Harmonic Product Announcement: Electra 9000
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Electra 9000: New Video Processing Solution Enables Operators to Seamlessly Expand Services to Web and
At IBC we introduced the Electra® 9000, the world’s first multi-codec, multi-format video encoder for broadcast, satellite, telco and cable operators that simultaneously supports broadcast, mobile and web formats in a 1-RU chassis. This integrated broadcast and multiscreen compression platform continues Electra’s leadership in video quality and multi-function collapse to provide a flexible, open, scalable architecture that integrates easily with existing broadcast infrastructure and enables new multiscreen services, while lowering capital and operating expenses.
Multiscreen services have become a priority for operators as consumer expectation for affordable, convenient, high-quality video everywhere becomes the norm. A priority for Harmonic was to incorporate web and mobile support into the Electra platform without compromising quality or reducing the Electra’s broadcast feature set. Operators benefit from a streamlined headend operation, with several critical functions for broadcast, mobile and web video brought together in a single platform.
The Electra 9000 encoder delivers HD and SD video services using Harmonic’s proven MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and MPEG-2 compression algorithms, and combines the company’s market-leading broadcast capabilities with the ability to support emerging multiscreen applications. The Electra 9000 maximizes bandwidth efficiency and channel density by providing up to four audio/video processing modules per chassis. Each module supports flexible combinations of up to four SD/HD inputs, with up to eight broadcast output profiles and 32 multiscreen aligned output profiles.
The Electra 9000 supports both baseband and IP workflows, as well as three-pass encoding with hierarchical LookAhead™ technology, comprehensive pre-processing, and a high-performance up/downconverter and deinterlacer. The Electra platform also includes integrated statistical multiplexing with Harmonic’s DiviTrackMX™ and support for DiviTrackIP™ in LAN or distributed WAN environments. The new platform supports main and secondary outputs for SD or HD and a rich suite of audio processing options such as Jünger™ Level Magic automatic audio leveling adjustment.
The Electra 9000 enhances serviceability and reliability through a dual power supply support option and field replaceable modules. Scalability is improved through a pay-as-you-grow architecture that allows for the upgrade of compression blades, I/O modules and formats with firmware licenses as business needs evolve.
The Electra 9000 is the latest element in Harmonic’s end-to-end multiscreen solution and can be combined with the company’s ProMedia Package carrier-grade adaptive streaming preparation system and ProMedia Origin HTTP and RTMP streaming video server to encapsulate and deliver video to a variety of target ecosystems, with support for Apple® HTTP Live Streaming, Microsoft® Smooth Streaming, Adobe® RTMP and Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming.