Efficient media asset transfer in a unified framework managing broadcasting systems

File transfer acts an increasing role in digital TV studios and especially for their interconnections. Using adequate file formats to exchange data presents several advantages: low transfer cost and efficient handling of both essence and metadata. Many new file formats have been introduced to cope with system and user requirements. Meanwhile, new user requirements for file transfer have also evolved, requesting enhanced transfers capabilities, which takes full advantages of the recently defined exchange formats and architectures. The goal of this work is to specify an optimised transfer mechanism, this mechanism is integrated in a unified framework managing digital TV content. Our transfer mechanism provides an abstraction level for different network infrastructures and protocols in a seamless way, taking advantage of each of these technologies. For example, multicast and QoS features are supported and managed, as far as they are provided by the underlying network interfaces. Moreover, striped and partial media asset transfers are handled independently of the network infrastructures, at the application layer.