Harmonic powers Airtel Digital TV's enhanced DTH HD offerings

Harmonic Video Infrastructure Powers Airtel Digital TV’s Enhanced DTH HD Offerings

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, today announced that Airtel Digital TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) arm of leading global telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel, has deployed a state-of-the-art compression headend solution from Harmonic to substantially improve the HD viewing experience for its customers.

The high-density, scalable and HEVC-upgradeable video infrastructure solutions from Harmonic will help Airtel Digital TV increase bandwidth efficiencies and significantly improve video quality while lowering operating expenses. The deployment enables Airtel Digital TV to expand its DTH HD portfolio to over 50 premium channels, making it one of the largest HD bouquets in India today.

“Harmonic’s compression solution allows Airtel Digital TV to deliver superior video quality at low bit rates while adapting to next-generation video compression standards such as HEVC,” said Dan Taylor, general manager, India, at Harmonic. “Our best-in-class video infrastructure solutions help customers like Airtel Digital TV reduce OPEX and drive new business growth by simplifying the launch of additional HD channels.”

Residing at the heart of the headend solution is Harmonic’s market-leading Electra™ X2 advanced media processor, which enables high-quality, low-bandwidth MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 encoding of SD and HD video content for live DTH services. Powered by the Harmonic PURE Compression Engine™, the Electra X2 media processors support a wide range of video formats and codecs for satellite delivery, including HEVC, simplifying operations and future upgrades for Bharti Airtel.

At Airtel Digital TV, the Electra X2 media processors will be integrated with Harmonic’s ProStream® 9100 stream processor and ProView™ 7100 integrated receiver-decoder (IRD), and controlled by Harmonic’s NMX™ video network management solution. As part of a unified headend, these solutions will enable Airtel Digital TV to address a vast array of content reception applications — from decoding, descrambling and multiplexing of multiple transport streams to MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 transcoding and statistical multiplexing, further increasing bandwidth efficiency and lowering the total cost of ownership.

Harmonic will demonstrate its industry-leading video infrastructure solutions at BroadcastAsia2016, May 31 to June 3 in Singapore, Stand 5C3-01.

Harmonic to buy Thomson Video Networks

Stitched Panorama

Thomson Video Networks has received a binding offer from Harmonic to acquire 100% of Thomson Video Networks.

Thomson is backed by the private equity partner Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners.

The proposed transaction is consistent with Thomson Video Networks’ strategy to accelerate its development by giving the company greater global scale and resources needed to drive more value and continuous innovation to the benefit of its customers.

Consequently, in reply to this offer, Harmonic has been granted exclusivity by Thomson Video Networks’ shareholders while Harmonic secures adequate financing for the proposed transaction.

The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2016, subject to French works council consultation process and the acceptance of Harmonic’s acquisition offer by the shareholders of Thomson Video Networks, as well as receipt of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

“The combination would create a clear market leader in video delivery capitalizing on both companies’ solid foundations with their “premium video experience” approach and their respective geographical, R&D and customer services strengths,” the company said.

Harmonic and WISI Communications partner

Harmonic and WISI Communications have announced a partnership that provides cable operators with next-generation cable access solutions.

Under the joint collaboration, Harmonic and WISI will develop products that allow operators to keep pace with ever-evolving business and industry requirements such as CCAP, DOCSIS 3.1 and Distributed Access Architecture with digital fiber transport. Through their cable access solutions, Harmonic and WISI offer the service provider, hospitality, enterprise and MDU markets a flexible, scalable network architecture that optimises the delivery of video, data and voice services, while lowering capital and operating expenses.

“This collaboration is a win-win situation for Harmonic, WISI and the cable industry,” said Nimrod Ben-Natan, senior vice president and general manager, cable edge business, Harmonic.

“WISI has a powerful presence in the EMEA region that will help Harmonic penetrate new markets, and Harmonic has years of cable edge expertise and strong brand recognition in edgeQAM technologies, enabling WISI to expand internationally. Not only will this partnership lead to significant growth for both companies, it enables us to provide the industry with a new class of cable access solutions at a low total cost of ownership, bringing a wide range of benefits to cable operators.”

“The cable world has changed rapidly over the last decade, with operators delivering high-speed Internet as well as fixed and mobile telephony offerings alongside video, including on-demand and time-shift services. In order to address fluctuations in traffic growth, operators need cable access solutions that provide maximum scalability and flexibility,” said Axel Sihn, CEO, WISI.

“Partnering with Harmonic, a market leader in cable edge technologies, we are able to offer operators a complete cable access solution and the easiest path to addressing the cable industry’s evolving needs, such as CCAP and DOCSIS 3.1. This enables them to launch services faster and cheaper, resulting in increased revenue growth.”

Harmonic and WISI Communications partner

Harmonic and WISI Communications have announced a partnership that provides cable operators with next-generation cable access solutions.

Under the joint collaboration, Harmonic and WISI will develop products that allow operators to keep pace with ever-evolving business and industry requirements such as CCAP, DOCSIS 3.1 and Distributed Access Architecture with digital fiber transport. Through their cable access solutions, Harmonic and WISI offer the service provider, hospitality, enterprise and MDU markets a flexible, scalable network architecture that optimises the delivery of video, data and voice services, while lowering capital and operating expenses.

“This collaboration is a win-win situation for Harmonic, WISI and the cable industry,” said Nimrod Ben-Natan, senior vice president and general manager, cable edge business, Harmonic.

“WISI has a powerful presence in the EMEA region that will help Harmonic penetrate new markets, and Harmonic has years of cable edge expertise and strong brand recognition in edgeQAM technologies, enabling WISI to expand internationally. Not only will this partnership lead to significant growth for both companies, it enables us to provide the industry with a new class of cable access solutions at a low total cost of ownership, bringing a wide range of benefits to cable operators.”

“The cable world has changed rapidly over the last decade, with operators delivering high-speed Internet as well as fixed and mobile telephony offerings alongside video, including on-demand and time-shift services. In order to address fluctuations in traffic growth, operators need cable access solutions that provide maximum scalability and flexibility,” said Axel Sihn, CEO, WISI.

“Partnering with Harmonic, a market leader in cable edge technologies, we are able to offer operators a complete cable access solution and the easiest path to addressing the cable industry’s evolving needs, such as CCAP and DOCSIS 3.1. This enables them to launch services faster and cheaper, resulting in increased revenue growth.”

Harmonic goes for advanced broadcast and multiscreen

IBC 2013: Stand 1.B20. Harmonic has announced plans for demos of the next generation Ultra HD digital video format, HEVC compression and branded channel playout.

“At IBC2013 Harmonic will showcase its ‘glass-to-glass’ integrated broadcast and multiscreen solutions, which deliver dramatically superior video quality across formats from SD to emerging Ultra HD,” said Peter Alexander, senior vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer at Harmonic. “The product demonstrations at the booth will highlight the operational efficiencies, cost savings, and amazing video quality that operators can achieve by leveraging an integrated solution from Harmonic”.

In a demonstration of its HEVC-ready Promedia family of multiscreen solutions, Harmonic will showcase new Ultra HD reference footage, which will be made available to customers testing interoperability with HEVC clients.

There will also be a demo of what Harmonic is describing as the industry’s first true CCAP-compliant platform
NSG Pro can converge high-density universal edgeQAM capabilities with future, integrated CMTS functionality. Featuring built-in DVB encryption. It supports a variety of video and data services, such as cloud DVR, IP video, video on demand (VOD), and M-CMTS and is seen as a platform for European operators making the transition to an all-IP infrastructure.