Harmonic reveals new OTT customer and UHD-HDR SaaS system

New US-based OTT TV outfit Vidgo has tapped technology provider Harmonic for a new OTT service deployment.

Vidgo is a new entrant in the growing US OTT market that is planning to offer a skinny bundle line-up targeted at younger viewers and those that have decided to cut their pay TV services.

“They have identified a market of cord nevers and cord cutters and they want to tap into that market,” said Jean Macher, senior director, market development at Harmonic, adding that Vidgo was tapping into the capabilities of Harmonic’s VOS cloud-based workflow.

“They were looking for a proven cloud solution. VOS offers all of that,” said Macher, speaking at a Harmonic press event at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on Sunday. He said that established customers were now coming to Harmonic looking too benefit from the elasticity and flexibility that the cloud provides as well as new entrants looking to benefit form the pay-as-you-grow benefits of the cloud.

Harmonic currently has about 32,500 OTT channels deployed globally including 2,500 cloud native channels a figure that has grown by 150% in the last nine months.

Harmonic has also announced a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for live sports streaming in UHD-HDR.

Macher said SaaS was a perfect for occasional live sports events that lend themselves very well to a usage based model.

Harmonic is promising five seconds end to end from capture to display. Macher said that Harmonic can now deliver UHD-HDR capability from the cloud.

“This is groundbreaking for our industry,” said Marcher. He said the solution featured the ViBE CP9000 contribution encoding solution, with UHD OTT delivery over the internet via the VOS 360 paltform.

Harmonic also unveiled developments in ATSC 3.0 for the broadcast industry. Macher said that Harmonic is part of the Phoenix Pearl ATSC 3.0 project, contribution its Electra X ATSC platform for over the air broadcast.

“There is no doubt that the cloud will play a major role in enabling hybrid OTT services as part of ATSC 3.0 and we will be at the forefront of this innovation,” said Macher.

Finally, Harmonic used NAB Show to highlight the use of cloud technology to streamline broadcast operations. Japan’s Fuji TV has tapp3ed the VOS playout solution as a SaaS for its Smart OTT service.

The Fuji TV cloud playout workflow runs on AWS’s platform channels are distributed over the web in mezzanine format to professional IRDs at Fuji TV’s affiliate broadcasters.

“This is a very lean operation and a great example of cloud adoption by a broadcaster,” he said.

Macher said that primary distribution to affiliates over the internet enabled Fuji TV to send its signals to any location in the world.

Harmonic president and CEO Patrick Harshman said that the company was “tremendously excited by the impact of the cloud” on its customers’ businesses. He said that Harmonic was offering a broad portfolio of cloud and traditional infrastructure. He said that after a “choppy first half” Harmonic had bounced back in the second half and fourth quarter of 2017 in particular.