Virgin Media TV Anywhere Powered by Harmonic ProMedia Suite

Virgin Media TV Anywhere Powered by Harmonic ProMedia Suite 19 Mar 2013

Harmonic, the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, today announced that Virgin Media, the United Kingdoms leading provider of cable television, broadband, phone, and mobile services, has deployed Harmonics ProMedia family of integrated software solutions to power an innovative new multiscreen service called Virgin TV Anywhere. Harmonics real-time multiscreen video processing and encoding technology enables Virgin TV Anywhere customers to watch up to 45 live TV channels on a wide range of devices, including TVs, PCs, smartphones, and tablets. Leveraging Virgin Medias powerful new infrastructure, customers can also manage recorded programs and control TiVo set-top boxes through a state-of-the-art Virgin TV Anywhere app.

Neil Drennan, director of TV engineering at Virgin Media said, The world of digital entertainment is moving fast and consumers are always looking for compelling ways to take advantage of the connectivity built into todays gadgets. Harmonics ProMedia software solution optimizes our multiscreen operational workflow, helping us put fantastic entertainment at our customers fingertips.

ProMedia Live transcodes MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC H.264 content to multiple high-quality adaptive bit-rate streams optimized for the Virgin TV Anywhere service. By effectively handling metadata information such as language, captions, and ad insertion signaling upon input and output, the ProMedia family provides a complete video preparation solution. ProMedia Live is also integrated with Harmonics ProMedia Package to perform sophisticated encapsulation and encryption processes from a unified management system. By relying on a powerful integrated headend for its multiscreen services, Virgin Media is now able to support Apple HLS and Adobe HDS streaming to a broad range of customer devices.

Harmonics NMX Digital Service Manager controls both ProMedia Live and ProMedia Package systems, enabling Virgin Media to seamlessly monitor and control its multiscreen video and audio services. Through a comprehensive user interface, Virgin Media is easily able to create and modify network topology and channel lineups, in addition to setting encoding parameters. The systems highly scalable and extensible architecture will enable Virgin Media to easily support hundreds of live television channels as well as introduce additional services like start-over and catch-up TV.

Harmonic has been Virgin Medias go-to technology partner for a variety of high-profile television events and services over the years. With this latest installation, were excited to bring cutting-edge multiscreen services to subscribers in the U.K., said Ian Graham, vice president of sales, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Harmonic. Based on its integration, flexibility, and scalability, Harmonics award-winning ProMedia Suite is the industrys trusted solution for high-quality multiscreen production and delivery.

Virgin Medias operations center also features existing Harmonic infrastructure solutions that seamlessly work alongside the new ProMedia Suite and NMX systems, including Electra 8000 encoders, ProStream 1000 multiplexers, and NSG 9000 edgeQAMs for increased efficiency, reliability, and scalability.

Harmonic will showcase its comprehensive range of next-generation multiscreen production and delivery solutions at stand 85 during TV Connect in London, March 19-21. Further information about Harmonic and the companys products is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

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