Softel Integrates vFlex HD with Harmonic's Electra 7000 for OP47, SMPTE2031 Data Insertion

Softel, a UK-based company that claims to have over 25 years of experience in providing ancillary data solutions--including solutions for interactive TV, opt cuing/ad insertion, subtitling and captioning--to leading broadcasters and service providers across the world (note: for an in-depth overview of Softel and its work in the interactive TV space, see the interview with its CEO, Sam Pemberton, that was published on itvt.com, July 31st), said Tuesday that, in advance of the official launch of its vFlex HD single-unit, multi-purpose ancillary data inserter at the IBC (note: for more on the vFlex HD, see the article published on itvt.com, August 19th), it has collaborated with Harmonic to verify OP47 and SMPTE2031 insertion with that company's DiviCom Electra 7000 MPEG-4 AVC HD encoder.

According to Softel, this integration provides a turnkey solution to system integrators and broadcasters that enables the insertion of teletext subtitles or even full teletext services into any HD service and ensures compatibility with other elements of the transmission chain and receivers. This, the company says, swiftly enables users to benefit from the high quality that HD or other premium services provide. Softel bills the vFlex platform as providing a complete solution for ancillary VBI and VANC data insertion, including VPS and WSS, opt cue encoding and decoding, and uniquely animated or static graphics such as clocks and tickers. "vFlex offers an extremely cost-effective and flexible platform for ancillary data processing, and with the launch of our new HD version we now offer a complete SD and HD processing platform," Softel CTO, Darren Forster, said in a prepared statement. "The Softel integration with Harmonic--a leader in video delivery solutions--validates a turnkey solution and serves as a reference for anyone requiring data insertion via OP47 or SMPTE2031." Added Harmonic product marketing manager, Elie Sader: "Previously, there was no easy and scalable workflow for an operator to generate a teletext data stream as part of their HD services. Embedding data in VANC is vastly superior because it allows seamless dataflow through all video routing and processing elements in the plant, all the way to the encoder, while alleviating any timing constraints. The VANC mechanism is also agnostic to the data type and can be expanded to DVB subtitles or any other data that needs to be inserted into a PID in the transport stream."