Belo has deployed Harmonic's Electra 8000 multichannel universal encoders to deliver expanded HD and SD television services.

The new solution was implemented for Belo by systems integrator Heartland Video Systems (HVS). Harmonic's Electra 8000 provides the flexibility to enable 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.

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 unique features such as Jünger Audio's Level Magic automatic audio leveling adjustment.