Harmonic News:

--Cox Taps its ProStream 8000 for Interactive Multichannel Mosaics
--Launches New Version of its CLEARcut Software
--Launches Next Generation of its Narrowcast Services Gateway
--Launches New Video Stream Processing Platform
--Teams with Vertasent to Demo Open-Architecture Switched Digital Video

Harmonic, Inc. timed a number of announcements to coincide with last week's SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver:

• The company said that Cox Communications is using its ProStream 8000 digital video mosaic solution to deliver interactive multichannel mosaics to subscribers in "select" markets, and that the MSO plans to roll out ProStream-based mosaics in other locations in the coming months. Cox is using the IP-based ProStream 8000 to create specialty program groupings (e.g. news, sports and children's programming) and regionally or locally focused promotions and previews: in addition to allowing viewers to watch several channels concurrently, the solution allows them to use their remotes to switch between each channel's audio or to go to full-screen mode. A similar mechanism is used to record programs via DVR, Harmonic says. "Cox strives to provide our customers with a unique experience that is second to none," Vince Groff, Cox's director of interactive TV applications, said in a prepared statement. "The technologies we adopt must accelerate the introduction of personalized viewing, while minimizing the cost and complexity associated with building and operating the underlying infrastructure. Harmonic's mosaic solution enables Cox to add a new dimension to the user experience by enabling visual navigation of programming, as well as better promotion of services such as VOD." Harmonic claims that the ProStream 8000 seamlessly integrates with video headend, transport and customer premises equipment now deployed by cable and satellite TV companies, telcos and other video service providers. According to the company, the IP-based software solution enables multi-program display cost-effectively by tiling several channels within a single, high-quality digital video stream. Harmonic says that the solution's MPEG-in/MPEG-out operation enables seamless integration with a service provider's existing DTV infrastructure, including middleware, EPG's and compression and multiplexing systems. Each multichannel mosaic is transmitted as just another channel in the line-up--i.e. as a complete MPEG stream with all the associated metadata--in order to ensure full compatibility with existing set-tops and televisions. According to Harmonic, the ProStream 8000 allows operators to quickly and easily set up, modify and remove channel mosaics: an operator could, for example, use the system to create a promotional mosaic, consisting of one large-format thumbnail advertising a premium programming package and four smaller thumbnails presenting channels within that package. Because the system is interoperable with third-party EPG's, Harmonic says, it is possible to dynamically include and exclude channels from a mosaic, based on schedule, in order to maintain consistency with the theme or focus of a given mosaic. The system provides operators with a point-and-click user interface for creating and modifying mosaics, that allows video thumbnails to be added, placed, cropped, resized and removed with a click of a mouse. It also allows customization through the addition of dynamic or static backgrounds to the mosaic. Changes can be made in real time--in which case they are reflected immediately on the viewer's TV--or generated offline for future implementation. The system also gives operators control over output bit-rates and video quality.
