HITS

Virtual-based encoding house Digit Content Services (digit) for a dozen years now has made a name for itself around creating exceptional digital duplicates in the right file format of all kinds of video content, for every global VOD/OTT platform you can think of.

Digit offers efficient high-volume automated and customisable content processing workflows to cable operators, broadcasters, OTT platforms and content owners/distributors operating within the VOD space.

Digit co-founder Daniel Gould spoke with MESA about the origins of the business, how COVID-19 has impacted the company (and the encoding industry at large), and why clients keep coming back to digit to meet their needs.

MESA: How did digit first come on the scene, what was the impetus for the company?

GOULD: Digit was founded in 2008. Both Daniel Payne and I (the co-founders) had previously worked at Lovefilm (now Amazon Prime Video) and set up Europe’s first premium VOD/OTT service, working alongside some of the major Hollywood studios. While working at Lovefilm we discovered it was virtually impossible to receive content from content owners or post houses in the correct format, so we ended up having to do or re-do the work ourselves, creating files to the correct technical specs. Realising this gap in the market, we took the leap and digit was born.

It sounds crazy to me now, but we both took out personal loans to fund the business (we must have been confident) but the rest is history as they say!

MESA: What does digit do differently in the encoding space that others don’t, what makes the company stand out?

GOULD: One of our USPs has in a sense been taken away by COVID-19. Back in 2016 we became a fully virtual company, unique then but due to the pandemic most companies have had to adapt quickly to offer some kind of remote service. For us, when COVID-19 struck, it was business as usual, as we had been working remotely for several years (not gloating by the way). This experience of cloud-based remote working came in very handy for us as lots of large projects got the green light when lockdown 1.0 kicked in. We handled these projects without any major issues and were so thankful for the decision we made back in 2016!

Although our clients are becoming more familiar with working in the cloud, we don’t offer a software as service model and just expect them to get on with it. Instead, we offer a fully managed service — just like a traditional encoding facility, or a hybrid of the two.

For example, the client can utilise their in-house ops team to drive the systems and workflows we create for them and we ensure everything runs smoothly.

This approach ensures we can support our clients throughout the process and design solutions to meet our client’s exact needs. We don’t try and sell any proprietary software or DAM/MAM systems into our clients. We’ve found there is no perfect one size fits all system for each client’s needs. Therefore, we take a bespoke and flexible approach with each client. There are no square pegs in round holes at digit! Also, as we have no expensive office space, we can pass those cost savings on to our customers. This is still unique in our space.

MESA: What are some of the biggest challenges facing companies like digit in the media and entertainment space today, and how does digit help confront them?

GOULD: Since March there have been some big changes due to COVID-19 that have affected all companies across our industry. Content owners, broadcasters etc. have accelerated their plans to move to the cloud or to more of a remote based model. It’s our job to help our clients through this transformative process and our hybrid approach adds value here.

Issues persist in the world of metadata. Some of our industry colleagues and partners are doing a great job in this area to help bring solutions (for example GreyMeta) but there are still too many excel spreadsheets floating around with bad data or bad formatting on for our liking!

Remote cloud-based QC of source files (e.g. ProRes files) is still a problem across the industry. There are some great tools out there but they still playback the proxy file, not the actual source file. We realise the tech issues around this and there is some interesting developments happening in this area but we hope an innovative solution can be created soon — who knows, maybe by us!

MESA: How has digit responded with its operations during the ongoing pandemic? Have there been new workflows, or new client needs?

GOULD: After the initial panic back in March and with the world stuck at home, demand for content rocketed and content owners realised the need to move fast and get content rights sold and onto VOD platforms ASAP.

We were well placed for this and output volume processed by us increased to approximately 20,000 hours per month. With the likes of TVT going under and COVID-19 causing so much disruption, I think clients started to think differently. Limited supply chains like the ‘give all your work to one vendor and let them do everything’ model doesn’t really work anymore. It is too risky for some customers. Clients are now looking to minimise their risk and are taking more responsibility in-house by hands on managing each project and/or processing some content themselves, as well as utilising digit for a more blended approach. This collaborative approach works well for us too.

MESA: What are some of digit’s favorite customer success stories in the media and entertainment space, and why?

GOULD: The most recent one that springs to mind is processing all content for ITV’s catch up service (for a UK-based VOD platform) during lockdown. The entire management team was so proud of our operations team for being able to meet the tight deadline in an extremely efficient manner. Our client was incredibly happy too. Also, with Disney deciding to pull their Disney Channels business and focus on Disney+, one of our clients was about to become a little lighter on Kids content. We were able to assist, help with acquisition/processing of content and ensure more Kids content got onto their platform in time for their customers to enjoy.

MESA: What’s next for digit, what improvements or advances might we see from the company next?

GOULD: Sustainability is big on our radar and we are looking to further advance what we are doing in this area. I think we were ahead of most as we have been working remotely for four years — but that’s just one small part we can have a helping hand in. It is such an important issue and we all have a duty to do more. In addition, we are having lots of discussions internally and with clients about all manner of things, e.g. a wider range of services, enhanced cloud-based workflows, greater integrations with vendors and clients etc.

All I can say is, watch this space!