November 29, 2006

Texas TV Station Deploys Harmonic Gear

By CT Staff Report

On Wednesday, Harmonic Inc. announced that KXII TV in Sherman, Texas, a Gray Television station, had deployed Harmonic's DiviCom MV 500 MPEG-2 high definition (HD) encoders and MV 100 MPEG-2 standard definition (SD) encoders for its digital upgrade.

According to the press release, KXII, serving viewers in Texas and Oklahoma, has launched the world's first live ATSC service with two HD channels and one SD channel in the allocated 19.4 Mbps spectrum using the bandwidth-efficient Harmonic encoders. KXII is using the Harmonic solution to simultaneously broadcast its CBS (1080i), Fox (720p), and MyNetwork, branded "MyTexoma", (480i) programs. The multi-channel HD delivery capability made possible with the enhanced efficiency of the Harmonic solution, which also includes DiviTrack statistical multiplexing and NMX Digital Service Manager, enhances the broadcaster's service and gives KXII the flexibility to adjust itsservice configuration in real-time or via scheduled changes.

The transition to an all-digital, HD world brings with it new possibilities in terms of the services over-the-air broadcasters such as Gray Television's 36 stations can offer, but also requires the operator to implement encoding solutions that can support these higher bit-rate 1080i and 720p services. Harmonic introduced the MV 500 in April 2006 to meet these needs for terrestrial, cable and satellite operators.

"As we were planning our digital upgrade, the ability to support multiple HD channels within a single ATSC stream was an absolute necessity," said Rick Dean, KXII Vice President and General Manager. "Harmonic’s MV 500 HD encoder delivers impressive quality video while significantly improving compression efficiency. This breakthrough implementation of two HD services plus one SD channel in 19.4 Mbps dramatically enhances our business proposition and revenue opportunities as consumer demand for HD continues to grow. With the flexible and cost-effective Harmonic solution, we can now take our digital service to the next level by offering our viewers more high definition programming."

The MV 500 supports both 1080i and 720p video resolutions and various audio formats including MPEG Audio Layer II, Dolby Digital AC-3, AAC, aacPlus and Dolby E. The DiviCom encoders also offer native IP or ASI support, and can be utilized as part of a closed-loop statistical multiplex with Harmonic's advanced DiviTrack solutions. To streamline configuration, ongoing management and scheduling of the program lineup, operators can utilize Harmonic's versatile NMX Digital Service Manager to manage the video headend infrastructure.