Rare Look Inside Two Tennessee Netflix Shipping Centers

Netflix gave reporters a tour of two Tennessee shipping centers, and WMC-TV posted a video tour of the "secret" Memphis facility that processes 11,000 movies per day:

The discs are still opened and inspected by hand, but the rest of the process is now handled by machines:

"By 8:00 a.m., all 11,000 disks are ready for the NPI, a huge machine that performs multiple tasks. At this stage, it works at 30,000 DVD's per hour. The first time a DVD passes through, the machine generates an email that is sent to a customer informing that person his or her DVD has been successfully returned.
During a second pass-through, the NPI determines whether a movie is scheduled to be sent to another customer. If not, it heads to the shelf. If so, it heads across the room to another machine - the stuffer.
Back when Netflix first started in 1999, envelopes were stuffed manually. Now, the stuffer does the same job - at 3,200 per hour. From the stuffer, the discs return to the NPI."

At the Memphis Shipping Center a staff of 18 processes more than 24,000 discs per day, according to a story in the Tennessean.

Thanks to Jason for sending this in.

Comments

[BigDuke6]

Funny how the reporter savagely opens the mailer at 0.39 in the video,either he's not a subscriber and didn't read the instructions or did it for the dramatic effect.

[longklaw]

Cool video. I recently started getting my discs from Memphis when I used to get them from Jackson, Mississippi.

[TheCrow]

Anyone notice the dvd that is being put into the dvd player is a blank recordable dvd? hmmm....

[PLB]

I love to watch old Sci-Fi movies where they show the latest computer technology. For example, the original "War of the Worlds" has a shot of a computing facility - with analog computers. No wonder the Martians had the confidence to invade!

These machines already look obsolete. The "Watch Instantly" (VOD) technology does away with all this handling of physical items. It's all so funky and kludgy.

[davidwag]

Saw another video recently where the employees are stuffing by hand. I guess different dist centers handles things differently...

[prozac]

Great clip...interesting to see the inner workings of a service I love.

[RT]

Cool video...what's funny is that while I was in the middle watching it, the mailman just delivered two movies to my house, haha.

[Outsider1]

I am sure Netflix invest millions of dollars into their equipment. So it might look out dated and junky to you but I am sure it is highly sophisticated.

[ITGuru]

Video On Demand is definitely where Netflix is heading, but IMO, the technology just isn't fully baked yet. When enough people have FTTC (Fiber To The Curb), and movie execs are willing to allow Blu-Ray quality encodes with full 7.1 audio streams, then VOD will have arrived. Til that day, I'll keep my eyes on the postman as he delivers my physical media to my doorstop.

[Micah]

@TheCrow: Maybe it was a Borat DVD?

[Marietta]

I'm looking for some african american history cd's such as rosewood and other movies. When will netflix have them in stock??

[Cam]

It's too bad that they don't check the DVD's for problems or clean them during this process. I know local video stores that have an easier time keeping discs clean. I'm so sick of losing money on getting the same disk twice just so I can finish it.

[tsrblke]

@Cam
Rember though it's all about speed here. Your local video store has all day to clean discs for the evening rush.

[Miguel Wastop]

@marietta
how 'bout roots?

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