Thai News Agency in Bangkok, Thailand, has selected and implemented Aspera's mobile data transfer system for Apple iOS and Google Android.
The Thai News Agency is owned by the MCOT Public Company, which was originally the first television station on-air in Thailand in 1955, broadcasting news and entertainment programs to 89 percent of the population, 24 hours a day through 35 local network stations nationwide.
Facing strong competition from other Thai broadcasters and with more than a third of its programming coming from news, MCOT's Thai News Agency made the strategic decision to use next-generation technologies to gain a competitive edge over rival TV news organizations.
That included using solutions to decrease the time necessary to send content for broadcast, but also to increase transfer reliability over multiple infrastructures, such as Internet cafes, ADSL home Internet and 3G/EDGE mobile networks.
The Thai News Agency selected the Aspera system after completing a competitive proof of concept evaluation. The broadcaster conducted the evaluation and implemented the solution in less than one month, just in time to be used to cover Thailand's national elections during the summer of 2011.
With the new system, correspondents across Thailand were able to upload real-time event coverage using high-speed Aspera technology integrated into a Web portal, custom developed by Aspera partner Innova Systems.
"The simplicity with which we were able to develop the system has allowed us to rapidly deploy Aspera Mobile-enabled devices to well over the initial target of 100 correspondents and staff. The results have been dramatic and exceeded our expectations," said Phairach Santhawe, news technology manager at Thai News Agency.
The Aspera Mobile platform provides high-speed file transfer over mobile networks. Journalists filing contributions from the field use an Aspera-enabled mobile app to upload high-resolution images and video from their iOS or Android device. Time-to-air is reduced as built-in Aspera "fasp" transport technology optimizes bandwidth efficiency and reliability.