• The company launched version 3.1 of its CLEARcut software, which is designed to expedite the production of standard- and high-definition video and audio for such applications as dynamic ad insertion, VOD, network PVR and time-shifted TV. According to Harmonic, the new version--which, like its predecessors, is designed for use with the company's DiviCom encoders--incorporates features that are increasingly important as take-rates for narrowcast services grow, more personalized and on-demand TV services are introduced, and the volume of content associated with such services grows. The company claims that CLEARcut 3.1 allows operators to more efficiently create and distribute large volumes of on-demand services within their available bandwidth, as well as deliver ads that are targeted to viewers according to location (and ultimately according to demographics, interests and expressed preferences). "With the television experience becoming more interactive and user-directed in terms of what, when and how to watch, viewers are attracted to a greater variety of programming available on-demand, including broadcast programs, feature films, and locally produced content," CLEARcut product manager, Guy Li-Ran, said in a prepared statement. "Furthermore, operators are challenged to deliver more relevant and targeted advertisements, without impacting service performance or increasing complexity. CLEARcut is designed to work with Harmonic's powerful MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) SD and HD encoders to dramatically reduce the bit-rates while preserving a broadcast-quality picture, maximizing the effective service-carrying capacity of the broadcast and on-demand network. With the inclusion of advanced features such as the live capture of HD/SD broadcast TV, file concatenation, SD/HD format conversion and MPEG-2/MPEG-4 transcoding, this multi-function solution facilitates the introduction and expansion of a more personalized portfolio of services delivered over a variety of networks." According to Harmonic, CLEARcut 3.1 stores both highly compressed digital streams and their associated metadata, in order to simplify asset management and ensure the resulting video stream can be "seamlessly" distributed within existing broadcast and on-demand services. It also enables the creation of templates to streamline branding for ads or VOD packages. The company claims that CLEARcut 3.1's new live capture capability, when combined with its IP-based DiviCom encoders, makes it possible to continuously store real-time broadcast content taken directly from the operational headend; this, in turn, simplifies the process of feeding content into emerging services, the company says. The system accepts both short-form (e.g. ads) and long-form (e.g. TV programs) content; according to Harmonic, its new concatenation capabilities facilitate incremental storage of portions of broadcast programming and the combination of content acquired from different sources. The company says that CLEARcut and the assets it generates are fully compatible with standards-based content-management, scheduling, transmission, splicing and customer premises systems, allowing operators to dynamically insert ads into real-time broadcast programs, as well as into stored programs on PVR's, nPVR's and VOD systems.
• The company unveiled the fourth generation of its Narrowcast Services Gateway (NSG) IP-enabled edgeQAM device for on-demand service delivery. It claims that the new NSG 9000, which is designed for such applications as VOD, switched digital broadcast and nPVR, hosts up to 72 QAM channels in a two rack-unit chassis, and delivers almost twice as many simultaneous streams as other products in its class. The new generation of the product also incorporates DOCSIS 3.0 modular CMTS support and redundancy options, and, according to Harmonic, optimizes narrowcast service delivery by performing a range of essential functions at the network edge, including multiplexing, encryption, QAM modulation and RF upconversion. "A critical component of the 'just for me TV' future is the ability to offer the viewer more flexibility and control with enhanced services such as VOD and nPVR," Guy de Beer, NSG product marketing manager at Harmonic, said in a prepared statement. "The NSG 9000 provides a new level of density and performance for on-demand delivery that bridges the IP narrowcast backbone and traditional HFC network. Well over 1,000 concurrent narrowcast streams can be delivered by one system, depending on the bit-rates of the video, giving cable operators unprecedented levels of scalability and value. The NSG, in conjunction with the industry-leading DiviCom standard- and high-definition encoders and the newly released ProStream 1000 with Mentor re-encoding technology [note: for more on the latter, see below], enables operators to efficiently implement a switched broadcast service, allowing almost an infinite channel line-up and permitting multiple subscribers in the same service group to simultaneously view a channel without affecting the reliability or security of other on-demand services." Harmonic claims that, in addition to improving narrowcast video services, it provides an efficient solution for down- and upstream transport of IP-based services within the hub-to-home section of the existing HFC network. The NSG 9000's support of the DOCSIS 3.0 modular CMTS requirements permits delivery into the home, while the company's digital return path transmitters and receivers are used to transport large volumes of data upstream to the CMTS in the hub or headend. The NSG 9000 supports up to nine hot-swappable QAM RF modules and redundant AC and DC power supplies: each module features three Gigabit Ethernet ports for receiving digital content, as well as eight output QAM channels. The product also supports Privacy Mode real-time encryption to dynamically protect video content distributed to Motorola set-tops. According to Harmonic, its NMX Digital Service Manager provides in-depth monitoring and analysis of NSG systems and the services they deliver: it provides a real-time view of RF network utilization, providing statistical reports that allow operators to make informed decisions about reallocating capacity to high-usage areas, the company says. For initial installation and local management, the NSG can be controlled using an embedded browser-based tool.
