SAN JOSE, Calif.—Harmonic has announced significant enhancements to its XOS Advanced Media Processor that lower the cost of broadcast distribution while enabling outstanding viewing experiences.

The expanded capabilities to the media processor are designed to improve operations for the migration from C-Band satellite to Ku-Band and IP distribution, the continued rollout of ATSC 3.0 in the United States and the adoption of DTV+ in Brazil.

"Broadcasters around the world are navigating major transformations, from spectrum reallocations to migrations to next-generation television standards like ATSC 3.0 and DTV+," said Stéphane Cloirec, vice president, video appliances and software product management, video business at Harmonic. "With newly enhanced capabilities, our XOS Advanced Media Processor eases these transitions, helping broadcasters modernize operations, deliver richer viewing experiences and reduce infrastructure complexity."

Harmonic's XOS media processor combines advanced playout, premium encoding and broadcast delivery workflows into a single solution for broadcast distribution.

Harmonic reported that the latest enhancements to the XOS media processor enable broadcasters to:

• Enhance the ATSC 3.0 Viewer Experience. As ATSC 3.0 deployments continue across the U.S., broadcasters are looking to enhance the viewing experience. Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor supports Dolby Vision® advanced HDR with look management, enabling broadcasters to optimize HDR content across display types and preserve creative intent on any screen. The XOS media processor also includes Dolby Atmos object-based audio with support for audio description and dialog enhancement, improving accessibility and allowing for more immersive viewer experiences. These innovations enable broadcasters to deliver richer NextGen TV applications while leveraging the same software-based playout-to-delivery workflow.
• Power Cost-Effective DTV+ Deployment. Harmonic's XOS media processor lowers the cost of DTV+ deployments by integrating playout, encoding and gateway functionality into a single appliance. The solution supports advanced codecs including VVC, LCEVC and MPEG-H audio, enabling broadcasters to deliver low-latency, high-quality video and audio experiences while optimizing bandwidth efficiency. In addition, the XOS media processor integrates ROUTE and STLTP gateway functionality for centralized management of all DTV+ parameters, further reducing deployment costs.
• Simplify the Transition to IP Delivery. Harmonic's XOS media processor supports traditional satellite workflows in addition to IP-based distribution using SRT or RIST together with CDN distribution while maintaining exceptional video quality and low latency. The media processor offers hybrid satellite and IP delivery, leveraging emerging standards like satellite Ku-Band downlink and RIST packet recovery over IP to help broadcasters ensure a smooth migration away from legacy satellite infrastructure while maintaining broadcast-grade service reliability for primary distribution.

Harmonic will demonstrate the latest innovations to the XOS Advanced Media Processor at the 2026 NAB Show, April 19-22, in Las Vegas in booth W2831. To schedule a meeting with the company, visit www.harmonicinc.com/video-streaming/events/nab/.

Further information about Harmonic and the company's solutions is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Net Insight has announced Nimbra 520, a high-density media processing node designed to simplify live contribution and distribution across both managed and unmanaged networks. The company will demo the new node at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 18-22.

Built as part of Net Insight’s Nimbra Live execution layer, the company says Nimbra 520 brings consistent, deterministic performance into hybrid live media environments where operational simplicity, cost control, and confidence under pressure matter more than individual device features.

Nimbra 520 extends Net Insight’s Live Intelligence approach into live media execution. Rather than optimizing isolated functions, it delivers measurable performance across real-world networks, helping operators stay in control during peak events, failures, congestion, and rapid change.

With support for multichannel HEVC and AVC, Nimbra 520 enables up to 50% bandwidth savings compared to legacy workflows, allowing customers to scale contribution and distribution capacity without expanding network infrastructure.

Nimbra 520 is designed to change the economics of live media operations. Combined with Nimbra Edge, it enables a simple and flexible per-stream cost model, centralized orchestration, and automated lifecycle management. This reduces operational overhead, avoids over-provisioning, and lowers the cost and minimizes the impact of failures.

