It is already being welcomed by publishers and broadcasters in the UK and Ireland as the best way of bringing multimedia content, such as video and audio files, to the attention of news editors.

Online service Tradeclips provides a simple, secure and cost-effective way for media professionals to store and supply multimedia files between colleagues, clients and other Tradeclips subscribers such as newspapers, magazines, and news websites.

Users can upload and download audio, video, stills and documents free of charge, with users only paying a modest amount for storage of their material. Stored files are duplicated across multiple servers and held to the very highest levels of physical and electronic security.

Tradeclips features

Secure – All data is mirrored across multiple servers and data centres which operate to the highest levels of data security

Capacity – Files of any size can be transferred through the system, with the only limit being the customer’s internet connection speed

Packages – Different types of file can be grouped together and made available as a “package”, each clip can be downloaded individually.

Bulk Upload – A series of files – multiple pictures from the same photoshoot, for example, can be uploaded in the same transmission.

Geo-tagging – Each file can be geo-tagged, with the process automated if the camera has a built-in GPS receiver or done manually if not, at the upload stage.

Circulation – Files can be sent to customers who are not on the system by a simple email alert mechanism, allowing them access to a restricted part of the site to either view a file a certain number of times, or within a certain time frame, or to download the file – all under the control of the copyright holder.

Video content for publications

The service is part of the Wirefast group of companies, which includes Newslink, the industry-standard news and picture wire service that has built up a reputation for secure, guaranteed delivery to the UK and Irish news industry for over twenty years.

“Tradeclips is designed to appeal to all parts of the media industry”, said Paul White, the company’s Chief Technical Officer, who has overseen the development of the service since joining the company two years ago from Express Newspapers, where he was Director of IT.

“We began developing the service in response to the growing interest in, and demand for, video content on newspaper and broadcast websites. We also recognised that the vastly increased file sizes involved, compared to our traditional text and picture delivery service, meant that regional publishers, in particular, faced challenges in providing the necessary infrastructure.

“At the same time we identified that the PR industry was beginning to expand the type of content it was offering to the media industry and it needed the same type of managed delivery service which Newslink has provided to “hard” news providers such as news agencies, Government bodies and public sector organisations like councils, police forces and the NHS for the last two decades.”

Managing multimedia content

“The difficulty is in receiving and managing multimedia content prior to publication, then storing it and possibly syndicating it to others.”, said Iain Fleming, a former Sun, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday reporter who now works as Tradeclips’ Business Development Manager.

“Until comparatively recently the PR industry was sending out still images with press releases. They are now using a variety of new media channels such as podcasts and video clips as well as employing social media distribution techniques such as tweets. Managing these channels effectively, particularly ensuring the right type of content in the right format goes to the right destination is not only giving them headaches, but providing huge logistical challenges to the recipient.

“Sending a press release as a fully-formatted email complete with logos, or a non-compressed image file, is bad enough but sending audio and video files in the wrong format is completely different and leads to delay, confusion and ultimately frustration for both sender and recipient. That is why, for example, Tradeclips will automatically convert still and video files into industry-standard compressed formats such as JPEG or Flash Video.”

Photographers can register with Tradeclips at www.tradeclips.com.