Telephone Co-op Picks Harmonic ‘ProStream’ For TV’s Video Services


SAN JOSE, CA.: The Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) of Walterboro, S.C., has selected the Harmonic ProStream 1000, with ACE high-density, real-time transcoder, to power high-definition (HD) and standard-definition (SD) video for its 290-channel IPTV service.

“It would have taken over a dozen devices from other vendors to provide the breadth of functionality found in the one rack unit ProStream 1000 with ACE,” said Tony Stout, PRTC’s chief technology officer. “Harmonic's ProStream with ACE technology gave us a cost-effective, highly flexible solution that delivers excellent video quality for our Mediaroom deployment, helping us gain a competitive advantage.”

The ProStream 1000 with ACE real-time transcoding solution provides PRTC with Microsoft picture-in-picture (PIP) capability and support for HD and SD, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video and audio transcoding of up to 20 HD or 60 SD channels in a compact and power-efficient 1-RU chassis, the cooperative says.

“Harmonic is working with a diverse group of service operators on numerous deployments to provide high-quality, bandwidth-efficient IPTV video services,” said Chris White, Harmonic Inc.’s manager of telco sales in North America. “We were able to leverage this extensive experience to provide PRTC with a powerful, efficient solution that can easily scale with its business needs,” he said.