Harmonic Powers New HD And ISDB-T 1seq Services For TV Globo Affiliate TV Centro America

End-to-End Contribution, Satellite Distribution, and Reception Solution Delivers Superior Quality Video, While Lowering TCO and Providing New Revenue Opportunities

San Jose, CA (Marketwired) - Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, today announced that TV Centro América, a TV Globo affiliate based in Cuiabá, Brazil, has deployed an end-to-end contribution, satellite distribution and reception solution from Harmonic to power its new free-to-air multiscreen service. SDB Comercial, Harmonic's local distribution partner, supplied the innovative solution in addition to professional services and support. By providing TV Centro América with a high-end encoding and fully managed satellite distribution system, Harmonic enables the channel to deliver HDTV content to viewers on TV screens, as well as mobile devices utilizing the ISDB-T 1seq mobile terrestrial digital broadcasting service.

"We wanted to upgrade our legacy SD system to deliver free-to-air HD content on TVs and mobile devices. To accomplish this, we needed a powerful infrastructure solution capable of delivering superior-quality video at the lowest possible bit rates," said Luis Botelho, engineering manager at TV Centro América. "Harmonic provides us with the most efficient solution on the market for delivering breaking news coverage, including live sporting events, with the best possible video quality, while lowering total cost of ownership and opening up new revenue opportunities."

On the distribution front, Harmonic's ProView™ 7100 integrated receiver-decoders (IRDs) are used for descrambling and decoding. The IRDs also perform HD down-conversion and aspect ratio adaptation to generate PAL-M broadcast-quality baseband analog video and audio, keeping TV Centro América's analog transmission on-air until the government mandated switch-off scheduled for 2018. The ProView IRDs are controlled by Harmonic's DMS™ video distribution management system.

"The biggest challenge we faced during the project was migrating the transponder to another frequency as quickly as possible," said Sidnei Brito, owner of SDB Comercial. "Thanks to Harmonic's DMS video distribution management solution and our extensive engineering expertise, we successfully completed the migration with less than five minutes of signal downtime."

On the delivery side, TV Centro América is using Harmonic's Electra™ 8200 universal HD MPEG-2 and AVC encoders to provide high-quality, low-bandwidth MPEG-4 AVC encoding of video content for its new multiscreen service. Additionally, Harmonic's ProStream® 1000 stream processing platforms guarantee the protection of content by supporting scrambling of DVB simulcrypt applications, working in sync with conditional access systems from Irdeto and Nagravision.

TV Centro América is also using the Harmonic Ellipse® 3000 contribution encoder and ProView IRDs at its Cuiabá facility for contribution purposes. The facility delivers live productions via a terrestrial IP network to stations in the Mato Grosso Television Network, covering more than 200 cities in the region. The Ellipse and ProView platforms are also installed within TV Centro América's DSNG trucks. Together, the contribution encoders and IRDs provide TV Centro América with a high-density, scalable and bandwidth-efficient contribution solution that maintains superior video quality during live broadcasts.

"Unlike our competitors, Harmonic offers a complete solution for contribution, satellite distribution and reception, guaranteeing amazing video quality and lowering the total cost of ownership for our customers," said Alvaro Martin, Harmonic's regional vice president of sales for Latin America. "This innovative solution was deployed just in time for the football championship in Brazil, enabling TV Centro América to transmit breaking news from the stadiums and the teams' headquarters to viewers in full HD, free to air."

Further information about Harmonic and the company's products is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

About Harmonic
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure for emerging television and video services. Harmonic enables customers to produce, deliver and monetize amazing video experiences, with unequalled business agility and operational efficiency, by providing market-leading innovation, high-quality service and compelling total-cost-of-ownership. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements related to the anticipated capabilities and benefits of Harmonic's Electra™ 8200 encoder, Ellipse® 3000 contribution encoder, DMS™ video distribution management system, ProStream® 1000 stream processing platform, and ProView™ 7100 integrated receiver-decoder. Our expectations and beliefs regarding these products may not materialize and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the possibility that the products do not meet some or all of their anticipated capabilities or provide some or all of their anticipated benefits, such as high density, scalability, bandwidth efficiency and delivery of amazing video quality at a lower total-cost-of-ownership.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, such as those more fully described in Harmonic's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec.31, 2014, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and its Current Reports on Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Harmonic as of the date hereof, and Harmonic disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Product and company names used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.