PTS Selects Harmonic for Taiwan's First Terrestrial H.264 HD and SD Broadcast Service

Monday, June 15th, 2009
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Taiwan’s Public Television Service Foundation Transitions to H.264-Based Service; New Offering Powered by Harmonic’s Encoders, Stream Processing and Management Software

SINGAPORE — CommunicAsia 2009 Booth #4L3-01 — Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that Public Television Service Foundation (PTS) has selected Harmonic’s MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) digital video technologies for the rollout of Taiwan’s first high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) H.264 terrestrial broadcast service. PTS produces and transmits free public television programming to viewers throughout Taiwan via its DVB-T terrestrial network. PTS’ new video service–powered by Harmonic’s DiviCom Electra® 7000 and 5400 encoders, ProStream™ 1000 stream processing platform with DiviTrackIP™ distributed statistical multiplexing, and NMX Digital Service Manager™–was successfully launched earlier this year.

PTS was founded in 1998 as a terrestrial television channel, and in 2006, was charged by the Taiwanese government with developing an HDTV transmission station. PTS today produces a range of high quality, independent content, including local and national news programs, documentaries, dramatic films, children’s content, and other critically acclaimed programs.

“PTS is committed to producing exceptional programming and building the highest quality infrastructure to support delivery of this HD and SD content,” said Mr. C. F. Yang, Engineering Department Manager, PTS. “Harmonic’s Electra H.264 encoders and DiviTrackIP statistical multiplexing solution have met our stringent standards for quality and performance, enabling us to provide Taiwan’s television viewing public with a very compelling HD viewing experience. We continue to be impressed with the strength of Harmonic’s H.264 digital video solutions, which have been seamlessly integrated into our network.”

“By upgrading its MPEG-2 digital video infrastructure with a next-generation H.264 transmission system, PTS has been able to efficiently introduce a higher quality and more bandwidth-efficient SD and HD service for its viewers in Taiwan,” said Raymond Tse, Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales, Harmonic Inc. “PTS provides a vital public television service, and we are pleased to support their critically acclaimed work with our industry leading compression and statistical multiplexing solutions. Harmonic’s terrestrial broadcasting technologies have been deployed around the world, enabling broadcasters to rapidly respond to market demands for high quality digital content.”

Double Advance Technology, Harmonic’s system integrator for the PTS project, provided installation, project management, and related services for this deployment.

Harmonic will be featuring its H.264 digital video solutions, including the DiviCom Electra 7000 HD encoder –honored as Cable & Satellite International’s best HDTV technology in 2008–at CommunicAsia 2009, booth #4L3-01, June 16 – 19, Singapore.