NAB: Harmonic, Blue Man Group Team up to Offer Stunning Native UHD 360-Degree VR

[donaldk]

Harmonic and Blue Man Group Team up to Offer Stunning Native UHD 360-Degree VR Experience at the 2017 NAB Show

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- At the 2017 NAB Show, Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, will showcase cutting-edge innovations in 360-degree immersive virtual reality (VR) technology with a demonstration featuring prerecorded content of Blue Man Group from their stage at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In addition to the cutting-edge demo, Harmonic will host booth appearances by the highly acclaimed performance art company.

"Harmonic and Blue Man Group share a passion for stunning imagery that entertains and awakens the senses in new ways," said Doug Baldinger, vice president, creative development at Blue Man Productions. "This is the first VR experience for Blue Man Group. We look forward to working with Harmonic at the 2017 NAB Show and bringing our energy and music to life in the virtual reality domain."

The 360-degree VR demonstration will feature 8K production by Digital Immersion and Tiledmedia's Tiled VR Streaming technology integrated with the Harmonic PURE Compression Engine™, Viaccess-Orca's Connected Sentinel Player for secure playback and Samsung Gear VR headsets. Through HEVC tiling technology and world-class compression, broadcasters and other content providers can deliver an immersive VR experience to head-mounted devices with the utmost efficiency and video resolution 10 times higher than that offered by existing, commercially deployed VR services.

"Harmonic and its ecosystem partners are setting the benchmark for VR video quality and bandwidth efficiency," said Bart Spriester, senior vice president, video products at Harmonic. "Collaborating with Blue Man Group makes this demonstration all the more exciting, as they truly exemplify innovation in entertainment, blending beautifully with the technology innovation being showcased by Harmonic. If you've never seen Blue Man Group or experienced the mesmerizing power of VR technology, stop by the booth and enjoy a one-of-a-kind show in native UHD resolution."

The striking Blue Man Group content was shot live on stage by Digital Immersion using an innovative VR rig to capture dynamic moves and put the viewer into otherwise impossible perspectives during the group's live performance. The video content can be viewed on YouTube, and can be streamed for viewing on Samsung Gear VR headsets at the Samsung store.

Additionally, at the 2017 NAB Show, experts from Harmonic and Tiledmedia will present the state-of-the-art in VR streaming and bandwidth reduction during a session at the Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology Conference. The presentation, "Streaming UHD-Quality VR at Realistic Bitrates: Mission Impossible?," will take place on Monday, April 24 from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. in room N260 at the LVCC.

Beyond developing innovations in VR technology, Harmonic is a founding member of the VR Industry Forum, which is committed to driving the widespread availability of high-quality audiovisual VR experiences by creating end-to-end interoperability of VR across key media and entertainment sectors.

Further information about Harmonic and the company's products is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

About Harmonic
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure for emerging television and video services. Harmonic enables customers to produce, deliver and monetize amazing video experiences, with unequalled business agility and operational efficiency, by providing market-leading innovation, high-quality service and compelling total-cost-of-ownership. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

[donaldk]

Harmonic Brings Market-Leading Playout Capabilities to VOS™ Cloud and VOS 360 Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, announced today that it is bringing the powerful broadcast playout capabilities from its market-leading Spectrum™ media server to Harmonic's VOS™ Cloud media processing platform and VOS 360 cloud media processing SaaS solution. The new functionality in both VOS offerings includes support for graphics, branding, and digital video effects (DVE) for both file-based and live workflows. Leading innovation in the cloud media processing market, Harmonic is helping drive the transition to software-based and cloud workflows, allowing video content and service providers to launch broadcast and OTT offerings faster, increase their operational efficiencies and reduce OPEX and CAPEX.

"Today's video content and service providers are turning to the cloud for video preparation and delivery because of the increased workflow efficiency and flexibility that it provides, along with other benefits such as scalability and agility," said Bart Spriester, senior vice president, video products at Harmonic. "Bringing the playout capabilities found in our Spectrum media servers to the VOS Cloud and VOS 360 solutions opens up additional cost savings for operators, speeding up their operations and enabling additional types of monetization, such as brand reinforcement, pop-up channels, rapid platform deployment and expansion, graphic avails and more. As two of the industry's first cloud-native solutions, the VOS offerings are making a huge impact on the way in which operators create and deliver video."

The VOS Cloud solution enables content and service providers to manage the video production and delivery workflow for broadcast and OTT on public or private cloud infrastructure. With playout functionality in the cloud, operators can perform channel origination and playout and drive further workflow simplification. The VOS Cloud solution handles a wide range of channel origination tasks, from accessing external storage to retrieve files and normalizing them as needed, adding secondary events like graphics and triggers and ensuring that the content is delivered in formats appropriate for OTT and broadcast. In addition, operators can support orchestrated VOD and live-to-VOD playout as well as streamlined acquisition of file-based assets.

These playout capabilities are also available for the VOS 360 SaaS (www.vos.tv), which is hosted in the public cloud and maintained and monitored by Harmonic. As part of the unique VOS 360 service, Harmonic provides around-the-clock DevOps coverage, a professional dedicated 24/7 monitoring and maintenance service focused on keeping services operational with rapid response time, resulting in better QoE for end customers.

Harmonic's open architecture strategy allows seamless integration with ecosystem partners to ensure the delivery of true end-to-end OTT video cloud services. The VOS solutions have been successfully deployed in a wide range of environments and usage models, including live OTT services by a leading North American service provider in an OpenStack private cloud environment in conjunction with Mirantis, and are currently being used in numerous on-air service trials worldwide.

