Swisscom transcodes burgeoning services with Harmonic
Swisscom has chosen Harmonic’s ProMedia Live real-time multiscreen transcoding platform and NMX Digital Service Manager to provide HD video streams for its rapidly expanding Web TV and mobile TV services.
“Over the last two years, our Web and mobile subscribers more than tripled to beyond 300,000, and our IPTV subscribers skyrocketed to 600,000 users — compelling us to adopt a high-performance solution to handle the increased volume of streaming video,” said Volker Dietzel, Head of TV and Portal Development at Swisscom Switzerland Ltd. “Harmonic’s scalable solution allows us to keep pace cost-effectively with the explosive growth in subscriber numbers and streaming sessions by delivering more high-quality live channels to mobile viewing devices than any competitor in our market.”
A member of the ProMedia suite of multiscreen software solutions and appliances, the ProMedia Live realtime, carrier-grade application features Harmonic’s industry-leading H.264 codec technology, allowing Swisscom seamlessly to transcode and deliver superior-quality SD and HD video in the most popular mobile and Internet formats — providing subscribers with a reliable, compelling viewing experience on any device.
“Swisscom delivers a unique ‘anytime, anywhere’ television experience,” said Moore Macauley, director, product line management, Multiscreen, at Harmonic. “The high-quality multiplatform television experience that Swisscom puts at subscribers’ fingertips is exactly what we envisioned in designing our transcoders. By managing their streaming video content from a highly scalable solution like ProMedia Live, the telecom provider has the power to significantly increase its channel offerings in the future.”
Hosted on the new ProMedia 1104 application server, ProMedia Live provides Swisscom with real-time video processing and encoding with enhanced H.264 video codec technology for creating high-quality Internet video streams. It transcodes baseband SD and HD or MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) content to multiple H.264 streams optimized for adaptive bit rate streaming formats, including Apple HTTP Live Streaming, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and 3GPP. ProMedia Live’s flexible, software-based IP architecture is based on independently scalable nodes that can be increased to support new channels as Swisscom’s encoding needs continue to grow.
The ProMedia Live transcoders are managed by Harmonic’s NMX Digital Service Manager, a powerful software-based network management system that provides full control over the complete network. Through a simple, intuitive interface, Swisscom can create, modify, and manage service lineups; the underlying equipment is automatically reconfigured to support the new operating parameters, providing a seamless operation.