• The company unveiled the ProStream 1000, a video stream processing platform, which incorporates its Mentor technology, and which it claims is the first complete, single-box MPEG-2 digital video re-encoding solution. It says that the new solution--which is targeted at VOD, nPVR, switched digital broadcast and digital turnaround applications--will allow operators to more efficiently process pre-compressed video acquired from multiple sources into constant-bit-rate (CBR) streams that can be delivered via a narrowcast service infrastructure. According to Harmonic, the ProStream 1000 supports operators' growing need to generate high-quality CBR content for on-demand applications by processing up to 16 standard-definition channels in a one rack-unit form factor; the solution's Mentor technology allows operators to select from a variety of horizontal video resolutions and MPEG-2 group of picture (GOP) structures. "The future of television lies in a more interactive and user-directed model with services such as VOD, time-shifted TV and nPVR," Yaniv Ben-Shushan, Harmonic's ProStream product marketing manager, said in a prepared statement. "The ProStream 1000 with Mentor re-encoding technology helps operators repurpose the growing volume of content to feed these on-demand services. The system incorporates the best-in-class technologies developed for Harmonic's award-winning DiviCom encoders and leverages the knowledge and experience gained from several generations of market-leading compression systems. This unique platform also eliminates the limitations associated with other techniques for variable bit-rate to CBR conversion or CBR bit-rate adjustments to give operators broader latitude in reducing bit-rates and modifying the video while maintaining a broadcast-quality picture." Harmonic claims that--in comparison to a complete decode/encode solution, which typically entails added cost and complexity, or to rate shaping, which offers more limited bit-rate reductions and more quickly impacts video quality--the ProStream 1000 provides more versatility, better quality and more bandwidth efficiency. In addition to video processing capabilities, the solution integrates multiplexing capability to efficiently combine programs acquired by its IP and ASI interfaces, the company says. Harmonic is also introducing a version of the ProStream 1000 platform that incorporates its ProCipher IP-based scrambling technology to provide a bulk-encryption and video-multiplexing solution. Both the ProStream 1000 with Mentor re-encoding and the ProStream 1000 with ProCipher are monitored and controlled by Harmonic's NMX Digital Service Manager.
• The company teamed with Vertasent, a provider of VOD management systems, to demo an open-architecture switched digital video architecture. According to the companies, the demo used a "widely deployed" set-top box and EPG to show two-way communications allowing subscribers to determine, through usage, which programs should be made available on each node. With the increasing number of networks and the need for high-definition simulcast, the companies say, switched digital video provides an attractive method of reducing the number of unwatched channels on a node. The demo saw Vertasent's Switched Video Manager making use of the Harmonic NSG 8108 and NSG 9116, as well as the company's new NSG 9000 edge QAM's, to selectively deliver programs on a node-by-node basis. According to the companies, the open architecture they support represents an "evolutionary" approach that shares infrastructure with existing VOD installations. It allows operators to launch switched digital video using the knowledge of narrowcast services they have gained through VOD deployments, instead of having to learn an entirely new architecture. In addition, the companies say, sharing resources such as edge QAM's between multiple services allows operators to provision based on real-time consumer behavior, rather than mathematical models--thus improving efficiency. "Working with Harmonic has allowed us to address some of the economic issues that have slowed the adoption of switched digital video," Bruce Bradley, Vertasent's VP of marketing, said in a prepared statement. "Traditional switched digital video systems require the installation of dedicated or customized edge QAM's. Our work with the highly flexible NSG has enabled a solution allowing switched video to be deployed using excess capacity of the installed base of VOD edge QAM's. Sharing these resources greatly reduces cost to the cable operator. The Harmonic NSG has performed extremely well in our tests and its design has proven to be very flexible. Cable operators worry that channel-changing performance might be impacted by switch digital, but we have been able to work with Harmonic engineers to ensure that this is not the case. Switched digital video is an economical alternative to upgrading a low bandwidth plant."

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