ANGA COM 2015: Harmonic Looks to Up Efficiency, Cut Costs

At ANGA COM 2015, Harmonic will showcase a range of solutions designed to bring increased operational efficiencies and cost savings to service providers and operators in the broadband, cable and satellite industries.

Through an integrated Harmonic solution that includes market-leading edgeQAM, CCAP and distributed CCAP systems as well as HEVC, enhanced AVC compression efficiency and virtualized media processing technologies, service providers can successfully migrate to an all-IP infrastructure while ensuring superior video quality — up to Ultra HD/4K — on any screen.

NSG Exo Distributed CCAP System
At ANGA COM 2015, Harmonic will demonstrate Ultra HD (UHD) delivery over cable with the NSG Exo distributed CCAP system. NSG Exo is a cable edge device for the delivery of video, data and voice services over coax. Compact and cost-effective, NSG Exo moves a service provider’s RF requirements out of the headend or hub and places them deep in the fiber network, simplifying headend design and operation to resolve space and power constraints, lower capital and operational expenses and provide service flexibility.

One of the industry’s first offerings to support a Distributed Access Architecture (DAA), the CCAP-ready NSG Exo delivers CMTS services today. The ability to leverage standard DOCSIS back-office provisioning and DOCSIS cable modems, while supporting a mix of FTTx and coax customers over the same network, allows service providers and premise owners to utilize a single device to deliver triple-play services to dense pockets of coax infrastructure, such as multiple dwelling units (MDUs), office buildings, college campuses and hospitality locations. The result is an increased opportunity to generate new revenue streams.

Electra X Advanced Media Processor Family
Harmonic will showcase its new fully converged platform for broadcast and OTT delivery of SD, HD and UHD/4K content at ANGA COM 2015. According to Harmonic, Electra X is the world’s first encoder family to support graphics, branding and playout functionalities, as well as high video quality and full-frame UHD/4K live encoding.

Featuring real-time encoding of SD, HD and UHD/4K media, integrated high-quality branding and graphics, and reliable transport stream playout, Electra X offers content and service providers high video quality, function integration and increased operational flexibility in a cost-effective appliance.

Two models will be shown: the Electra X2, ideal for all SD and HD media processing applications, and the Electra X3, designed specifically for UHD encoding. At the heart of both units is the Harmonic PURE Compression Engine, an advanced encoding technology that supports SD, HD and UHD formats and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC codecs for broadcast and over-the-top multiscreen delivery. The Harmonic PURE Compression Engine powers Electra X with superior video quality at minimum bandwidth allowing up to 10 HD AVC channels to fit in a single broadcast QAM.

By providing service providers with a unified video compression headend for all screens, Electra X enables them to meet subscribers’ quality expectations while offering investment protection by allowing them to adapt to innovative new technologies as they become available, including UHD content delivery to both first and second screens.

IP Video to All Screens
Harmonic’s IP Video to All Screens solution, recipient of the 2015 TV Connect Award, gives operators the ability to provide quality TV experiences on any device utilizing a single, multicast-enabled, HTTP adaptive bit rate (ABR) delivery architecture. By providing operators with a unified approach to IP video for all screens, Harmonic’s solution eliminates the need to operate a multicast IP or QAM broadcast headend for first screens and a separate unicast headend for delivery to second screens. No longer forced to maintain separate encoding and management systems — which can cause scalability issues, distinct operations teams and a fragmented user experience — service providers gain the advantages of lower CAPEX and OPEX, and greater flexibility.

The Harmonic IP video solution is part of a larger ecosystem that includes third-party CMS, DRM and CDN systems, as well as STBs. Operators choose the elements that best meet their workflow requirements today, and can easily add additional components in the future. The flexible Harmonic solution can be seamlessly installed within any existing architecture and works flawlessly with pre-integrated third-party components.

ProMedia X Origin Multiscreen Media Server
Harmonic’s ProMedia X Origin multiscreen media server offers service providers a flexible solution for preparing and delivering broadcast-quality video to consumers anywhere, at any time. The software-based ProMedia X Origin system features a wide range of advanced tools for streaming video to all IP devices, including smart TVs, set-top boxes, PCs, tablets and smartphones. ProMedia X Origin supports all major streaming protocol standards in use today and offers the flexibility of integrated, on-the-fly packaging to different formats from a single H.264 or H.265 source. This capability enables easy migration to new formats as they emerge, simplifies integration to multiple DRMs, optimizes storage and helps reduce CDN expenditures.

To address the full spectrum of multiscreen ad insertion and blackout management workflows, ProMedia X Origin is optimized to work with a variety of leading third-party back-office ad monetization platforms and CableLabs-compliant event signaling and management (ESAM) servers. Together, these integrated systems provide a powerful solution for commercial insertion.

In addition, ProMedia X Origin fully integrates with Harmonic’s IP video encoding and transcoding systems for live and file-based workflows, enabling a complete ecosystem for launching new revenue-generating multiscreen services.