Harmonic sets new video streaming standards at 2024 NAB Show

Harmonic today announced it is bringing its leading-edge cloud and software-based appliance solutions to the 2024 NAB Show, redefining the standard for video streaming and broadcast delivery. The company will showcase AI-powered innovations for a variety of applications, including live sports streaming, targeted advertising, production and playout, and broadcast distribution, reaffirming its global leadership in video processing and delivery.

“Harmonic has always pushed the boundaries of innovation in video streaming and broadcast,” said Gil Rudge, senior vice president, video products and solutions at Harmonic. “At the NAB Show, we’re excited to showcase solutions that enable service providers and broadcasters to unlock new levels of monetization while vastly improving broadcast and streaming experiences for subscribers.”

Harmonic will demonstrate how its VOS ®360 portfolio, XOS media processor and Spectrum™ X media server are empowering video service providers and broadcasters to:

Boost monetization: Harmonic’s VOS360 Ad SaaS introduces new capabilities, including support for innovative in-stream addressable ad formats. This creates new advertising opportunities with higher CPM and enables personalized ads tailored to individual viewers, facilitating server-side ad insertion at scale, dynamic in-scene advertising and shoppable ads.

Enhance and secure live sports streaming: Harmonic’s VOS360 Media SaaS guarantees unparalleled scalability, reliability and low latency for live sports streaming. With exceptional video quality and best-in-class watermarking protection, broadcasters can deliver immersive experiences to sports fans worldwide.

Expand production and playout: Spectrum X media server, XOS media processor and VOS360 Media SaaS offer groundbreaking enhancements for playout-to-delivery workflows. Innovations include support for studio, news and sport highlights production workflows; powerful H™L5 graphics; channel distribution to affiliates or direct-to-consumer; and personalized linear channel origination with an AI-based automatic scheduling and recommendations engine.

Advance broadcast distribution: Harmonic’s AI-based PURE compression engine now supports Versatile Video Coding (VVC), offering up to 40% bandwidth savings compared to HEVC. Additionally, XOS media processor can seamlessly deliver both ISDB-Tb and TV3.0 signals from a single chassis, optimizing broadcast distribution efficiency. Harmonic will also unveil the latest innovations related to ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 at the NAB Show.

In addition to these innovations, Harmonic is forging strategic partnerships with industry leaders to advance video streaming and broadcast technologies:

AI collaborations: Teaming up with ContentWise, Camb.ai, Leankr and Kebula, Harmonic is driving innovation in automated channel scheduling, translation, ad break insertion and clip extraction. In collaboration with Southworks, Harmonic is also proud to showcase enhanced monetization capabilities and increased fan engagement through personalized live sports streaming, using Microsoft  Azure OpenAI Service.

Monetization partnerships: Harmonic is maximizing monetization opportunities for broadcasters and service providers through the VOS360 Ad SaaS open ecosystem. Demonstration highlights include the addition of dynamic virtual product placement solution from RYFF, analytics and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Ad Manager’s monetization integration with Bitmovin via the Programmatic Access Library (PAL) SDK as well as support for leading media players.

Production and playout collaborations: Harmonic will demonstrate Aveco, Florical and Crispin automation for its Spectrum X media server and VOS360 Media SaaS. Additionally, integration with Vizrt’s Viz Flowics cloud- native H™L5-based graphics platform and ContentWise for automatically creating VOD to live channel schedules will be showcased. Investing