Russia's Leading Satellite Operator Launches High Definition Video Service Using Harmonic's Powerful Compression Solutions

NTV-Plus Deploys Latest Generation DiviCom® Electra™ Encoders and DiviTrackIP™ Statistical Multiplexing for High Quality, Low Bit-Rate Direct-to-Home TV Service

MOSCOW, Russia – CSTB Booth #490 — Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that NTV-Plus, the leading direct-to-home (DTH) satellite service provider in Russia and the Ukraine with more than 550,000 subscribers, has deployed Harmonic’s industry-leading DiviCom® Electra™ 7000 high definition (HD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoders for its new HD service. Since its introduction in July 2006, more than twenty operators in the United States and around the world have selected the Electra 7000 to power their new HD services. NTV-Plus has also implemented Harmonic’s Electra 1000 standard definition (SD) MPEG-2 encoders and DiviTrackIP™ distributed statistical multiplexing to more efficiently compress and deliver locally encoded and remultiplexed SD video programming.

Harmonic’s compression expertise and superior video processing, combined with the efficiency gains made possible with MPEG-4 technology, are creating new possibilities for satellite operators such as NTV-Plus.

“Being first to market in Russia with a high quality HD service was a key objective for NTV-Plus,” said Dmitry Samokhin, CEO of NTV-Plus. “At the moment we are broadcasting test versions of three HD channels and we are going to make them available to subscribers in late March. Harmonic’s IP-based solution met our criteria for the best video quality while also providing more flexibility, tremendous space efficiency and ease of management. With the Harmonic solution, we can improve customer satisfaction as well as add new revenue-generating services.”

The innovative and versatile Electra encoding architecture enables NTV-Plus to seamlessly and cost-effectively add more channels to the lineup and enhance the business model with HD, while also offering benefits such as support for multiple channels and resolutions. The Electra 7000’s ultra-low bit-rate video capability is critical in a DTH network, where dramatic improvements in bandwidth utilization are required to enable the addition of HD and increase the number of services carried per satellite transponder.

“Harmonic’s DiviCom Electra encoders and DiviTrackIP statistical multiplexing solution significantly reduced our bit-rate requirements for both HD H.264 and SD MPEG-2 services, facilitating expansion of the local and international programming we can offer. Subscribers can watch the full lineup of television channels in a sharp, digital format and now have access to a greater variety of sports, news and movie content produced by NTV-Plus as well as acquired from sources around the world,” added Oleg Kolesnikov, NTV-Plus Technical Director.

“Satellite operators around the world recognize the need to enhance their service offerings with more HD in order to remain competitive,” said Glen Sakata, Vice President of EMEA Sales for Harmonic Inc. “The end-to-end compression solution from Harmonic provides NTV-Plus with a state-of-the-art video delivery solution for both standard and high definition programming that can seamlessly scale with demand. The Electra 7000 is an ideal platform for the delivery of high quality, low bit-rate HD services while also reducing capital and operating expenditures with its multi-channel 1-RU design.”

The Electra 7000 is the world’s first multi-service, multi-channel HD H.264 encoder, supporting up to four full HD resolution programs and, in parallel, providing four low resolution channels for other services such as picture-in-picture (PiP), enhanced program guides or promotional channels. Harmonic’s market-leading Electra product family also includes the Electra 5000 series of SD H.264 and MPEG-2 encoders for multi-channel and multi-service applications, as well as the efficient Electra 1000 MPEG-2 encoders.

In addition to pioneering the next generation of video compression, Harmonic developed DiviTrackIP, the world’s first IP-based statistical multiplexing solution. Using DiviTrackIP, NTV-Plus gains a new level of flexibility in the creation, management and delivery of video services with a distributed architecture that can be controlled centrally or locally, via real-time or scheduled changes. The complete video headend architecture is managed by Harmonic’s versatile NMX Digital Service Manager™.