Harmonic Delivers Soup to Nuts


Harmonic used a good old-fashioned movie screen to demonstrate how it's addressing a market fractured into millions of tiny markets.

"The company involved is in everything from HD to iPad delivery," said Dr. Patrick Harshman.

Harshman's predecessor, Anthony Ley, appeared on the big screen to describe how, as a start-up in 1988, Harmonic's team struggled to get funding because they were trying to sell laser technology to mom-and-pop cable operations. Cut to 23 years later, and Harmonic's acquired Divicom, Entone, Rhozet, Scopus and, most recently, Omneon, the paradigmatic video server outfit.

NAB Show 2011 marks the first event at which Omneon and Harmonic are one. The offices have been combined in a single building in San Jose, Calif., although their floor presence at the Las Vegas Convention Center is separate because of timing, according to company front man, Geoff Stedman.

Stedman, who spoke for Omneon, now does so for Harmonic as senior vice president of corporate marketing.

"This is our very first event as a fully integrated combined company," he said.

The upshot of the marriage is one company that covers soup to nuts, or in this case, content to distribution providers. The result: $500 million in revenue for 2010.

—Deborah McAdams, Television Broadcast