Compressing program
At KMSP in Minneapolis we've started to heavily rely on Digi Delivery (similar to an FTP in a graphical shell with a dedicated hard drive next to our Avid ISIS racks) or Streambox file transfer to ship our packages *on deadline* back to the station.
We cut on Avid Newscutter laptops in the field and save the file as an 'Avid codec' MOV file. Now our wide screen 480 line MOV file package will be somewhere around 400 mb give or take. We use the free Handbrake program to compress our files, just applying their 'Apple TV' default setting. Handbrake will compress a 2 minute package in around 2 minutes (depends upon how much movement is in the package and how much 'work' the software had to crunch). Now I'll have a file which is closer to 30-50 mb in total file size. As long as one can find an internet with at least 400 kb/s upstream, that package will be back at our station in about five to ten minutes. We have ATT and Verizon USB air cards in our Streamboxs, so if we can't find a WiFi, we often can find a good G3 data connection.
If we're out of town doing a satellite shot, we're booking at least one less feed window by doing file transfers, so the money saved can easily cover the costs of the cellular air cards. In heavily used cell sites, finding free WiFi may give you better transfer speeds, but if one is out in the boonies, I often see 300 kb/s up on a G3 cellular connection.
We do an hour newscast at 5pm and do 90 minutes at 9pm with a total of about 8 to 10 locally shot and edited packages across those two newscasts. We'll cut about 2/3 to 3/4 of our packages in the field and so far we're probably at about 80 percent file transfer success every day of the week.
To be safe, I insist the reporters to get me a script a half hour earlier and set aside a half hour at the tail to get my package compressed and sent. That way if the file transfer dies, there is always that five minute window to plug into the truck satellite or microwave link and send it that way. We've found that the few artifacts we see in from our compressed file transferred package looks way better on the air than our more heavily compressed digital microwave path these days. This past week, four of the five packages I shot and edited in the field were sent via file transfer and only once did my transfer fail and had to rely on our microwave.
The key at the station is to have a dedicated box of some kind taking the files in and is on the same local LAN the Avid's are on, so transferring a file from one platform to another will only take seconds.
Our Newscutter editors simply pull that M4v file into their bin and it will take Avid a couple of minutes to covert it.
So the idea of an instant transfer isn't realistic, but we are going from hitting 'send' button in the field to actually hitting air playback typically within fifteen minutes every day of the week while on a real newscast deadline.
Kent Peterson
But it's rare to find upload speeds faster than 1.5 MB/sec. On a wireless connection expect less. Follow Kevin's instructions and you'll be okay.