Harmonic Shifts Broadcast to the Cloud
April 2016 – NAB 2016 was the first big public announcement and push for the new combination of Harmonic and their acquisition of Thomson Video Networks. The combined company presented their new unified vision for agile video delivery. This new push leverages the Harmonic expertise in the appliance marketplace and compression for traditional broadcast into the IPTV & file based flow space. The combined solution brings a simplified ability to distribute and deliver video to any device with broadcast workflows through cloud-based media processing, and optimizing the use of available bandwidth with next-generation compression technologies.
Some of the key technologies released at the show include:
• Software-Based Media Processing: This is the Harmonic VOS™ media-processing platform, designed to simplify the processing and distribution of live content to any screen. The VOS platform is available as a cloud model called the VOS Cloud that is using subscription and usage based pricing models, and VOS360 which is a full managed service IaaS model for both turnkey and peak usage support.
Harmonic VOS 360 Cloud Dashboard Hub
• New Ultra HD (UHD) Capabilities: This ifeatures the latest version of the ViBE® 4K UHD encoder, featuring support for the HDR10 and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) high dynamic range (HDR) technologies, and low-latency, high-bitrate 4:2:2 encoding for 4K contribution applications. The release at the show also featured the addition of UHD encoding capabilities on the ViBE CP6000 contribution platform alogn with the ability to deliver UHD over the Internet with the software-based Harmonic PURE Compression Engine.
• High-Density Transcoding: The ViBE XT1000 Xtream transcoder is currently providing SD & HD video delivery and has an upgrade path to the new HEVC codec. The system supports an any-to-any format transcoding, and is targeted towards linear broadcasts on cable, IPTV, DTH, and DTTV services and multiscreen delivery.
• Immersive 360 Degree Virtual Reality Viewing Experience: Currently SD content dominates the VR & AR marketplaces. As they transition to HD & UHD resolutions, the Harmonic Electra™ X3 media processor is capable of encoding the content for the stereoscopic use. At NAB they were showing the system with select ecosystem partners showcasing an immersive professional sports 360 degree VR experience with HD imagery.
• ATSC Broadcasting: The migration to ATSC broadcast is being supported by my hardware, software and services for overcoming the challenges of channel sharing.
• High-Performance Media Storage: The show was the introduction of the new Harmonic MediaGrid 4000 scale-out shared storage solution. The storage has been optimized for diverse workflows, supports an increase in capacity of 50% and offers twice the performance of the existing MediaGrid 3000 system.
The rollout of the new combined company was located only in the Harmonic booth at the NAB show.
