OTTAWA, ON, 22 March, 2007 – There’s now a way for
Mac creative professionals to fully concentrate on their 3-D animations
and high definition multi-media projects without worrying about how to
most efficiently transmit those files between studios around the globe.
FileCatalyst – a software-only solution from Unlimi-Tech Software Inc.
– offers Mac creative pros maximum throughput and reliability for large
point-to-point file transfers such as feature films, 3-D animations and
geo-spatial images.
FileCatalyst can be remotely installed on a Mac in less than 20 minutes
for fast, interactive collaboration on large datasets commonly found in
media, advertising agency, government, military and enterprise Wide Area
Network (WAN) settings.
Previous to FileCatalyst, Mac-based creative professionals relied on traditional
software solutions for file transfers that were severely affected by degrading
network conditions. These solutions provided no monitoring and automation
for guaranteed file delivery. They also often required hardware installation
and testing that took three to five days to physically set up for each
end of a transmission, while offering inferior connection throughput.
“We can guarantee a FileCatalyst customer’s connection throughput improvement
before they even get our software, said Chris Bailey, Unlimi-Tech’s CEO.
“FileCatalyst delivers data up to 50 times faster than systems based on
file transfer protocol (FTP).” Written in Java, FileCatalyst provides
a cross-platform (Mac, Unix, Linux and Windows) file transfer solution
that improves bandwidth utilization and file transfer reliability to save
time and money.”
Rain Network is a Brazilian company that has created a solution for the
independent cinema market by interconnecting theatres in a digital network.
With offices in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York and London, Rain Network
uses FileCatalyst to transmit films in digital format, by satellite, cable
and DSL to 130 South American, 23 U.S. and five U.K. movie venues.
The company routinely transmits more than 250 feature films a month, each
around 15 to 20 gigabytes in size. A feature film may be transmitted several
times to various locations depending on demand. Fernando Fortes, Technical
Manager at Rain Network, said this amounts to at least one terabyte of
data every month. Before adopting FileCatalyst, when network transmissions
were disrupted, or a data packet lost, the company had to resend the whole
file again. The system didn’t allow for resending only the lost or delayed
segment.
“We could be sending the same 20 gigabytes several times,” said Fortes.
“We’re charged by the amount of data we transmit, and a troublesome connection
means money down the drain. We paid nearly 10 times annually what we now
pay for FileCatalyst.”
