Harris H-Class, acquisitions transform NAB presence

During the past two years Harris Broadcast has transformed itself from a company mainly known for transmission and automation gear to one that has arguably the broadest product portfolio of any manufacturer outside of Thomson.

Last week the company acquired traffic and billing software provider Optimal Solutions, Inc. (OSi). It has a strong technology for proposals and sales and more than 350 call letter TV station clients, says Les Wyatt, VP and GM, Harris Software Systems. Ed Adams, co-founder and president of OSi will remain with the company as VP and GM of the OSi division of Harris Software Systems.

The OSi acquisition joins others Harris made of Videotek, Encoda Systems, and Leitch in the past two years that add new technologies test and measurement, traffic, and production and distribution gear to the roster. In turn, expect the Harris booth this year to be the broadcast equivalent of a department store: something for everyone.

The company s biggest initiative, the H-Class Content Delivery Platform, a massive digital asset management, air-time sales, scheduling and reporting system, will be on display at the NAB booth.

Harris believes that by providing management of content assets, associated metadata and content relationships, the H-Class Platform enables the delivery of rich media across multiple distribution channels.
“Harris is the first vendor to recognize and deliver integrated messaging and content sharing between the functional areas within a media business,” said Wyatt. “Through our H-Class Content Delivery Platform and Application Suite, Harris is redefining how media businesses leverage content to their maximum revenue potential, enabling our customers to enter new markets while lowering operational costs.”

Harris will demo an enhanced D-Series Playout Automation solution that interfaces with its H-Class Content Delivery Platform at NAB this week. New features include the dynamic exchange of play list and as-run data. The enhanced solution also includes native interfaces with the H-Class Platform, which provide existing and new D-Series customers with tighter integration to other H-Class applications, such as H-Class Scheduling, H-Class Media Ingest and H-Class Digital Asset Management.

With D-Series playout automation users will be able to do dynamic exchange of schedules to automation and provide as-run information back to the H-Class business applications. That means improved workflow efficiencies and ad changes.

Integration with the H-Class Content Delivery Platform introduces the proven reliability and scalability (up to 1,000 channels) of the D-Series solution to other enterprise-scale H-Class Platform clients, making it possible for these businesses to consider new revenue models as they enter the multi-channel, multi-service world of digital television (DTV). The new D-Series/H-Class Platform interface will be demonstrated in the South Hall at Harris booth #SU2929.

Among the new H-Class features attendees should look for are:

-Invenio, an enterprise-wide digital asset management system that this June will include new production protocols for seamless media exchange with NLE systems and a Web client for faster Internet searching.

– Vision, a system that unites planning, rights management and scheduling for data-rich, accurate schedules. With the June 2006 release, Vision becomes H-Class Scheduling and will have new features like advanced break management, comprehensive program asset liability tracking, and expanded program management amortization process.
-Harris’ Advanced Report Management (ARM) provides report management and execution across all H-Class Applications. In June ARM becomes H-Class Reporting and provides the infrastructure to access all H-Class Application databases from a single reporting engine. This enables customers to execute reports for single or multiple H-Class applications and gives both managers and operations staff quick access to the information required to maximize revenues.

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