Harmonic boosts primary distribution solution offering with new ProView 8000 series
March 5, 2014
Harmonic, an expert in video delivery infrastructure, has announced the ProView 8000 family of multiformat integrated receiver-decoders (IRDs) that optimise primary distribution of video content over satellite or IP delivery networks. With an advanced feature set and compact design, the ProView 8000 IRD family increases workflow efficiencies, cost savings, and reliability for global broadcasters and service providers, simplifying the migration to an IP infrastructure and launch of value-added services. Harmonic will demonstrate the first member of the new ProView family — the ProView 8100 commercial decoder — at the 2014 NAB Show, April 7-10 in Las Vegas, booth SU1210. Harnessing Harmonic’s superior video quality and low latency technologies, the ProView 8100 ensures timely distribution of video at resolutions up to 1080p50/60.
The ProView 8100 is ideal for use in a wide range of applications, from basic monitoring to end-point delivery from the distribution network. The IRD can act as a stand-alone unit or as part of a widely dispersed primary distribution network under the control of Harmonic’s DMS video distribution management system. DMS provides broadcasters and service providers with powerful control tools for remotely managing large device populations, enabling secure broadcast of video content over satellite or IP delivery networks. Relying on the ProView 8100-DMS combination, service providers can lower operating expenditures and eliminate the need for costly remote site visits by managing the video distribution network from a single control system with advanced scheduling, configuration, software upgrade, and inventory management capabilities.
“The ProView 8100 fills a gap in the market for robust, affordable primary content distribution solutions,” said Yaniv Ben-Soussan, senior director, product management and video processing, Harmonic. “This new general-purpose decoding platform delivers features traditionally available only in high-end IRDs — like simultaneous HD-SDI and SD-SDI output with high-quality down-conversion — to broadcasters and service providers, enabling them to power HD and SD production chains with a single device to maximize workflow efficiencies and cost savings.”
Designed to enhance single-channel commercial decoding applications, the ProView 8100 supports advanced decoding, descrambling, and frame-rate conversion from a single rack unit, decreasing rack space and energy consumption in video distribution plants. Decoding of MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC SD or HD video transport streams eases the transition from legacy to modern delivery networks, while frame-rate conversion increases workflow efficiencies for multinational program distributors by enabling high-quality up- and down-conversion of content shot at one frame rate but targeted for distribution at a different frame rate. The flexible IRD supports multiple input options, including DVB-S/S2, DVB-ASI, and IP, and outputs to ASI and IP. Advanced descrambling capabilities further improve workflow efficiencies, eliminating the need for a separate descrambler. An intuitive Web-based graphical user interface lowers the learning curve for operators.
The ProView 8100 is the latest addition to Harmonic’s complete IRD product portfolio, which includes the multichannel ProView 7100 and ProView 7000. The ProView 7100 is the industry’s first single-rack-unit, scalable, multiformat IRD, transcoder and MPEG stream processor, and the ProView 7000 is a scalable receiver, DVB descrambler, multiformat video decoder, and MPEG stream processor, which is ideal for digital turnaround processing, full transport stream descrambling and decoding applications.