ProStream™ 1000 Stream Processor Offers Market-Leading Density for MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 and MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 Transcoding; Up to 20 HD or 80 SD Video/Audio Channels in 1-RU
Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) today introduced ACE™ (Agile Compression Engine), a ground-breaking new transcoding technology that extends the functionality of its versatile ProStream™ 1000 stream processing platform. ACE offers industry-leading density supporting MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) transcoding of up to 20 high definition (HD) or 80 standard definition (SD) video and audio channels in a compact and power-efficient one rack-unit (1-RU) chassis. This scalable IP-based transcoder supports a number of applications including real-time transcoding for digital turnaround (DTA), mobile video, Internet TV and digital program or advertisement insertion. Existing ProStream 1000 systems are easily field-upgradeable to support the new ACE functionality.
The ProStream 1000 is the industry’s most flexible solution for a variety of stream processing needs, including scrambling/descrambling, re-encoding, transcoding, statistical multiplexing, forward error correction (FEC), variable to constant bit-rate conversion and single frequency network (SFN) transmission over IP. Harmonic is also enhancing the ProStream 1000 to offer integrated automatic audio level adjustment and quality of service monitoring with Harmonic’s IRIS™ software.
The ProStream 1000 with ACE offers an innovative and broad feature set:
• “Any-to-Any”: Transcodes any combination of MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, HD, SD and numerous audio codecs, including HD to SD down-conversion
• “Any-to-Many”: Multiple output streams per input service to simultaneously support broadcast digital simulcast/triplecast, switched digital video (SDV) and video-on-demand (VOD) services
• Support for mixed statistical multiplex pools of transcoded and encoded services with Harmonic’s market-leading DiviTrack™ statistical multiplexing
• Enhanced audio processing including transcoding and level adjustment
• Quality of service monitoring and optimization with Harmonic’s IRIS™ software
“The new ACE transcoding technology on our ProStream 1000 sets the benchmark in terms of feature set, density and performance from a single stream processing platform,” said Yaniv Ben-Shushan, Product Marketing Manager for Harmonic Inc. “Cable operators deploying ACE can create multiple versions of video from the same input source, such as HD and SD versions or constant bit-rate formats for time-shifted TV. Operators using hybrid network architectures can transport MPEG-4 content over satellite or IP and transcode at the edge, reducing the number of decode/re-encode steps and preserving higher video quality. Telco video service providers can reliably and cost-effectively transcode from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 for delivery of the channel lineup over the IPTV network.”
Harmonic will showcase the ProStream 1000 with ACE transcoding technology at the upcoming IBC exhibition in Amsterdam, September 11-15, stand 1.C61. First shipments of the ProStream 1000 with ACE will begin later this year.