Film Collection
Iron Mountain
I wasn’t able to attend the 2025 IBC in Amsterdam this year because of prior IEEE commitments. However, I did pick up on some related media and entertainment storage news I wanted to share. These are Iron Mountain use of AI in digital conversion and preservation and MASV’s large file transfer technology.
I had a chance to talk with Andrea Kalas from Iron Mountain about digital conversion and data preservation. She spoke to me about content discovery in archiving using Google AI combined with their digital asset management capabilities.
She said that they hope to do a lot with this for clients who need to digitize large volumes of their collections that are still on videotape or even film to make them searchable. AI is used to analyze and identify images on these digitized archives and this information is then searchable for easier access and use of historical content. The image below shows Iron Mountain technicians reading data from tape that is then digitized and stored on modern storage systems.
Digital conversion at Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain
I asked Andrea if they were training their own models specialized for this type of content for this analysis or were they using other people’s foundational models. She said that for the present they are working with Google using their models but that they could build their own models or work with organizations that have models that are specific to their own content.
I asked for examples of the type of content they have been working with. They said they have worked with a news organization as well as a private collection for this enhanced digital content access. This digitization and AI advanced search will make reuse of older content easier and unlock powerful new revenue streams.
I also spoke with Gene Villeneuve and Conner Stirling from Masv. Masv has a large file transfer platform that is geared to the needs of the media and entertainment industry. They said that this allows high-speed transfers with fault protection and checkpointing for recovery from interruptions, is secure and works with any browser to deliver content of any size. It also can integrate with workflow and enterprise tools supporting all types of media and entertainment content.
There are a number of large file transfer products on the market. Masv provided this comparison of their product versus others showing superior performance and close upload and download performance.
Masv transfer speed versus competitors
Masv
Working over HTTPS Masv can bond transport through several network connections to increase the file transfer speed. They told me about a customer on a remote island in Scotland that ended up combining 3-4 starlink connections to achieve fast upload speeds. Masv integrates with major cloud and cloud-connected storage providers and media collaboration platforms. They said that FrameIO is one of their most popular integrations.
They also have an express versus standard Masv version that can provide even faster data transfers as shown below.
Masv standard versus express performance
Masv
Masv is working on a second version of Express that can do a direct file transfer without zipping and integrates with object-based storage and includes intelligent file routing that can deliver files to multiple users from a single upload. In addition to cloud storage it can also provide data to desktop storage for free lancers.
Iron Mountain is using AI in its digital conversion and preservation workflows. Masv is offering very fast and robust large file transfer technology.