It’s a good time to be a media consumer. If you want to watch something, chances are you can. If you miss an episode of your favorite show, you don’t need to wait for the network to show it again, you can download it to your iPod or go to a web site like Hulu and watch it. In most cases you can catch that missed episode 24 hours later. Similarly, movies used to take months to be released around the world and now world-wide release dates are a common thing.

If you’re a sports fan, one of the ultimate media consumers, you can travel many places in the world and still be able to watch a sports game taking place in your home country, whether it’s live via satellite or online shortly after the game is over.

If you’re going to be out, busy, or simply don’t like to watch commercials, you can set your digital video recorder to automatically record the shows you like and then you can watch them when you want to.

The goal is for consumers to have so many choices that content is convenient. The easier it is to watch, the more viewers there will be, giving the media outlets the largest audience possible. They don't care how consumers view their content, just that they view it.

While all of these changes are a great convenience to the consumer, they add complexity to the already evolving process of creating and distributing content. The supply chain, or the process of creating and then distributing content, has gone from being simple and linear to being a complex process on both ends.

Content used to be created with one or two cameras and some film. When it came time for editing, someone was in a room with a razorblade, literally cutting film and piecing it back together to get the desired final show or movie.

Advances in technology and an increase in viewer’s expectations have moved content creation to a new level in the past 10 years.  Instead of one or two cameras, there are several cameras on each shoot. Movie and television shows film scenes in locations all around the world. The need for animation, computer generated special effects and/or 3D adds another layer of complexity. These effects may be created across town or across the globe.

Each one of the advances in the creation process involves moving either raw or finished content significant distances in a short amount of time in order to complete the show or movie. Managing the transfer of files becomes a huge endeavor.

Once the content is created, edited and ready for viewing, the next step is to create all the different versions needed for distribution. It is no longer as simple as taking that pieced together film and putting it out on the airwaves to be viewed on television. It now also means making it available for distribution via cable, satellite, video on demand and itunes. For movies it may mean having multiple versions dubbed in different languages. Every episode of a show like The Office needs multiple versions created, each with a different logo bud on the top.

As with creating the content, distributing the content means moving large files to multiple locations all at the same time. The process of managing the transfer of files just doubled from the creation process, now becoming enough work for an entire department.

Another key component in the supply chain evolution is the shift from tape to file-based work-flows. 

The switch is often made for any number of different reasons. Using tape is expensive, slow and not environmentally friendly. Tape requires a manual process for moving the tape from one location to another creating a system that is prone to human error. Tape requires more man hours, more storage space, more cost to move and insure the tape.

Once the decision is made to move to file-based work-flows, another decision needs to be made about how those digital files are going to be securely moved around the world. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is unreliable, slow and full of security holes.

Transport technology companies help with accelerated file movement and provide enterprise level security and network resiliency. But media companies are still left with the problem of organizing all those files that are moving around.

The complexity in the supply chain described above applies to one show or movie, but most companies are working on dozens of different programs or movies at a time. Multiply the number of files needing to be moved by the number of projects being worked on and you are left with a staggering amount of organization needed to track where files are going when.

Using Signiant’s Content Supply Chain Management Software not only saves money by eliminating the cost associated with tape, it also reduces costs by significantly reducing the number of man hours needed to track and move files.

Signiant helps customers move from the world of videotape/analog and physical distribution to international file-based aggregation and distribution. Signiant solves companies’ supply chain problems and allows them to take any digital asset and package it for any type of movement.

Signiant’s Software not only provides customers with a secure way to move and track their content, it automates the process and allows for faster movement of content. The software provides a way to centrally manage the movement of files, setting up automated processes wherever possible. Solutions can be provided to take any digital asset, package it in any combination needed and digitally distribute that content to wherever it needs to go.