At the 2017 NAB Show, Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) will demonstrate several solutions for OTT delivery with improved quality of experience (QoE). The company will be showcasing OTT bandwidth optimization, latency and packaging technologies intended to help operators deliver SD, HD and UltraHD video at low bitrates for a variety of services, including live streaming, VOD and time-shift TV.
"Today, one in five U.S. homes pay for three or more OTT services," said Bart Spriester, senior vice president, video products at Harmonic. "Harmonic is committed to helping operators monetize the opportunities available in the OTT environment. At the 2017 NAB Show, we will demonstrate how OTT operators can separate themselves from the competition with lower latency, reduced buffering, better video quality and increased bandwidth efficiency by leveraging software appliances or cloud-native applications."
At the 2017 NAB Show, Harmonic will showcase a real-time streaming workflow designed to match the latency of live broadcast.
"Low latency for OTT is extremely important, especially for the delivery of live sporting events," said Darryl Jefferson, VP, post production operations, NBC Sports Group. "Any lag time that exists between what's happening in real time and being viewed on screen is truly unacceptable to viewers nowadays. We're excited about the developments that Harmonic is making in the area of reduced latency for OTT video and expect it to be a game-changer for broadcasters and other content providers as they strive to deliver the best possible quality across all devices."
Harmonic's low-latency streaming workflow is based on a combination of packaging content in the new Common Media Application Format (CMAF) and HTTP chunked transfer encoding. An emerging media standard for OTT delivery, CMAF is intended to reduce the need to package content separately for HLS and MPEG-DASH devices.
Harmonic will also showcase a new solution for improved video quality over zero-rated mobile and xDSL networks, based on the company's latest EyeQ technology and new packaging technology designed for constrained networks. The EyeQ packaging solution is designed to improve HD video quality to set-top boxes connected to low-bandwidth DSL lines, as well as to mobile devices connected to 3G/4G networks without exceeding the 1.5 Mbps bandwidth limitation of zero-rated mobile connections.