The new media processing node supports unmanaged internet contribution, hybrid cloud workflows, and fully managed IP networks. When deployed in managed environments, it integrates seamlessly into Net Insight’s platform-based operations. In unmanaged environments, it delivers the same predictable behavior through Edge-orchestrated workflows. This flexibility makes Nimbra 520 well suited for broadcasters, service providers, regional sports networks, and cloud-connected production.

“Live media operations must scale without driving complexity or cost,” says Andreas Eriksson, CEO of Net Insight. “With Nimbra 520, we extend our Live Intelligence architecture into a simpler, more flexible execution layer, giving customers predictable performance and lower cost per stream.”

Nimbra 520 features multichannel HEVC and AVC processing with professional broadcast quality, including UHD workflows, 10-bit video, and low-latency operation. Its high-density architecture enables significant bandwidth and infrastructure savings while maintaining predictable performance across managed and unmanaged IP networks.

Net Insight will be in Booth W1653 in the West Hall of the LVCC.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Harmonic will unveil enhancements to its video appliances and SaaS solutions highlighting a next-generation media server and new AI-driven innovations, designed to streamline video workflows and reduce operational costs during the 2026 NAB Show, April 18-22, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“At the 2026 NAB Show, Harmonic is bringing practical, readily deployable solutions that help media companies monetize more effectively in an increasingly IP- and AI-driven environment,” said Gil Rudge, senior vice president, solutions and Americas sales, video business at Harmonic.

“Across our portfolio of video appliances, hybrid and SaaS solutions, we’re enabling customers to minimize TCO [total cost of ownership], unlock more meaningful revenue opportunities and stay ahead in an evolving media landscape.”

At the show, Harmonic will unveil the next generation of its Spectrum X media server that simplifies video ingest and playout functions, lowering total cost per channel for broadcast delivery.

Harmonic will also highlight how its XOS Advanced Media Processor supports broadcasters as they transition to ATSC 3.0 and DTV+ or migrate away from C-Band spectrum, offering a simplified, cost-effective, all-in-one solution on a single appliance. XOS media processor combines advanced playout, premium encoding and DTV+ and ATSC delivery and can be deployed in headends and at affiliates.

The company will also showcase its first large production deployment of VOS Media Software on Red Hat OpenShift, further advancing its hybrid streaming solution with central management across private and public cloud environments.

Harmonic will feature its first production deployment of server-side in-stream advertising by a U.S. regional sports network. The solution automatically triggers in-stream ads during live games, boosting monetization without interrupting the viewing experience.

It also will feature a new in-house, server-side multiview solution that can now be configured within Harmonic’s VOS360 Media SaaS to boost fan engagement. The solution can be combined with in-stream ads to monetize multiview channels and increase revenue.

The company will also offer smarter streaming solutions with AI-powered workflows, including:

• A new AI orchestration service that aggregates, orchestrates, maintains and updates best-of-breed third party and in-house AI functions. It coordinates AI-based processing for live content, manages redundancy and synchronizes outputs. Users can configure and schedule the AI functions to be activated on the fly via its intuitive UI.
• The new offering is a broadcast-grade, resilient and fully secured service that works alongside VOS360 Media SaaS, VOS Media Software, XOS media processor and the next-generation Spectrum X.
• Harmonic’s AI service, powered by NVIDIA GPU acceleration, also supports new advanced server-side HD-to-UHD upscaling, delivering superior video quality on 4K displays even when production is limited to full HD.

Harmonic CTO Moore Macauley will discuss how AI is transforming broadcast and streaming workflows during the Broadcast Engineering and IT Conference on April 18.

See Harmonic at 2026 NAB Show booth W2831.

PARIS—Ateme said it has been working with Spain-based multinational telco Telefónica to deploy a cloud-native media processing platform for next-generation video-on-demand (VOD) services. Built on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), the solution enables scalable, high-quality content delivery across Telefónica’s international operations, the companies reported.

Using a cloud-native architecture, Ateme said that Telefónica can now deliver its extensive VOD catalog, including 4K content, to a wide range of devices, from mobile screens to connected TVs, with improved agility and efficiency.

