In Broadcast - January 2015 - 62

62

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 1 | January 2015

InMedia

TalkTalk Expands
IPTV Services
Leading UK Telecommunications provider TalkTalk has increased the breadth of its IPTV
offering with an integrated headend solution from Harmonic...

W

hen it comes to pay-TV service
offerings, today's consumers
expect high-quality live and VOD
content on a variety of channels.
In fact, ABI Research recently
found that one of the top drivers
for pay-TV growth worldwide is
an increase in the number of HD
channel broadcasts. If service
providers can't satiate viewers'
appetite for crystal-clear quality
content, they may face subscriber
churn and a loss in revenue.
Keeping this in mind, TalkTalk, a
leading telecommunications provider
in the UK, wanted to ensure it had an
IPTV headend solution in place that
would provide increased encoding
efﬁciency and support future growth
for its YouView service, which is
currently Britain's fastest growing TV
offering.

Uniﬁed Harmonic high-quality
video headend experience

Improving the encoding efﬁciency
would allow for the delivery of more
content to more customers with
superior video quality. Furthermore,
choosing a futureproof headend
solution would enable TalkTalk to
easily accommodate viewers' everchanging demands and continuous

Harmonic's Electra 9200 universal multiservice encoder

technology advancements.
In order to be able to support
additional subscribers and add more
channels as market requirements
evolve, scalability and ﬂexibility
were key requirements for TalkTalk's
IPTV headend solution. In addition,
the new headend also needed to
guarantee very high video quality
since TalkTalk subscribers are
accustomed to viewing content -
including VOD - in full HD.
After comparing the available
solutions on the market, TalkTalk
installed a uniﬁed headend solution
from Harmonic. The telco provider
chose Harmonic because of its
extensive experience in providing
IPTV headends to operators all
around the world and because its
solutions deliver an outstanding
video quality. Through a highly
dense and scalable architecture,
Harmonic's
video
processing
solutions streamline the delivery
of TalkTalk's television content,
allowing it to cost-effectively deliver
high-quality live and VOD content
and an increased channel lineup
to millions of subscribers' set-top
boxes.
At the heart of the integrated
headend solution are Harmonic's
Electra 9200 universal multiservice
encoder and ProStream 9100
with ACE stream processor and
transcoder.
The Electra 9200 allows for high-

quality, low-bandwidth MPEG-4
AVC encoding of video content for
TalkTalk's IPTV services. Through a
high-density design that supports
up to eight HD output services
per chassis, Electra dramatically
lowers TalkTalk's capital and
operational expenses. Electra offers
a rich feature set that also includes
powerful integrated audio encoding
tools and enhanced serviceability via
hot-swappable dual power supplies,
fan assembly, compression modules,
and processing cards, increasing
video quality, reliability, and
operational efﬁciencies.
As TalkTalk add more linear
channels and Video-On-Demand
content to its lineup, the encoder's
scalable architecture will grow to
accommodate additional channels.
Utilising Harmonic's ProStream
9100 with ACE, which is the
industry's highest density processing
and transcoding solution, TalkTalk
can transcode up to 60 SD MPEG-2
or MPEG-4 AVC broadcast services.
Since installing the ProStream
solution, there has been a signiﬁcant
increase in operational efﬁciencies
and cost savings. ProStream with
ACE delivers superior video quality
while providing TalkTalk with the
ﬂexibility to support a variety
of complex digital processing
applications,
including
digital
turnaround and any-to-any audio
and video transcoding, further

streamlining the delivery of its
IPTV services. Hot-swappable dual
power supplies provide TalkTalk
with high reliability and simpliﬁed
serviceability.
Thanks to a uniﬁed headend
solution from Harmonic, TalkTalk can
easily meet the growing subscriber
demand for additional content and
better video quality - now and in the
future.
Through density, scalability, and
advanced compression technology,
Harmonic's
video
processing
solutions help deliver an amazing
quality and an expanded channel
count to subscribers of TalkTalk's
YouView IPTV service.
The result? TalkTalk customers are
more engaged with the service, and
the company continues to be the
most competitive service provider in
its market.

"Thanks to a uniﬁed
headend solution from
Harmonic, TalkTalk can
easily meet the growing
subscriber demand for
additional content and
better video quality -
now and in the future"

Harmonic ProStream 9100 with ACE stream processor and transcoder
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