nCUBE, Harmonic Announce Gigabit Ethernet VOD Solution for Cable Operators; Charter Communications First To Deploy
Gigabit Ethernet Solution Lowers Video Transport Costs
nCUBE Corporation and Harmonic Inc. (Nasdaq:HLIT), today announced that Charter Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:CHTR), has installed the two companies' end-to-end Gigabit Ethernet solution for video-on-demand (VOD).Gigabit Ethernet is a transport vehicle that allows cable operators to deliver a wide range of video services to customers with dramatically reduced transport costs. The technology gives operators the flexibility to easily add new on-demand services to existing systems and save overhead costs on decentralized server technology over existing networks.
"Gigabit Ethernet technology will help Charter make the most out of our investment in nCUBE and Harmonic's VOD equipment," said John Pietri, Charter's senior vice president of Engineering. "We welcome this type of innovation, especially when it allows us to optimize our capital investment coupled with a smarter way to serve our customers."
"Charter continues to play a leading role in the implementation of cutting-edge technology, offering best-of-class digital services to television viewers," said Michael Pohl, president and chief executive officer, nCUBE Corporation. "As the roll out of new services such as VOD continues, nCUBE and Harmonic have developed a powerful solution that provides cable operators the technology and business tools to lower the overall cost of delivering advanced on-demand services and to maximize revenue potential. nCUBE's platform supports the technology of today and tomorrow's world of everything-on-demand."
nCUBE's on-demand suite provides operators a complete solution for delivering the on-demand services of today with the scalability to support on-demand television's future, everything-on-demand (EOD). nCUBE's n4 and enhanced n4x On-Demand Servers utilize a hypercube interconnect server architecture that can allow 53,000 users the ability to simultaneously access the same piece of content, and provides more than 200,000 hours of unique content storage. The nABLE On-Demand Management System is the industry's most comprehensive and automated back-office system for managing on-demand services. nODA offers operators the ability to customize and brand their VOD and subscription VOD (SVOD) services to create a unique and compelling user experience.
"Charter's deployment of video-on-demand services using Gigabit Ethernet underscores their broad vision and foresight in bringing compelling interactive services to market," said Dr. Yaron Simler, president of Harmonic's Convergent Systems Division. "The combination of the nCUBE server and Harmonic content-on-demand delivery systems enables Charter, and other cable operators, to more efficiently transport and distribute VOD streams as well as increase their revenue potential by more easily expanding their capacity, reach and range of services."
Harmonic's open standards-based content-on-demand transport and distribution systems provide greater scalability and flexibility as well as interoperability with the wide array of equipment -- including video servers, conditional access systems, transport protocols and set-top boxes -- found in today's networks. Harmonic's VOD solutions, which fit seamlessly into virtually any cable environment, enable operators to more easily adapt their networks to deliver content-on-demand services while introducing the superior economics and capacity of Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) transport. Harmonic's Narrowcast Services Gateway(TM) (NSG), a key element of the solution, processes streams from multiple high capacity servers in addition to performing multiplexing, program filtering and routing. The NSG features four dual integrated QAM RF outputs or multiple ASI output interfaces.
About nCUBEnCUBE Corporation (www.ncube.com) is a leading provider of on-demand media and digital advertising solutions. The company offers cable operators and telecommunications network providers the most comprehensive business and technology management solutions for advanced television services such as video-on-demand (VOD), subscription VOD (SVOD), network personal video recording (nPVR) and digital advertising insertion.
nCUBE provides operators with a proven technology and business model deployed throughout the world. The company's hypercube interconnect server architecture offers the only video server solution capable of allowing more than 53,000 users to simultaneously access the same piece of content from one server. With the nABLE On-Demand Management System, nCUBE offers a comprehensive on-demand business management solution. nCUBE also provides the most scalable advertising insertion solutions on the market today, including a Digital Program Insertion (DPI) product -- the only advertising insertion platform in the world capable of scaling up to 40 analog and 40 digital channels from the same server.
nCUBE's distinguished customer and partner list includes: Adelphia Communications, AT&T Broadband, Canal+ Technologies, Charter Communications, Comcast Corporation, Gemstar-TV Guide, Kingston Communications, Liberate Technologies, Motorola, OpenTV, Scientific-Atlanta and Time Warner Cable. The company's corporate headquarters is based in Beaverton, Ore., with offices worldwide.
About Charter CommunicationsCharter Communications, A Wired World Company(TM), is among the nation's largest broadband communications companies, currently serving more than 6.8 million customers in 40 states. Charter provides a full range of advanced broadband services to the home, including cable television on an advanced digital video programming platform marketed under the Charter Digital Cable(R) brand and high-speed Internet access via Charter Pipeline(R). Commercial high-speed data, video and Internet solutions are provided under the Charter Business Networks(TM) brand. Advertising sales and production services are sold under the Charter Media brand.
A Fortune 500 and Nasdaq 100 Company, Charter was the 2001 recipient of the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award from the Association for Corporate Growth, the 2001 R.E. "Ted" Turner Innovator of the Year Award from the Southern Cable Telecommunications Association, and the 2001 Fast 50 Award for Growth from the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association. More information about Charter can be found at www.charter.com.
About Harmonic Inc.Harmonic Inc. is a leading provider of digital video, broadband optical networking and IP delivery systems to cable, satellite, telecom and broadcast network operators. Harmonic's open standards-based solutions for the headend through the last mile enable customers to develop new revenue sources and a competitive advantage by offering powerful interactive video, voice and data services such as video-on-demand, high definition digital television, telephony and Internet access.
Harmonic (Nasdaq:HLIT) is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with R&D, sales and system integration centers worldwide. The Company's customers, including many of the world's largest communications providers, deliver services in virtually every country.
Visit www.harmonicinc.com for more information.
CONTACT: JLM Partners for nCUBE Helen Chung, 206/381-3600 helen@jlmpartners.com or Charter Communications Andy Morgan, 314/543-2217 amorgan@chartercom.com or Aries MarketMasters (Media Relations for Harmonic) Dawn Danaher, 714/378-5841 danaher@keymaster.com URL: http://www.businesswire.com Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet with Hyperlinks to your home page.
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