Belo Expands Services With Harmonic Encoders

Belo Corp. has deployed Harmonic Inc.’s Electra 8000 multichannel universal encoders to deliver expanded HD and SD television services. Belo stations reach more than 14% of U.S. television households in 15 markets. This new solution was implemented for Belo, a long-standing Harmonic customer, by Heartland Video Systems (HVS), a systems integrator and Harmonic value-added reseller based in the Midwest.

Harmonic’s Electra 8000 allows Belo to deliver multiple HD and SD services within the ATSC broadcast stream while preserving the HD video quality. The Electra 8000’s architecture, featuring up to four statistically multiplexed services in a single rack unit, reduces operational costs for Belo through its high density and power efficiency, while facilitating the launch of the new services, according to Harmonic.

“The full broadcast emission solution offered by Harmonic and HVS has enabled our stations to transition easily from their existing legacy encoding, multiplexing, and PSIP (program and system information protocol) systems to the fully integrated Electra 8000 platform, which also enables new service offerings in the future, such as mobile DTV,” said Craig Harper, Belo VP of technology.

“The Harmonic Electra 8000 provides the flexibility to fit multiple HD and SD services into the ATSC bandwidth while maintaining high-quality HD video, which opens the door for Belo to further capitalize on the bandwidth efficiencies to enable cost-effective, multiscreen content delivery,” said JC Morizur, VP, product marketing at Harmonic.

The Electra 8000 encoder supports HD and SD compression, in MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-2, as well as integrated statistical multiplexing, broadcast quality up/down-conversion and other features such as Jünger Audio’s Level Magic automatic audio leveling adjustment.