Harmonic will showcase its latest innovations for broadcast and OTT video delivery — including cloud playout on VOS Cloud and VOS 360 offerings — at the 2017 NAB Show, booth SU1210. Further information about Harmonic and the company's products is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

About Harmonic
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure for emerging television and video services. Harmonic enables customers to produce, deliver and monetize amazing video experiences, with unequalled business agility and operational efficiency, by providing market-leading innovation, high-quality service and compelling total-cost-of-ownership. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com. 

[donaldk]

Harmonic Pushes OTT QoE to New Heights at the 2017 NAB Show

Advancements Include Reduced Latency and Expanded Bandwidth Optimization Capabilities

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- At the 2017 NAB Show, Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, will demonstrate several groundbreaking solutions for OTT delivery, enabling broadcasters and service providers to drive growth in over-the-top video consumption with improved quality of experience (QoE) for their customers. Through innovations in OTT bandwidth optimization, latency and packaging technologies, Harmonic is leading the industry in helping operators deliver pristine SD, HD and Ultra HD video at low bit rates for a variety of services, including live streaming, VOD and time-shift TV.

"Today, one in five U.S. homes pay for three or more OTT services," said Bart Spriester, senior vice president, video products at Harmonic. "Harmonic is committed to helping operators monetize the opportunities available in the OTT environment. At the NAB Show, we will demonstrate how OTT operators can separate themselves from the competition with lower latency, reduced buffering, better video quality and increased bandwidth efficiency by leveraging software appliances or cloud-native applications."

Lower latency when streaming live events is a key goal for OTT operators. Live television broadcasters generally delay live content for approximately seven seconds; delays for live OTT streaming are more in the range of 30-60 seconds. At the NAB Show, Harmonic will showcase a real-time streaming workflow that matches the latency of live broadcast.

"Low latency for OTT is extremely important, especially for the delivery of live sporting events," said Darryl Jefferson, VP, Post Production Operations, NBC Sports Group. "Any lag time that exists between what's happening in real time and being viewed on screen is truly unacceptable to viewers nowadays. We're excited about the developments that Harmonic is making in the area of reduced latency for OTT video, and expect it to be a game-changer for broadcasters and other content providers as they strive to deliver the best possible quality across all devices."

Harmonic's low-latency streaming workflow is made possible by a unique combination of packaging content in the new Common Media Application Format (CMAF) and HTTP chunked transfer encoding. An emerging media standard for OTT delivery, CMAF reduces the need to package content separately for HLS and MPEG-DASH devices. The use of the new format in Harmonic multiscreen packaging and origin solutions not only improves the OTT viewing experience by reducing latency in live streaming, it also simplifies OTT distribution workflows.

Harmonic will also showcase an innovative new solution for dramatically improved video quality delivered over zero-rated mobile and xDSL networks, based on the company's latest EyeQ™ technology advancements and new packaging technology expressly designed for constrained networks. Employing this new EyeQ packaging solution, operators can consistently deliver improved HD video quality to set-top boxes connected to low-bandwidth DSL lines, as well as to mobile devices connected to 3G/4G networks without exceeding the 1.5 Mbps bandwidth limitation of zero-rated mobile connections.

The EyeQ technology leverages the Human Visual System to reduce OTT video bit rate requirements by up to 50 percent without impacting video quality. Operators can employ this capability to deliver higher-resolution video streams that can be enjoyed on any device with vastly reduced buffering — even over constrained OTT/ABR networks.

Harmonic will showcase its latest innovations for broadcast and OTT video delivery at the 2017 NAB Show, booth SU1210. Further information about Harmonic and the company's products is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

About Harmonic
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure for emerging television and video services. Harmonic enables customers to produce, deliver and monetize amazing video experiences, with unequalled business agility and operational efficiency, by providing market-leading innovation, high-quality service and compelling total-cost-of-ownership. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

[donaldk]

PCCW Global Delivers Immersive 360-Degree, VR Sports Experience With Harmonic

Harmonic Teamed Up With Nokia and Ideal Systems to Deliver Stunning UHD VR Live Content to PCs, Smartphones, and Samsung Gear VR Headsets

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 22, 2017 — Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, today announced that its Electra™ VS video system was used by PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong's premier telecommunications service provider, to deliver immersive, 360-degree virtual reality (VR) experiences live during the 2017 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament April 7-9. Ideal Systems, Asia's largest, industry-leading broadcast systems integrator, assisted with the provision of 360-degree VR multicamera live sports production. As part of a fully integrated VR workflow that included Nokia OZO cameras, the Electra VS compression platform enabled PCCW Global to distribute UHD VR content to consumers on a variety of devices, including PCs, smartphones and Samsung Gear VR head-mounted devices (HMDs).

"Live sports events are one of the most promising video applications for VR technology, increasing viewer engagement and opening up new monetization opportunities for content and service providers," said Tony Berthaud, vice president of sales, APAC, at Harmonic. "Working with PCCW Global and our VR technology partners, we were able to transport sports fans to this premiere event, which attracts some of the world's greatest rugby players, unveiling each and every angle of the matches in exceptional UHD quality."

The 360-degree VR workflow featured Nokia OZO VR cameras integrated with Adobe Premiere for postproduction, the Harmonic Electra VS system for UHD compression, and Ideal Live 360, a solution co-developed by Ideal Systems that includes a VR application for Gear VR headsets and a cloud-based VR analytic backend service. Using the Electra VS system, PCCW Global was able to encode live video into multiple profiles and formats, including DASH UHD ABR, AVC and HEVC, ensuring that viewers of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament enjoyed stunning 360-degree, VR visuals on any device.

Additionally, at the 2017 NAB Show in Harmonic booth SU1210, the company will showcase cutting-edge innovations in 360-degree immersive VR technology with a demonstration featuring prerecorded content of Blue Man Group from their stage at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Further information about Harmonic and the company's products is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

[donaldk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMILpb1WHHA