Cable Show 2009

Harmonic Stages a New Electra Production

| Mar 20, 2009 | Digital Media Infrastructure | Show Update

| Analyst: Ron Westfall

Current Perspective: Slightly Positive Vendor Importance: Moderate Market Impact: Moderate

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Event Summary

March 18, 2009 -- Harmonic Inc. introduced the DiviCom Electra 8000, positioned as the world's first encoding and transcoding platform to support MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and MPEG-2 codecs in standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) formats, up to full frame-rate 1080p 50/60. The platform could potentially provide superior video quality in a dense and power-efficient form factor: four channels per rack unit (RU) and using 40% less power than the industry average for HD AVC encoding.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on Harmonic unveiling the DiviCom Electra 8000 encoding and transcoding platform, which Harmonic posits as the industry’s first encoding and transcoding platform to support MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 codecs in SD and HD formats, with up to full frame-rate 1080p 50/60. Harmonic earns marketing points for using The Cable Show to catapult the DiviCom Electra 8000’s introduction to the attention of the video networking industry, but it is unclear if Harmonic will also score a time-to-market advantage, as the product launch lacks the always-helpful upfront customer endorsement.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to Harmonic, which needed to diversify further the DiviCom Electra product line of encoders with the launch of the DiviCom 8000 series to complement the DiviCom Electra 7000/5400/5000 series. The move also pre-empts rival efforts to portray Harmonic as non-unique in supporting MPEG-4/MPEG-2 and SD/HD capabilities on a single 1RU platform.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the overall digital media infrastructure (DMI) market and the video head-end (VHE)/encoder segment, since Harmonic already commands a top-tier market position within the encoder market segment and the assertion that the DiviCom Electra 8000 is the industry’s first encoding and transcoding platform to support MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 codecs in SD and HD formats, with up to full frame-rate 1080p 50/60, will oblige encoder rivals at least to put more marketing emphasis on their support of enhanced frame rates and to re-iterate their asserted power consumption and sustainability benefits.

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Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

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