Case Study -- The Hollywood Connection -- Citywide VPN Connects Agents, Actors, And Directors Throughout Hollywood
Brian Riggs
Bill DaMota had just completed videotaping auditions for an upcoming Coca-Cola commercial. He sent off the tapes to the director and, considering his role as the commercial`s casting director finished, he embarked on a Hawaiian vacation.
His time off had barely begun when his assistant called his hotel. The commercial`s director wanted to see more actresses, preferably models with dancing skills. But the many resumes and photos he received for the part were on his desk in Los Angeles, useless to him.
Firing up his laptop, DaMota dialed in to servers operated by a company called CastNet, which maintains a unique intranet for Los Angeles casting directors.
DaMota not only had the resumes and photos of all the actresses who had applied for the position on the CastNet server, but by querying a database of nearly 30,000 actors and actresses he also found a few more who might fit the part. Had he wanted, DaMota could have reviewed video clips and audio samples of the actresses` work. Instead he then sent E-mail messages to the appropriate talent agents, instructing them to have their clients audition for the part. He also sent an E-mail to his assistant, who organized the new auditions in Studio City, Calif.
The upshot of this remote work was that Sandra Plazinic, whose resume DaMota came across during his database query, was soon cast for the part and flown to Australia for filming.
"I put together [an audition] session that they were all crazy about and I was not even in Los Angeles," DaMota recalls. "As long as I have an Internet connection, I can log on and do my job."
In southern California`s entertainment industry, where connections mean everything, CastNet has carved a business out of connecting casting directors like DaMota with talent agents and actors. Setting up what amounts to a citywide VPN, CastNet has incorporated streaming video, streaming audio, IP voice, E-commerce, and fax applications onto a secure IP network.
CastNet is ahead of the IT curve. Whereas many companies are investigating individual IP applications for deployment on corporate VPNs, CastNet is already combining multiple types of multimedia applications that can run alongside standard data traffic on multiservice networks.
Every working day, Los Angeles` 250 casting agents send "breakdowns" by fax or courier to local talent agents. Breakdowns describe the various roles that must be filled for theater productions, films, television shows, and commercials. In addition to describing the roles, a breakdown typically mentions special skills that may help an actor get the part.
Directors upload the breakdowns to CastNet servers, which makes them instantly available to the approximately 135 talent agents on the network. Directors can simultaneously fax breakdowns to other agents not on the network through CastNet fax servers. In similar fashion, talent agents can relay "sides"-portions of scripts that actors use in auditions-to their clients by fax.
The system is a huge timesaver, according to DaMota, an independent director in Glendale, Calif., who estimates that he has cast 60 to 70 actors in the past six months by using CastNet.
"[It used to be that] from the time that I released the breakdown to the time I got pictures and resumes [from actors interested in the part] was anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. It is now instantaneous," he says.
Remote Offices Around Town
CastNet treats the offices of casting directors and talent agents as remote offices connecting to central resources over a corporate WAN infrastructure.
"We do everything for them. We build their networks," says John Sloatman, CastNet president and COO. "We put in ISDN lines that dial in to our PRIs [primary rate interface ISDN connections]. Or if Pacific Bell puts a T-1 line in, we go in and install an Ascend Pipeline 75 or 135 [router]."
Octavio Gallardo, CastNet`s systems administrator, adds, "We sometimes have to upgrade their computers; we have to do the cabling and set up the line. Then we go in and train them."
Once CastNet installs the ISDN line or dedicated connection, remote users have access to an increasingly broad variety of multimedia resources.
Actors, who pay $149.95 per year to put their resumes and a few photos online, can also store video and audio clips on the network for an extra fee. This gives directors and agents instant access to samples of the prospective talent`s work.
"I click on a video button and the QuickTime video downloads, which on an ISDN line takes a minute," says DaMota, who has an ISDN line in his L.A. office.
"In the old days, if I wanted to see a video of [a particular actor`s work] I`d have to call the agent, ask if video was available, and have it couriered over," DaMota recalls. "Now I point and I click, and in a couple of minutes I am watching the video online."
As many as 250 casting directors can review a video at the same time, according to Sloatman.
All users, whether end users (casting directors) or customers (actors), must be authenticated several times before they gain access to portions of the CastNet intranet. SSL encryption protects payments made by actors, who access CastNet only through the Internet.
To accommodate the vast array and constantly growing number of people uploading, downloading, faxing, talking, streaming, and otherwise using the network, CastNet had Pacific Bell install a fiber bay with three DS-3 (45Mbps) connections. Lines are connected to three separate ISPs: Pacific Bell, Genuity (now owned by GTE), and ISI (the University of Southern California`s Information Sciences Institute).
"That is for redundancy`s sake," Sloatman explains. "That way, if one provider`s backbone goes down we can still get to the Internet."
However, CastNet uses only a fraction of the fiber available to it, Sloatman continues, saying that only about 15 T-1 lines` worth of bandwidth are currently being used. "As we need the fiber we can light it up. If we want to light up 10Mbps to Sprint, we can. If we want to light up 10Mbps to Pac Bell we can, without having to go through a whole rigmarole [to install new WAN lines]. This allows us to expand rapidly. It also allows us to deliver T-1 access [to talent agents] and back to us."
Four Ascend Communications Inc. MAX 4000 concentrators connect to the fiber bay. Each connects to two T-1 lines on which casting directors` ISDN and dedicated frame-relay connections terminate.
Sloatman explains that the Ascend units can support twice the number of T-1 lines, but if he installed more than two, ISDN users who use two 64Kbps B channels to dial in might get a busy signal when their terminal adapter or ISDN router tries to connect. CastNet`s fax servers-two Unix-based units running Ibex fax software from Castelle Corp.-send breakouts, sides, and other fax traffic through a channel bank connected to two additional T-1 lines.
"That`s how I can cover the talent agents in two and a half minutes," says Sloatman. "If all 48 lines are being used, traffic is put into a queue for the next available line."
An additional bank of modems is dedicated to providing access to the VPN through WebTV Networks Inc., which CastNet resells to actors.
The thousands of actors who dial in to CastNet to edit their resumes, attend online conferences, and otherwise use the network access Castnet through an additional three MAX 4000s that CastNet hosts at One Wilshire, the southern California MAE (metropolitan access exchange) operated by WorldCom.
"All in all, I can sustain 1,000 people logged on at the same time," Sloatman boasts.
Not for everyone
Obviously, CastNet`s aggressive deployment of multimedia, commerce, and other applications on its VPN meets special needs and does not necessarily reflect the way most companies deploy applications on their extranets and intranets.
"Using integrated services to implement all these applications is a great idea, but the reality for each to be viable, reliable, widely implemented, and easy to use between companies and consumers is still a long time off," says Thomas Ackermann, principal consultant at Melior Tjack Corp., an Internet technology consulting company in Antioch, Calif.
When it comes to running Internet-based applications, "companies tend to have these grand designs that include everything," says Peter Davidson, president of Davidson Consulting in Burbank, Calif. "But when they get down to brass tacks they are deploying one application at a time."
At larger companies, Ackermann says a slow deployment of Internet-based applications makes more sense. "Virtual private networks or encrypted tunnels over the Internet make sense for smaller companies that cannot afford connections to branch offices," he says.
And IP telephony is farther off than most other applications. "Companies are extremely skeptical of any telephony over the public Internet or even local networks. They really do put a strain on networks and overload them," says Ackermann. "Most companies are just playing around to get a handle and feel for it without any serious attempt to use it for business anytime soon."
Copyright Æ 1998 CMP Media Inc.
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