Harmonic and THIS TECHNOLOGY Transform Content Regionalization

Harmonic and THIS TECHNOLOGY, have entered a partnership that enables multichannel video programming distributors and programmers to deliver regionalized content such as sports or local programming to the right audience on any device.

The integration brings together THIS TECHNOLOGY’s alternate content delivery system with encoding solutions from Harmonic. Following successful deployment with a tier-one MVPD in 2014, the companies now jointly support network consolidation efforts that result in seamless content switching and enforce market protection via centralized control of content, encoding, and distribution.

“Together with Harmonic, we simplify what was once a very hardware-intensive process by offering the flexibility to use virtual IRDs,” says Rick Hamilton, VP of global sales for THIS TECHNOLOGY. “This enables nationwide or market-specific content switching based on programming requirements at any given moment. Looking ahead, we are committed to the expansion of this partnership to address emerging international demand.”

As part of the combined offering, THIS TECHNOLOGY’s SwitchStream alternate content delivery system is integrated with Harmonic’s ProStream 9100 high-density stream processor to ensure accurate switching instructions. MVPDs can also use SwitchStream to virtualize content acquisition points, automate management, scheduling and auditing of content switches, and interface with Harmonic’s Electra 9200 universal multiservice encoder to eliminate decoding and re-encoding at regional headends. The solution can be deployed across various distribution platforms, including linear broadcast and OTT, to unify IP transition initiatives for MVPDs.