SKY Perfect Selects Harmonic's Video Compression for High Definition MPEG-4 AVC Satellite Service

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

Market-Leading DiviCom® Electra™ 7000 Multi-Channel Encoders Deployed for DTH Service in Japan

Amsterdam — IBC 2007 Booth #1.361 — Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that SKY Perfect Communications Inc. (SKY Perfect) is deploying Harmonic’s DiviCom® Electra™ 7000 high definition (HD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video encoders for its new direct-to-home (DTH) HDTV platform to be launched in 2008. The new video headend also includes the ProStream™ 1000 platform with DiviTrackIP™ statistical multiplexing and NMX Digital Service Manager™. By using Harmonic’s IP-based H.264 compression technology, SKY Perfect can efficiently expand its HD service and offer more channels within the available satellite capacity. SKY Perfect is a satellite broadcasting platform operator in Japan with more than 4.2 million subscribers nationwide.

Enhancing the service offering with more HD is important to enable DTH operators to strengthen their competitive position and deliver a more compelling experience to viewers. Several of the world’s largest satellite service providers have selected Harmonic’s Electra 7000 for their next generation HD services. The compression efficiency afforded by the Electra platform makes it possible to add significantly more channels per transport, lowering capital and operational expenditures.

“Harmonic is a trusted partner that offers SKY Perfect the reliability, experience and performance required for our HD H.264 service,” said Shuichi Iida, General Manager, Platform Systems Department for SKY Perfect Communications, Inc. “In addition to providing better picture quality than other solutions, the Electra 7000 HD encoders are easily added to our existing Harmonic MPEG-2 video headend, managed by Harmonic’s NMX Digital Service Manager. As a result, the deployment risk and cost of ownership of our service expansion are reduced.”

“SKY Perfect is a well-respected operator that has achieved success in delivering impressive video services to its subscribers,” said Patrick Harshman, President and CEO of Harmonic Inc. “Harmonic is focused on making sure our customers can achieve the best video quality and maximize service carrying capacity by bringing to market superior IP-based compression solutions including the Electra HD and SD H.264 encoders and DiviTrackIP statistical multiplexing.”

SKY Perfect is taking full advantage of the Electra 7000’s high density design to deliver four channels of full resolution HD in one rack-unit (RU) which are then multiplexed using the versatile DiviTrackIP solution. In addition, the Electra encoders can also simultaneously generate four parallel low resolution video channels for applications such as picture-in-picture and digital mosaics. Harmonic is also offering system integration and training services to SKY Perfect as part of the deployment.

Links: SKY Perfect Communications; Harmonic Inc.