Harmonic Releases ProMedia XPress

Harmonic has announced the release of the ProMedia Xpress high-performance file-based transcoder, the newest addition to the company’s ProMedia family of software and appliance solutions engineered to optimize video production workflows for high-volume multiscreen video-on-demand (VOD) applications.

ProMedia Xpress uses Harmonic’s H.264 codec technology to deliver video quality without impeding transcoding speeds, thereby improving video workflows for content owners and service providers, enabling them to deliver a significant increase in content hours while adhering to processing timetables and video quality targets. Facilitating cost-effective, faster-than-real-time transcoding of broadcast-quality content for multiscreen VOD delivery to mobile devices, PCs, and connected TVs, ProMedia Xpress allows operators and media companies to launch new services efficiently without compromising on the quality of their offering.

ProMedia Xpress employs Harmonic’s new MicroGrid parallel-computing technology to improve transcoding performance. MicroGrid’s video-centric approach for exploiting multi-core computing environments eliminates the bottlenecks associated with traditional transcoding approaches. By employing all available processor core capacity, ProMedia Xpress can scale effectively to provide remarkable transcoding performance without the need for custom computing hardware.

“Service providers and content owners must not only deliver VOD content to consumers’ PCs, connected TVs, and mobile devices within a tight timeframe, but also meet specific performance requirements for each adaptive streaming format used,” said Moore Macauley, senior director, multiscreen product line management at Harmonic. “ProMedia Xpress addresses these demands, enabling programmers to take on the challenge of providing high-volume multiformat OTT delivery while maintaining the quality and value of their video assets through the use of Harmonic’s market-leading H.264 codec.”

Part of the ProMedia suite of multiscreen products, ProMedia Xpress scales from several to hundreds of nodes and provides the operational integrity required in demanding 24/7 VOD environments.

When combined with the ProMedia Package stream packager, ProMedia Xpress allows multirate H.264 assets to be encapsulated with speed and flexibility for target ecosystems including Apple HTTP Live Streaming, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming, and MPEG-DASH. Because ProMedia Xpress and Package separate the transcoding and packaging processes, users can transcode an asset once and package it multiple times, thereby reducing repetitive processor-intensive tasks and easing the need to accommodate changing delivery standards and protocols. In addition, tight integration between ProMedia Xpress and Harmonic’s Omneon MediaGrid shared storage system allows content to be stored and accessed on the network at high speed, eliminating the latency associated with copying content to the transcode nodes before transcoding, and instantly making available transcoded content for downstream operations such as QC, distribution, delivery, or archive.

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters

;
SVGLogoHR_NOTAG-200

The Latest in Sports Video Production & Technology
in Your Inbox for FREE

Daily Email Newsletters Monday - Friday