Harmonic: Cloud and Software Innovations at IBC2024

These advancements focus on production, playout, broadcast, distribution, live sports streaming, and content monetization. The goal is to help service providers and broadcasters increase revenues, improve viewing experiences, and reduce video infrastructure costs.

Video Streaming and Broadcast Advancements

Harmonic will introduce several innovations for video streaming and broadcast delivery. These include AI-powered capabilities designed to enhance video workflows and boost advertising revenue. The key features include:

• Advertising Revenue Growth: Harmonic’s VOS®360 Ad SaaS enables the monetization of sports events by creating new premium ad inventory for in-stream advertising during both high- and low-action moments.
• Enhanced Video Workflows: New AI-driven content processing features, such as speech-to-text for closed captioning and voice cloning for real-time audio commentary translation, are included in VOS360 Media SaaS.
• Personalized Sports Streaming: VOS360 Media SaaS allows service providers to automatically generate personalized sports highlights, increasing fan engagement.

Reducing Video Infrastructure Costs

Harmonic is also focused on reducing video infrastructure costs through advancements in its media processing and server platforms:

• Next-Generation Media Platforms: The XOS media processor provides 50% more channel encoding and transcoding capacity, while the Spectrum™ X media server doubles channel density for certain workflows.
• Playout-to-Delivery Capability: Harmonic combines playout, branding, and encoding into a single software-based solution or SaaS offering on the XOS media processor and VOS360 Media SaaS.
• Dynamic Frame Rate Encoding: This new AI-based algorithm reduces CPU usage by 20% and bandwidth by 15%, without compromising video quality.
• Encoder Stress Performance Gauge: Service providers can now monitor CPU resource consumption and video quality in real time, allowing them to maximize channel encoding efficiency.

Partnerships and Collaborations

Harmonic is collaborating with various industry leaders to advance video streaming and broadcast technology:

• AI Innovations: Partnerships with Kebula, Camb.ai, LingoPal, Southworks, and Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service are driving AI-driven advancements in clip extraction, voice cloning, and personalized sports streaming.
• Monetization Tools: Harmonic is working with castLabs, FreeWheel, Google Ad Manager, and RYFF to enhance monetization opportunities for broadcasters and service providers.
• Cloud Delivery and Content Management: Collaborations with cloud providers like Microsoft, Google, and AWS are simplifying video streaming, while integration with Deltatre, Quickplay, and Viaccess-Orca streamlines content management.
• Content Security: Harmonic’s solutions integrate with watermarking technologies from Irdeto, NAGRA, and Viaccess-Orca to protect video content.