Media Links and Signiant to Conduct Joint Technology Demonstration at NAB 2017

Fast, fail-safe and secure delivery of very large, high value media files over Wide Area IP Networks

Media Links, the market leader in media over IP transport solutions and Signiant, the market leader in intelligent file movement software, together announce a joint demonstration in the Media Links booth, SU5021 at NAB 2017, to transport mission-critical media files.

On display will be Signiant’s Manager+Agents™ software solution that automates the delivery of large media files across geographically dispersed locations, operating in conjunction with Media Links’ new 10Gb/s Hitless Data feature for its MD8000 Media over IP transport platform.     

The demonstration will highlight how media & entertainment carriers, broadcasters and sports producers across the globe can take further advantage of ever-increasing bandwidth available at stadiums and other edge venues to move more and more data in addition to conventional broadcast video and audio signals. All over longer distances, and across borders and continents with faster speeds, throughput and resiliency than ever before.

Manager+Agents™ utilizes Signiant’s acclaimed acceleration technology to move large files at speeds up to 200X faster than conventional methods, assuring delivery with rich flow and error correction protocols.  

Media Links’ new 10Gb/s Hitless Data capability provides uninterrupted data transport across any network and is accomplished with Media Links’ new GbE line card configured for 10Gb/s single port mode, operating over 10GbE trunk modules on the MD8000 media over IP platform. Based on the sequence number and timestamp of individual data packets, any network disturbance is immediately detected, resulting in a seamless (hitless) switchover to a redundant stream. 

Set up between the booths of Media Links and AT&T in the upper south hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, a MD8000 media over IP transport network with media servers on each end is provisioned as a 10Gb/s hitless data pipe. Signiant's Manager+Agents software performs file transfers between the servers, while providing administrators control and visibility of file movement via its Manager dashboard. This dashboard will display transfer rates, including throughput and progress of the transfer.

The MD8000 network is also set up with a fiber patch panel in each of its two main fiber network trunks to demonstrate the 10Gb/s Hitless Data feature. Removing any one of the two fiber patches, representing the loss or corruption of one of the lines, shows no interruption of file transfer performance or progress on the Signiant Manager dashboard, highlighting the 10Gb/s hitless feature as it seamlessly switches over to a redundant fiber.

“During live media and sport events, production teams now want significant amounts of supplemental media file content and other data to accompany the live video/audio transmission,” explains Tom Canavan, President of Media Links Inc. “This has resulted in a huge demand for the transport of data back and forth between venues and production facilities. Feedback from both our clients as well as discussions with various industry groups continually highlight the growing need to transport more and more data in addition to the myriad broadcast video/audio formats, resolutions and compression methods we support.”

“Demonstrating Signiant’s core competency of moving large files with speed, reliability and security across the Media Links’ MD8000 transport platform, now with 10Gb/s Hitless Data, offers a powerful, robust solution for accelerated mission-critical transport of IP-based media files between  locations, studios, distribution networks, and across the world, concludes Canavan.

Adds Margaret Craig, CEO of Signiant; “Used by the world's top media & entertainment companies, Signiant’s flagship Manager+Agents solution is the gold standard for automated system-to-system file movement at scale. Showcasing Manager+Agents with Media Links’ MD8000 Media over IP transport platform demonstrates the synergy that can be achieved in utilizing both products, particularly for those highest profile, mission critical media events where Media Links solutions are most prevalent.”

www.medialinks.com