ITV

Tag: Tony Berthaud

  • Harmonic’s video delivery solution makes life easier for Two Wheels Motor Racing

    Harmonic’s video delivery solution makes life easier for Two Wheels Motor Racing

    MUMBAI: It’s in harmony with  the Malaysian motor sports racing organisation Two Wheels Motor Racing (TWMR). Virtualized broadband and video delivery solutions firm Harmonic has provided the Two Wheels Motor Racing (TWMR) organisation  in Malaysia with a quick fix  that has simplified the distribution of live sports events. Leveraging Harmonic’s VOS 360 Media SaaS, ViBE CP9000 contribution encoder and ProView 8100 IRD, TWMR can deliver exceptional-quality video streams to affiliates over the internet.

    “Our mission as a motorsport organisation is simple: to bring the thrill of motorcycle racing to fans across Asia. Delivering live sports events efficiently is critical to this mission,” said TWMR TV producer & coordinator Mohd Noorharif Jaafar. “Harmonic’s SaaS and appliance-based solutions make it easy to distribute live video to affiliates across Malaysia and Asia. Since adopting Harmonic’s cloud-based VOS360 Media SaaS solution and distribution appliances, we’ve reduced our dependency on satellites and significantly lowered our delivery costs.”

    The Two wheels motor racing championship

    Harmonic’s VOS360 Media SaaS simplifies all stages of media processing and delivery for premium broadcast services. The VOS360 solution provides a high level of reliability for live sports delivery with a state-of-the-art live routing system that efficiently distributes live streams to affiliates during large-scale events. Harmonic’s CP9000 contribution encoder ingests the live feeds with ultra-low latency and pristine video quality, and the ProView 8100 IRD ensures high-quality video reception on the affiliate side.

    “By migrating from satellite to the internet for live sports event distribution with Harmonic’s VOS360 solution running on the cloud, TWMR has unlocked increased flexibility, cost savings and scalability,” said Harmonic vice president of sales, APAC and EMEA Tony Berthaud.  “This shift enables TWMR to deliver high-quality content to audiences across the APAC region with greater efficiency and reliability than ever before.”

     

    (Pictures courtesy  Two Wheels Motor Racing; no copyright infringement intended )

     

  • Sun Direct partners Harmonic to add 80 HD channels

    Sun Direct partners Harmonic to add 80 HD channels

    MUMBAI: DTH operator Sun Direct (Sun) has taken up a new HEVC media processing solution from video delivery services, Harmonic, which will enable it to entertain its viewers with 80 extra HD channels.

    Using Harmonic’s Electra X2 encoder and Prostream multiplexer, Sun can stream extra channels from existing four transponders at low bitrates.

    “Today’s television viewers want exceptional video quality and a broad selection of channels. When we looked into expanding our HD service offering, we needed to partner with an expert in satellite deployments and encoding efficiency,” said Sun Group CTO S Kannan. “Harmonic enables us to deliver more channels using the same amount of transponder space so that we can focus on increasing subscriber satisfaction and revenue growth.”

    The Electra X2 uses encoding to improve video quality while its integration with ProStream enabling Sun to increase bandwidth efficiency. The ProStream processor maximises transponder savings, supporting up to 100 statmux services per platform. Sun’s entire system workflow is IP-based and controlled by Harmonic’s NMX network management system.

    “Sun Direct plans to roll out additional HD STBs this year, and Harmonic is leading the way in helping the operator capitalise on the associated higher subscription rates. They primarily chose Harmonic for outstanding encoding efficiency, pristine video quality and our long-term and continued deployment support,” said Harmonic APAC vice president sales Tony Berthaud.

  • GTPL boosts channels & OTT with Harmonic, can deliver to 8 mn homes

    MUMBAI: Harmonic, a leader in video delivery infrastructure, announced that GTPL, India’s leading digital cable TV distribution company, which reaches an estimate of more than 8 million households in more than 189 cities, has deployed a next-generation software-based unified video headend system from Harmonic.

    At the heart of the solution is Harmonic’s Electra™ X2 advanced media processor that supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC encoding for both traditional cable television and live OTT multiscreen services, saving GTPL significant space and power consumption.

    “To remain competitive in the television distribution space, we needed to further differentiate our offering with compelling content, deliver higher video quality at a lower cost of operation and prepare for OTT,” said Aniruddhsinh Jadeja, managing director at GTPL Hathway. “Harmonic provides us with a complete headend solution for CATV and live OTT, with distribution of up to 650 cable television channels and 50 OTT channels from a unified management system. We can also support advanced features such as graphic overlay and scroll insertion, which are integral to our business. We are currently delivering live TV and have plans to explore catch-up TV, nPVR and 4K video in the future to provide an even better viewing experience to subscribers.”

    According to Frost & Sullivan, there are approximately 66 million unique connected video viewers in India, and about 1.3 million OTT paid video subscribers. The ability to support CATV and live OTT services from a unified headend provides interoperability capabilities, operational efficiency and opens up revenue opportunities for GTPL by enabling the operator to launch OTT offerings when ready.

    “Migrating to a software-based unified video headend for CATV and OTT delivery allows GTPL to roll out new offerings quickly and reduce costs through decreased space, power, equipment and personnel requirements,” said Tony Berthaud, vice president of sales, APAC, at Harmonic. “In the future, as GTPL further improves upon its video quality and service offerings, Harmonic’s software-based infrastructure will make it easy to adapt new codecs and formats.”

    The Electra X2 processor maximizes the efficiency and flexibility of statistical multiplexing through tight integration with Harmonic’s ProStream® video stream processor, allowing the operator to increase bandwidth efficiency and broaden its channel count. The unified headend also includes ProView™ integrated receiver-decoders for reception and ProMedia™ Package multiscreen stream packager for deploying secure live OTT services. Everything is managed through the NMX network management solution.