American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 20

oooo-

Hollywood Adopts High-Speed
Media.net Network
by Debra Kaufman

Hollywood has experimented with

high-speed networking for about 10
years. In an industry in which time is
money, it is clearly advantageous to cut
couriers and Federal Express out of the
picture by retrieving images instantly on
the computer. The many attempts at a
high-speed network have been led by
telecoms and a sprinkling of postproduc¬
tion mavericks with

a

taste for invention.

But whereas the former lacked hands-on

backed telecommunications firm that
combines

entertainment-industry exper¬
cutting-edge technology,
providing Hollywood studios with a
private Internet that has the kind of band¬

tise

width filmmakers need

Tolleson,

a former executive at AT&T,
MediaOne and EDS, has been involved in
entertainment consulting and network¬

where each frame

knew

was so

dense in infor¬

that

catch

Hollywood's attention, the

network had to be easy to use and under¬

Hollywood

with whom Media.net works have

stand; he reports that half the clients
had

never

computer in their offices before.
Instead of rattling off statistics about
megabits and bandwidth, Media.net

they

a

executives

need to transmit

simply show the prospective

client the Media.net site, giving a demo
that Tolleson says "looks friendly, like

video files at the

America Online."

highest resolution,
even up to high-

It has worked.

818/988-1791

offer the kind of infrastructure ideal for

a

Though Media.net
only opened its doors in October 1998
(funded by the acquisition of $20 million
in venture and debt financing), Tolleson
reports that all but one major Hollywood
studio, as well as major television
networks and postproduction facilities,
have gone online.

888/988-6025

Hollywood high-speed network, but
bandwidth is still an issue and security
issues are troubling.

What makes Media.net different
from the networks that have gone
before? At its core, Media.net offers

Until now, that is. Media.net

Hollywood filmmakers the bandwidth
they need to transmit video files at the

definition.
We Make It

Happen

61 2 94500200

www.musco.com

18

efficiencies

Media.net offers

bandwidth

email:

the

Tolleson also knew that in order

recently, the ubiquity

filmmakers the

Australia

about

networks create."
to

Angeles

600 times

ing for 10 years. "I was familiar with the
production process and its movement
into the computer space," he recounts. "I
was aware that computers were being
increasingly used in entertainment, and I

available. More

Nationwide

-

faster than DSL. Founder/CEO Scott

experience in how Hollywood works, the
latter often lacked technical expertise.
All the networking pioneers stum¬
bled over the difficulty posed by video,
mation it taxed the widest bandwidth

Los

with

muscolight@musco.com

and

ease

of the Internet has seemed to

(http://www.media.net) is

a venture-
American Cinematographer - September 2000

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