TalkTalk has chosen an integrated headend solution from Harmonic to help deliver its IPTV services. Utilising Harmonic’s Electra 9200 universal multiservice encoder and ProStream 9100 with ACE stream processor and transcoder, TalkTalk can now deliver live and VoD content and an increased channel lineup to subscribers’ set-top boxes.
Harmonic’s Electra 9200 provides low-bandwidth MPEG-4 AVC encoding of video content for TalkTalk’s IPTV services. Through a high-density design that supports up to eight HD output services per chassis, Electra is designed to lower TalkTalk’s capital and operational expenses. Electra offers a feature set that also includes integrated audio encoding tools and serviceability via hot-swappable dual power supplies, fan assembly, compression modules, and processing cards. As TalkTalk adds more linear channels and video-on-demand content to its lineup, the encoder’s scalable architecture will grow to accommodate additional channels.
“YouView from TalkTalk is Britain’s fastest growing TV service. To deliver our growing range of content to more than a million subscribers, we needed an IPTV headend solution that would increase our encoding efficiency and support future growth,” said Naresh Raj, broadcast systems team leader at TalkTalk Group. “Harmonic’s integrated video processing solutions provide outstanding video quality while lowering our capital and operating expenses through density and scalability.”
TalkTalk is also leveraging Harmonic’s ProStream 9100 with ACE, which can transcode up to 60 SD MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 AVC broadcast services. ProStream is designed to provide TalkTalk with the flexibility to support a variety of digital processing applications, including digital turnaround and any-to-any audio and video transcoding.
Ian Graham, vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Harmonic, commented: “Our IPTV headend solutions offer the density, scalability, and advanced compression technology that will allow TalkTalk to easily meet the growing subscriber expectation for more content and better video quality.”
