Comcast Media Center’s AdDelivery Looks to Remove Tape Delays
Comcast Media Center unveiled a new service this week that looks to eliminate the shuttling around the country among ad agencies, production companies and distribution outlets of physical tapes that hold TV commercials. The company’s new AdDelivery service is from its Radiance business unit and uses the public Internet to transport the spots.
Traditionally, after a commercial has been made, the master tape goes to duplicators to make copies, which are then overnighted around the country to the outlets that carry the commercial. Using the AdDelivery web application, ad firms can now upload their HD and standard def spots to Comcast in Denver, which then routes the delivery to the proper destinations. This extra time will supposedly extend the deadline creative types have to finish their work before handing it off for airing.
As of right now, those distributor destinations are only traditional broadcast and cable channel outlets both in and outside of Comcast’s network. Currently there are not any online distributors (like Comcast’s Fancast) plugged into the service. Comcast Media Center COO Gary Traver told us by phone that adding online outlets was part of the product road map, but he didn’t provide a timeline for that implementation.
Radiance Technologies, which specializes in the digital delivery and management of large advertising-related assets to broadcast and cable destinations, was acquired by Comcast Media Center in October of 2008 for $5 million. AdDelivery is looking to take on DG FastChannel, which uses satellites for mass delivery of advertisements.
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Comcast should look at http://www.framecaster.com
Kinda mind-boggling for us in the valley. They’re just getting to this now??
This is OLD news.
There are a few companies doing this already here in Australia. Have been for years. Started with satelitte, and as you would expect, are all internet based.
Even FILM (industry I work in, see http://www.cinetechgeek.com for my podcast in Cinema Technology) delivery over internet is common place. For example, http://www.d-cinema.com.au has a technology that lets cmpanies that want to distribute movies, do so easily. You just install there eCinema boxes in a location, have access to a portal, and click on what movie you want at what cinemas, and it all happens.
Its all changing (or changed).
James
There are nuances. It’s not easy at all to send a HD file for a low cost over Internet, securely and with all the metadata it needs, and to automate the delivery and guarantee it, etc. – that’s the issue – not that it can’t be done a few other ways. I understand that Radiance has proprietary tech that was developed in Silicon Valley, and that’s what Comcast bought in 2008. The all-digital delivery move means this plays right into iTV and inteactive advertising too – where spots have to come faster and be more personalized – not one sent to many.
As the other commentors said: this is old news. Spot trafficing going digital is here already, if not solved inhouse, third party offerings come partly from the folks who enabled digital radio-commercial-delivery (the old players, e.g. SpotTaxi) and partly from newer or start-up players. The “proprietary systems” they claim are mostly simple transfer speed enhancements (like newer UDP based FTP replacement protocols – they can’t reinvent TCP-IP) and terminal station solutions.
But as Jeff said, tvc delivery is a piece of cake compared to what the film industry is already doing: sending dailies, digital intermediates and final cuts via IP… Virtually any post house on the planet uses the “digital pipe” to tackle global workflows. So with TVCs it’s not a battle of innovation but a battle to secure claims. Repeating the marketing babble as news is just helping the one or the other corporation.
– my two cents.