Somerville Media Customer Story

Table of Contents

• Who is Somerville Media?
• The Challenge: Vast Amounts of Data, Little Time to Spare
• The Alternatives: Couriers, FTP, and Slow File-Sharing Services
• The Solution: MASV – Somerville’s New Default
• The Result: MASV – A Critical Tool

Who is Somerville Media?

Somerville Media is a Singapore-based, full-service video production company owned and operated by Greg Somerville. The former video journalist and producer at the Associated Press founded the company in 2007, and now offers B2B video production services with the help of his team and a network of local and freelance crews scattered across Asia and the world.

Back when Greg broke his teeth in the news business, around 1999, most companies were still in the habit of transferring video tapes from breaking news stories to fixed locations, referred to as feedpoints, in the fastest way possible — via motorcycle couriers for example. These feedpoints were permanent links able to send footage either via satellite and then, later on, via fibre. But internet transfer technology changed all this and simplified the entire process.

And while even we can admit that sending high-value content on a motorbike does have a certain excitement factor, Greg says he prefers the speed and reliability of his current large file transfer method, MASV. 

Vast Amounts of Data, Little Time to Spare

As a coordinator of on-location camera shoots in Singapore and abroad, Somerville Media has always required a reliable large file transfer solution for moving high-resolution video files. “We’re transferring vast amounts of data pretty much every day,” Greg explains.

“When we’re coordinating with local crews, we need the footage sent back to us in Singapore so we can edit. But we’re also sending footage directly to our clients.”

Related: How To Send Large Videos

Couriers, FTP, and Slow File-Sharing Services

For years, the company has regularly sent and received files of between 30 and 40 GBs, traditionally either by courier or, as the company built up its IT infrastructure, an on-premises file transfer protocol (FTP) server.

But many clients and partners found FTP challenging to use, Greg says, and constantly arranging couriers can be a time-consuming pain. With more and more 4K content on the client menu, the company now regularly deals with files hundreds of gigabytes in size – a reality that requires a more robust and user-friendly large file transfer platform.

“As time went on,” Greg says, “none of these solutions were efficient either from a cost perspective or a speed of delivery perspective.”

After experimenting with other file-sharing services, however, Greg says the company needed a cloud solution with faster upload and download speeds, and that didn’t require a login for every user.

And that’s when Somerville Media tried MASV. “We’ve never looked back,” Greg says.

MASV: ‘Our Default’ File Transfer Solution

Somerville Media now uses MASV to send and receive virtually all its raw and edited video content each day, either from camera crews in the field or to clients and partners around the world.

“MASV is really our only transfer solution – it’s our default.”

Greg says MASV’s speed, reliability, and simplicity make it the obvious choice for transferring video files across large distances for projects with tight deadlines. Somerville Media receives all its footage from on-location crews via MASV, backs it up locally, then transfers footage to clients or partners following post-production or editing.

That allows Somerville Media to fully capitalize on its Singapore location, which is strategically nestled between European and North American time zones. “At the end of our shoots, we can send the footage so it’s ready for our clients, in time, either in the North American time zone or European time zone.

“There is no way that we could ship the footage as quickly using a hard drive and an international courier service as we can via MASV.”

MASV: A Critical Tool for Receiving Dailies

Faster Production Turnaround

MASV came in especially handy during a recent large shoot involving 180 recordings across nearly ten countries, with each session producing time-sensitive video files of approximately 40 GBs. “We needed to deliver the footage for post-production,” Greg says.

“In the past, we would have probably waited until the end of the day, packed it onto the hard drive, shipped it, and then encountered an additional delay of two or three days before it arrived at the post-production facility.”

Easily Send Terabytes of Data

Indeed, the sheer volume of footage being transferred – around seven terabytes in total – would have required the equivalent of around ten hard drives a day.

“But with MASV, we were able to send it bit by bit, as we went, without needing to send one drive at a time – which would have taken a lot of time.”

Better Transfer Speeds

Some cloud services Somerville Media has tried in the past were “as slow as a broken-down lorry,” Greg says that uploading video files of around 40 GBs at the company’s Singapore office now takes just a few minutes with MASV.

Overall Best-in-Class

Greg says MASV’s main draw isn’t just one thing – instead, it’s the platform’s unique combination of speed, reliability, efficiency, security, and ease of use.

“When we started using MASV, it proved to us that it was the most efficient system,” Greg explains. “It allows us to transfer files and footage quickly and efficiently without worrying too much about the transfer, because we know it will get there.”

“MASV is faster. It’s easier to use. And more importantly for our clients, it’s a secure and simple way to receive footage.”