automated processing is triggered.

With the same assets, same Internet connection, and same machines doing the transfer, Gener8 experiences transfer speeds around six times faster with Aspera than they experienced with SFTP. Fast transfer speeds mean fast collaboration between Gener8 and outsourced vendors, so projects can be completed and returned to clients with the quickest turnover possible. Aspera provides a simple, intuitive user interface, so Gener8 doesn’t need to provide instructions or go back and forth with clients and vendors before they can get started using Aspera.

“Aspera provides speed, security and reliability so Gener8 can complete projects on time,” said Richard Heitmann, vice president of marketing at Aspera. “Leveraging Aspera’s rich set of APIs, Gener8 was able to embed fasp directly into their cloud-based platform, creating a very elegant solution with a great user experience.”

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