ETEX Telephone Cooperative Launches IPTV and OTT Multiscreen Services With Harmonic Solutions

Northeast Texas telecommunications provider ETEX Telephone Cooperative has launched IPTV and OTT multiscreen services powered by Harmonic ProStream 1000 with ACE transcoding and ProMedia Package adaptive stream preparation systems.

Leveraging adaptive bit rate technology, Harmonic’s high-density and scalable video infrastructure solutions help ETEX cost-effectively deliver high-quality HD video services to a wide range of devices, including TVs, PCs, tablets, and smartphones by minimizing bandwidth constraints across the provider’s IP network.

“Prior to launching with the Harmonic solution, network bandwidth constraints made it impossible to offer reliable IPTV and multiscreen services,” said Patton Knox, network engineer at ETEX Telephone Cooperative. “Harmonic’s ProStream 1000 with ACE video processing and transcoding system delivers excellent HD video quality at lower bit rates, allowing us to maximize efficiencies and costs as we roll out a competitive triple-play IPTV, telephone, and wireless Internet multiscreen service offering.”

ProStream 1000 with ACE real-time transcoding performs MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 video and audio transcoding of up to 20 HD or 60 SD channels for broadcast and 80 profiles for OTT multiscreen. The device also provides ASI to IP multiplexing and scrambling from a single 1-RU chassis, optimizing bandwidth use for ETEX Telephone Cooperative’s new service. The any-to-any and any-to-many video/audio transcoding solution seamlessly prepares content for adaptive bit rate streaming to IPTV and OTT devices, enabling ETEX to generate broadcast television services and mobile/Web device profiles simultaneously from a single compressed SD/HD input. ProStream 1000 with ACE’s high-density design decreases capital and operating expenses through reduced power consumption and rack space. ProStream’s highly scalable architecture also provides investment protection as ETEX can support additional IPTV channels and value-added content like HD video-on-demand in the future.

Harmonic’s ProMedia Package carrier-grade adaptive stream preparation system combines multiple streams of H.264 video and associated audio into a variety of HTTP adaptive bit rate protocols, allowing ETEX Telephone Cooperative to deliver secure OTT multiscreen video services efficiently. The entirely software-based system can scale to support hundreds of simultaneous streams and simplifies the encryption of audio and video content by integrating with multiple digital rights management systems seamlessly.

“Over the past two years, Harmonic’s advanced IPTV solutions have been deployed by more than 240 telco customers and currently power over 12,000 channels in North America,” said Chris White, director of telco sales in the U.S. for Harmonic. “ProStream 1000 with ACE has been critical to driving the company’s growth by offering our customers the total package in terms of density, cost, ease of use, video quality, and flexibility. Relying on an integrated IPTV framework from Harmonic, an operator like ETEX can affordably launch IPTV and OTT multiscreen services that dramatically increase their revenue and market share.”

Harmonic will showcase ProStream 1000 with ACE and ProMedia Suite at booth 701 during the TelcoTV 2012 Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Oct. 24-26.