Signiant SaaS Allows Chimney Group to Move Large Media Files Quickly and Securely for Film, Broadcast and Advertising Clients

Swedish Production Company Uses Signiant Media Shuttle to Improve Customer Experience

LEXINGTON, Mass.– Signiant, the market leader in intelligent file movement software, today announced that Stockholm-based production and post production firm Chimney Group has adopted Media Shuttle™ to move large media files quickly, easily and securely between its 10 offices in seven countries, and to partners and customers worldwide. Signiant’s technology allowed Chimney to significantly improve the customer experience for its clients, which include leading film and TV production companies and large brands such as Audi, Gucci, Volvo and H&M.

Chimney Group produces over 6000 projects every year including feature films, commercials, music, promos and television content across more than 60 countries. Before turning to Signiant, Chimney used FTP to send these large files but often found it to be slow and unreliable. Long delivery times and interrupted transfers caused major production delays, often costing Chimney an entire workday. With 6-8k acquisition and 4k delivery formats becoming industry standard, and file sizes increasing exponentially, Chimney required a more reliable solution to meet its customers’ needs.

“In our industry, time is of the essence. Our business relies on delighting our clients, which include some of the world’s leading brands. In order to do this, it’s imperative that we send content – even huge files – quickly, in advance of deadlines,” said Henric Larsson, COO at Chimney Group. “Before we implemented Signiant, we faced many challenges that ultimately threatened our bottom line, and we realized we simply couldn’t depend on FTP to deliver files with the speed or the level of security that our clients required. Media Shuttle is essential to our business and we are confident Signiant will be a long term partner that will scale with us.”

Chimney looked into open source and other accelerated file transfer solutions but found that they were either too difficult to build and maintain, or too costly. Chimney selected Signiant’s Media Shuttle hybrid SaaS solution, which solved all of its file transfer challenges and offered an easy-to-use interface. Team members can now quickly and easily send large, uncompressed files between Chimney’s offices during the production process, and then use the same tool for final delivery to the client. The company even creates a branded Media Shuttle portal for each client, delivering a personalized customer experience. Signiant’s Cloud-native SaaS model provides a scalable and cost-effective solution that can scale as Chimney’s business grows and as file sizes continue to increase. Chimney was also impressed with the superior customer service that Signiant provides.

Anneli Oscarsson, DI Producer / Post Production Supervisor at Chimney Group, added, “We transfer a lot of large files between our international offices – for instance, one of our current projects is shooting in Toronto, so we are sending the dailies files to the LA office, then they will be sent on to Stockholm and Berlin for specific post work. We have to keep projects moving forward, and speed is the key. Signiant enables us to move files much faster than before, plus we have the knowledge that they are safe and secure. A couple of years ago it took seven or eight hours to send three minutes of DPX files from Stockholm to our Barstow office. Now, we can transfer 1.5TB – a whole feature film – in about 10 hours. Media Shuttle has already improved the way we work, and it’s great to be able to provide clients with fast and reliable transfers.”

“In the fast-paced, competitive post production industry, companies like Chimney need the peace of mind that they can meet their customers’ deadlines,” said Rick Cramer, Sr. Vice President, Global Field Operations, Signiant. “Media Shuttle provides a scalable, secure and cost-effective solution that our customers can rely on now and in the future, to exceed their clients’ expectations.”

To learn more about Signiant’s Media Shuttle, please visit: https://www.signiant.com/products/media-shuttle/