[October 30, 2009] Blue Ridge Communications Implements Harmonic Electra 8000 Tweet Oct 31, 2009 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Harmonic announced that Blue Ridge Communications has deployed Harmonic's Electra 8000 universal encoder in an extensive network upgrade that marks the first live installation of the platform by a cable operator. The one rack-unit, multi-channel, multi-format Electra 8000 is enabling Blue Ridge to expand its HD offering to its subscribers in central and eastern Pennsylvania. The system provides a solution for Blue Ridge's rollout of additional HD content of video quality over its existing MPEG-2 cable infrastructure. The Electra 8000's FLEX technology provides an integrated decoding front-end and offers flexibility by making it possible for Blue Ridge to re-encode content from any source format or codec--HD or SD, MPEG-4 AVC or MPEG-2. In addition, integrated Junger automatic audio level adjustment and support for 1080p50/60 and 3D are available on the Electra 8000, providing a migration path that can be implemented in the field via software upgrade. "Harmonic's Electra 8000 brings cutting-edge video processing technology," said Gary Woods, Chief Technical Officer, Blue Ridge Communications. "The video quality, bandwidth efficiency, and density of this solution have exceeded expectations. The Electra 8000's simultaneous support of MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 codecs, in both HD and SD formats, also affords us greater flexibility in that we can easily adapt to any type of source or delivery format, which is important moving forward, for example, as content providers move to AVC distribution." "Cable operators require innovation and flexibility to free up bandwidth in their networks, while enhancing video quality," said Arnaud Perrier, Senior Manager of Encoder Product Marketing at Harmonic. "The breakthrough technology enhancements and efficiency gains of the Electra 8000 are enabling Blue Ridge to deploy a rich HD line-up with exceptional video quality. "This marks a further expansion of our relationship with Blue Ridge. Blue Ridge is using our ProView integrated receiver/decoders and other former Scopus products for digital turn-around applications and is also a customer of Harmonic's HFC access solutions. For over 50 years, Blue Ridge has led the way with a number of cable industry firsts, and today, Blue Ridge is a full service communications provider that continues to distinguish itself with a very attractive HDTV offering." ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]