Harmonic Helps The Weather Channel Improve Efficiency and Flexibility
Harmonic Ingest, Storage, Playout, and Transcoding Systems Enable Agile Production and Delivery of Timely Multiplatform News and Programming
SAN JOSE, Calif. (12 Aug 2014)
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, today announced that The Weather Channel has deployed a comprehensive ingest, playout, and transcoding solution from Harmonic to support the network's content acquisition management system. The network also installed a complement of new Harmonic systems in its master control for short- and long-form program playout.
The new broadcast infrastructure at The Weather Channel headquarters in Atlanta enables a much higher degree of automation, as well as better tracking of audio, video, and data -- and more effective use of these assets in creating the unique content for which the network is known. These benefits extend beyond production and broadcast operations to providing additional programming and data for other business units, such as WSI, weather.com, and Weather Underground.
"Because we cannot send crews to hundreds of locations each day, we rely on local talent and local users to generate content for us, and this means we get a significant amount of inbound content in just about every format imaginable," said Philip Grossman, senior director of content acquisition and management at The Weather Channel. "From transcoding and ingest to high-speed shared storage and playback for live TV, Harmonic is at the core of our operations. With this installation we can process as many as 200 videos an hour in up to six different bit rates, and we can scale the system beyond this as needed."
The Harmonic solution includes the ProMedia Carbon file-based transcoder for transcoding with WFS file-based workflow engine control; Spectrum MediaDeck integrated media servers for ingest; a Harmonic MediaGrid shared storage system; and, for playout, a new Spectrum media server system comprising a MediaStore 5000 storage array, MediaDirector media server controllers, and MediaPort real-time video encoder/decoders. These systems are connected to an enterprise service bus (ESB) that establishes interoperability among systems and provides their functionality through scalable services within a service-oriented architecture.
As a result, The Weather Channel has been able to increase efficiency and flexibility for covering multiple simultaneous weather-based news events, as well as the agility that allows it to adapt quickly to changing market demands without interrupting ongoing programming and services. The greater capacity of the new Harmonic Spectrum systems in master control, along with support for the latest codecs, helps The Weather Channel free up storage space while reducing the need for file conversions, which saves time and streamlines the overall flow of content from production to playout.
"We have a long history with The Weather Channel, and we are proud to play a role in its continued evolution as the preeminent source of timely weather-related news and information," said John Scaggs, director of sales at Harmonic. "The network's broadcast infrastructure is designed to be adaptive and interactive so that it can continually provide the functionality essential to the top-tier multiplatform offering of weather-focused content by The Weather Channel."
A two-minute "Industry Spotlight" video about The Weather Channel content acquisition management system is available on the Harmonic website at http://www.harmonicinc.com/content/weather-channel-content-acquisition-and-management-industry-spotlight.
At stand 1.B20 during IBC2014, Sept. 12-16, in Amsterdam, Harmonic will showcase its comprehensive line of market-leading solutions that optimize the production and delivery of high-value video services. Further information about Harmonic and the company's products is available at www.harmonicinc.com.
About Harmonic
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure for emerging television and video services. The company's production-ready innovation enables content and service providers to efficiently create, prepare, and deliver differentiated services for television and new media video platforms. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.