The red carpet; the bright lights; Hollywood stars accepting their Golden Bear of Honour Award.

Every year, the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) invites film-lovers to marvel at the latest cinematic achievements in widescreen format in a glamorous atmosphere.

But it’s not just the film stars on the screen displaying a world-class performance. Behind the scenes, digital infrastructure is also running at full speed to make it all possible. A reliable network infrastructure plays an important role in the delivery, distribution and screening of films in cinemas.  This year, Berlinale rolled out its red carpet in seven additional German cities, powered by Colt’s Network as a Service solution.

1. The challenge

Berlinale required a reliable NaaS network to play an important role in the delivery, distribution and screening of films in cinemas. Across 11 days, a petabyte of film data needed to be transmitted to 19 venues, and over 40 auditoriums to showcase over 2,000 screenings.

2. The solution

Colt On Demand, our Network as a Service platform.

3. The winning outcome

Our NaaS platform created the necessary internet access to broadcast the opening gala live in cinemas across 8 cities. Film fans were able to enjoy the flair of the festival in the comfort of their own city.

 

 

The digital heart of the Berlinale

Colt has been supporting the festival as its digital cinema partner for more than 15 years, providing state-of-the-art fibre optic network technologies. All of the primary venues are connected to Colt’s network node in Berlin via a star-shaped fibre optic network consisting of 10 Gbit/s and 1 Gbit/s connections. Two 10 Gbit/s lines connect the node with the Berlinale Film Office at Potsdamer Platz, forming the digital heart of the Berlinale. As an early adopter in the festival landscape, the international film festival has now digitalised all central processes relating to film screenings thanks to the loyal support of its partners.

Colt also uses its partnership with the film festival to drive technological development within its own network. Since 2015, a 10-gigabit connection enables uploading film data in various file formats directly to the servers of the Berlinale. Film studios from the USA in particular use this service, as it saves valuable time when applying necessary fine-tuning in the lead up to the event. The journey for a package of film data from Hollywood to Berlin now only takes 20 minutes, saving considerable time compared to former techniques.

In 2022, Colt tested a quantum-encrypted connection in the festival network together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, HHI and ADVA for the first time, using a combination of two different encryption technologies – QKD with AES.

“It is important to us to make asset delivery as easy as possible for film producers and to create a level playing field. The producers can focus on what really matters, leaving event production to us and Colt. As a global provider of digital infrastructure, Colt is the ideal partner because we want to make the service possible uniformly worldwide.
The Berlinale is constantly evolving and so are its technological requirements, and we are very happy to rely on Colt’s expertise for over 15 years.”

Ove Sander, Technical Director Digital Cinema, Berlinale

A trusted partner for 17 years

As the world’s largest public film festival, the Berlinale draws over 300,000 attendees to its 19 venues, where over 2,000 screenings unfold across ten days. With nearly all films now presented digitally, Colt’s robust fiber network seamlessly delivers the necessary data for each presentation. This network, interconnected with the company’s secure network hub and the festival’s servers, serves as the beating digital heart of the Berlinale, ensuring a seamless and captivating cinematic experience for all.

Since 2009, Colt has been a steadfast partner of the Berlinale, providing a comprehensive suite of services that underpin the festival’s technological infrastructure. From delivering broadcast-quality data transmission to seamless internet access, Colt’s expertise has been instrumental in ensuring a seamless and memorable experience for all international visitors. For 17 years, Colt connects the Berlinale to the digital universe, playing a crucial role in ensuring the seamless transmission and distribution of film data.

In addition to the technological advancement of digital cinema, Colt is also driving innovations in its own fibre network at the Berlinale like quantum-based encryption.

Adapting to network requirements

One of the key innovations utilised with the Berlinale is Colt’s Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) Colt On Demand solution. This allows the Berlinale’s technical team to scale connection bandwidth in real time as and when they need it.

The technology was initially used in 2023 in combination with its Bandwidth Boost function to deliver film contributions from Asia via a hub in Singapore. Filmmakers from the APAC region were able to upload their work directly to the Berlinale server in a data centre in Singapore. From there, Colt established an end-to-end on-demand connection between the data centre and the network node in Berlin via an ethernet connection, then using Bandwidth Boost to transfer the data. This allowed the bandwidth capacity to be scaled flexibly between 10 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s according to demand.

For the 75th Berlinale in 2025, and for the first time, Colt is providing the festival with its innovative Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) IP service based on a NaaS connection, thus creating the necessary internet access to broadcast the opening gala live in cinemas in seven other German cities. Film fans in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart will be able to enjoy the flair of the festival in the comfort of their home city. A screening of the opening film ‘The Light’ by Tom Tykwer afterwards completes the film experience.

Learn more about Colt On Demand

On Demand is Colt’s next generation Network as a Service (NaaS) platform and supports Ethernet, Cloud and Internet (DIA) connectivity to millions of locations globally.

You choose how you connect, wherever and however you want, through an award-winning portal, innovative APIs or as an extension of your own network.

It allows you to make a connection in less than 2 minutes. Don’t believe us? Take a tour of our award-winning portal to see for yourself.

Try our On Demand demo
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