Harmonic to showcase new playout functionality

Harmonic has announced a series of enhancements to its Spectrum media server family of products.

The recently introduced Spectrum ChannelPort integrated channel playout device will feature new capabilities and onboard features. IBC will also see the launch of the Spectrum MediaStore 5000 disk-based shared storage system, designed to bring the benefits of serial attached SCSI (SAS) drives to Spectrum media server systems, according to Harmonic.

Combining channel branding and master control switching with clip playout, the modular ChannelPort is provided as an incremental upgrade to their existing Spectrum architecture.

New features include DVE functionality to enable more sophisticated, high-end graphics presentations, and support for AVC-Intra playout that aids in accelerating the production-to-playout workflow. The system’s new dynamic subtitle insertion capability supports just-in-time playout of multilingual content. Traffic-driven onboard playout control with automatic media fetch provides remote operation without the need for legacy automation software, according to Harmonic.

The MediaStore 5000 will make its worldwide debut at IBC 2012. This will serve as the storage component of the Spectrum media server system, bringing the advantages of the latest SAS disk technology. MediaStore systems combine with MediaPort and MediaDirector systems to comprise a full Spectrum system. The release of the 2RU MediaStore 5000 introduces a smaller form factor, higher bandwidth and greater storage capacity, according to the company.

The MediaStore 5000 accommodates up to 24 hot-swappable high-performance drives in a space-efficient chassis. The system supports hard-disk drive sizes of 300GB, 600GB, and 900GB for a maximum of 62.8TB of usable online storage, and it provides storage bandwidth of up to 1600Mbps. Reliable performance is assured by a RAID 6 storage topology, hardware redundancy and the same architecture already proven in MediaStore 4000 systems, according to the company.

“Harmonic’s goal is to provide broadcasters and other service providers with solutions that help them produce video content more efficiently and cost-effectively, and the capabilities of both ChannelPort and MediaStore 5000 reflect this priority,” said Krish Padmanabhan, senior vice-president of video products at Harmonic. “Each of these Spectrum server family products addresses the challenges that our customers face in distributing a greater volume of content with fewer resources.”

Harmonic will be exhibiting at IBC on Stand 1.B20.