Harmonic has made significant enhancements to its ProMedia suite of adaptive bit rate (ABR) solutions for multiscreen processing and delivery. New features include HEVC and Ultra HD support, increased synergy with the Harmonic MediaGrid shared storage system, and support for closed captioning, regional blackouts, and Nielsen ID3 tagging. “ProMedia is the industry’s most complete multiscreen preparation solution,” said Krish Padmanabhan, senior vice president of products at Harmonic. “The latest enhancements to the product family arrive at the perfect time, as more broadcasters and service providers are looking to expand their portfolio with high-quality multiscreen services that scale and deliver amazing video. Harmonic customers now have the flexibility, scalability, and efficiency needed to accomplish this goal, drive new revenue streams, and improve the video experience.” ProMedia Xpress also supports the emerging Ultra HD format for VOD applications. HEVC and AVC transcoding of Ultra HD on ProMedia Xpress takes advantage of Harmonic’s MicroGrid parallel-computing technology to achieve remarkable transcoding speed. MicroGrid splits large processing tasks into multiple threads, each of which is completed concurrently, removing the bottlenecks associated with competing transcoding architectures. The technology enables Harmonic customers to unlock the bandwidth and video quality advantages of 4K and Ultra HD content in a timely and cost-effective manner, whether delivered via AVC or HEVC. Harmonic’s expertise in intelligent function integration was on display at the 2013 NAB Show with the bundling of the ProMedia Package stream preparation system with the ProMedia Origin streaming media server. Ideal for VOD and time-shift TV applications (e.g., start-over, catch-up, and nPVR), the combined package-origin solution maximises the operator’s cost savings, minimizes rackspace requirements, and simplifies the workflow. Time-shift services are further optimised through improved synergy between ProMedia Origin and the MediaGrid shared-storage system. This combination enables independent scaling as well as streaming capability. www.harmonicinc.com
