Raysync Advances Distribution Technology for the Film Industry

The film industry is mainly divided into three parts: upstream production, midstream promotion, and downstream cinema chains, with online ticketing platforms emerging as industry terminals due to the development of the internet industry. With the development and application of emerging audiovisual technologies such as 4K, 3D, high frame rate, high dynamic range, wide color gamut, and immersive audio, the scale and technical requirements of high-tech film production have been continuously increasing. Remote collaborative production of high-tech format films using cloud computing technology and high-speed Internet has become an inevitable trend.

To achieve "online as it is offline," it is necessary to ensure that the film industry's existing mainstream tools, software, asset, and workflow management systems are compatible with technologies such as big data high-performance computing, efficient transmission, distributed storage, and sharing. This allows for real-time distributed collaborative production by multiple people in different locations. Additionally, complying with international mainstream film and television production safety and copyright standards, remote collaboration on high-tech format films requires data computing, transmission, and storage capabilities that are 5-10 times higher than current standards.

Part 1. Current Status of Digital Content Production in the Film and Media Industry

The production of a complete film usually involves multiple teams, including but not limited to production, shooting, post-production, rendering and special effects, CG production team, distribution center, and various cinemas. Before the final film is completed, the film material needs constant adjustments and processing. Film source files are often composed of multiple large files in different formats, which need to be transferred between different teams. The following problems are often encountered:

Large file size makes transmission difficult: Files range from several tens of GB to hundreds of GB, and file sizes reaching terabytes are becoming more common with growing use of 3D post-production.

Challenges in remote collaboration: The production process involves multiple departments or outsourcing companies, requiring file transfer across different geographic regions and even across countries. Production and post-production often require collaboration with artists working in remote regions or even other countries.

High stability requirements: Film production involves a large number and wide variety of files, with frequent operations such as uploading and downloading. Therefore, the transfer tool itself must have high stability. Unstable transfer tools can lead to file omissions and create operational difficulties for personnel, thus impacting work efficiency.

High confidentiality requirements: Transfer over the network may lead to the risk of leakage, while sending physical hard drives is inefficient. Due to the industry's unique nature, leaks before the release of a film can cause serious losses to projects. At the same time, sending physical hard drives can significantly reduce production progress.

Part 2. Raysync Provides High-speed Distribution Lifecycle Solution

Raysync's high-speed distribution platform provides a one-stop solution that covers the entire film lifecycle, offering a complete lifecycle solution for film production, post-production, rendering and special effects, editing and dubbing, film distribution, screening, and the entire process of projection. Raysync provides large file transfer acceleration technology and service support to move film distribution from the traditional model of copying and mailing hard drives to a real-time, precise transmission mode.

Film Production Stage: Seamless integration with film production software, enabling high-speed access and feedback of film source materials, effectively improving film production efficiency.

Film Distribution Stage: By deploying the Raysync distribution and reception modules and combining CDN content delivery network, one-click distribution, specified distribution, P2P point-to-point transmission, breakpoint resumption, encrypted transmission, file verification, automatic reception, real-time supervision, and other functions can be achieved. Automated classification storage for different movie types is supported, along with file integrity verification.

Film Screening Stage: Major cinemas automatically receive film content from the optimal CDN distribution node operated by the distribution center and store it in the projection equipment, accessed by the TMS cinema management system for screening.

The Raysync solution not only improves film production efficiency but also frees film producers and distributors from the cumbersome tasks of copying master discs and shipping hard drives. Cinemas no longer need to receive and return hard drives, which significantly reduces costs and saves manpower and resources. It effectively connects the "last mile" from film production to film projection. 

Part 3. Raysync Feature Showcase

01. Independent Login System

Raysync adopts a client and backend management login mode, supporting IP address and port isolation for access.

02. Multiple Storage Types Support

Raysync supports integration with mainstream storage, enabling direct connection with third-party object storage. Multiple storage types are supported, such as local NAS storage, NFS, SMB, HDFS, Ceph, S3, etc.

03. Creation of Film Library

Raysync supports the creation of various film libraries and hierarchical classification management. Unified authorization can be implemented for production, distribution, and cinema entities.

04. Distribution Control Management

Internal distribution management supports strategies such as specified sending, one-to-many sending, and scheduled sending, meeting the distribution requirements for various film files.

External distribution management supports one-click batch distribution of film files to different distribution centers, supporting settings for distribution validity period, password, download times, etc. The system backend can monitor all distributed file content and forcibly terminate distribution.

05. High-speed Transmission Mode

Raysync adopts the Raysync high-speed transmission protocol, which is not affected by traditional file transfer methods like FTP, HTTP, or CIFS. The transmission speed is increased by up to 100 times compared to FTP, minimizing delays and packet loss in large file and big data transmission for films.

06. Reception and Synchronization Management

Distribution center clients can monitor the transfer status of film files in real-time during the distribution process, supporting remote task initiation or stoppage.

Synchronization reception module enables film producers to synchronize film files to the distribution center's designated "distribution library," while automatically downloading them to the "distribution center storage library" at high speed.

07. Reception Settings Module

Users can set automatic notifications for successful or failed transfers to receive system email notifications about the transmission status and ensure the files are successfully distributed and received.

Part 4. Advantages of the Raysync Solution

Raysync transmission technology is the key foundation for the progress of the digital film industry, and it brings the following unique value to film distribution:

Extreme transmission experience: meets the large-scale circulation demands of digital film data, greatly improving the circulation speed of digital content in the industry chain.

High-standard security mechanism: eliminates data security risks through measures such as AES-256 encryption, ensuring secure film distribution.

Rock-solid reliability: achieves 99.99% reliability, effectively reducing operational risks and improving efficiency.

One-stop automated distribution software: simplifies operational processes and reduces digitization costs.

Open interface design: enables simple and fast access to transmission links, ensuring efficient collaboration in the digital film industry.

Final Word

The Raysync one-stop solution for film and media adopts the self-developed Raysync high-speed transmission technology, greatly improving film production and distribution efficiency. Through addressing pain points in the industry's value chain, Raysync transmission technology is profoundly driving the industrial innovation and progress of digital films, serving as a key engine in the digitization process.