“For us, this project is about more than technology—it’s about improving how we serve our audience,” said Javier Lucendo de Gregorio, head of video processing and delivery at Telefónica. “The new platform gives us the agility to launch services faster, ensure consistent quality across regions, and adapt more quickly to changing viewer behaviors.”

Ateme noted that its platform, integrated with Google Cloud’s infrastructure and AI services, is at the core of this effort. Ateme described the key benefits as follows:

• Cloud-Native Scalability: Powered by Ateme’s platform on Google Cloud, the solution enables Telefónica to dynamically scale resources in line with demand. This ensures consistent performance during high-traffic periods while optimizing costs during quieter times, leveraging the global reach and elasticity of the cloud.
• Multi-Affiliate Flexibility: A centralized architecture supports Telefónica’s regional affiliates, simplifying rollouts, updates, and service consistency across markets.
• AI-Enhanced Workflows: The deployment incorporates advanced capabilities such as audience-aware encoding, automated metadata tagging, and predictive demand analytics, driving greater personalization and operational efficiency.
• 4K Multi-Screen Delivery: The platform ensures consistent 4K video delivery across mobile, desktop, and connected TV devices, regardless of bandwidth conditions - improving quality of experience and reducing viewer churn.

“This deployment is a strong example of how we work closely with operators to address evolving video delivery needs,” said Christophe Stigas, vice president of Southern Europe and MEA at Ateme. “By integrating our media processing platform on Google Cloud as part of Telefónica’s VOD architecture, we’ve enabled dynamic resource scaling, 4K video delivery, and automated workflows—all while simplifying operations across multiple markets.”

More information is available here.

LONDON—Channel 4 has inked an agreement with Prime Focus Technologies for its Clear Media ERP software, which PFT will use to manage the public service broadcaster’s media processing and centralize its content operations, the company said this week.

“We are delighted to be forming this new partnership with PFT, a company which shares Channel 4’s innovative spirit,” said Keith Underwood, COO, Channel 4. “PFT has proven experience of managing content operations for major international broadcasters, and we look forward to working with them to establish their new U.K. base.”

Prime Focus Technologies will manage:

• Media processing, including ingest, content remediation, media management, content aggregation and quality assurance; and
• Online services, including digital rights management (DRM), VOD transcoding, packaging and delivery, simulcast and live to VOD.

Under the agreement, PFT is tasked with providing all content for Channel 4’s online presence on its own AII4 platform and third-party platforms, the company said.

PFT’s CLEAR software combines MAM capabilities with work order management. The software will allow Channel 4 to manage media operations, including those related to assets, resources, tasks and workflows, the company said.

The software’s framework will improve internal collaboration as well as those with external stakeholders, such as Channel 4’s Access services and Playout partners.

PFT is also launching a media center in the U.K. to act as a centralized content hub for Channel 4.

See Prime Focus Technologies at IBC 2019 stand 7.C05.

More information is available on the company’s website.

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Video infrastructure is changing. Traditionally, broadcast infrastructure was entirely based on hardware. But as video content and service providers look to launch broadcast and OTT services faster, gain operational efficiencies and reduce OPEX and CAPEX, they are shifting to software-based and cloud workflows. Cloud-native technology, in particular, provides the agility, flexibility and scalability that are needed today, enabling operators to manage their entire video preparation and delivery workflow via public or private cloud infrastructure.

This article will make several bold predictions about where cloud-native technology is headed for 2017 and beyond. With a better understanding of the evolution of cloud-native workflows, operators can dramatically simplify their broadcast and OTT operations, while retaining exceptional video quality.

DEPLOLYING CLOUD-NATIVE APPLICATIONS WILL REQUIRE A MINDSET-SHIFT

Video content and service providers that want to be successful in the cloud-native environment must approach cloud-native applications as more than just a technology change. It’s a mindset-shift. With the cloud, there is no longer the notion of a siloed workflow approach, meaning that functionalities like transcoding, packaging, encryption and the origin server are not separate like they once were with a traditional infrastructure. Cloud-native technology enables operators to approach their workflow from a holistic, service-oriented point of view.

Since separate silos no longer exist, troubleshooting changes. There is no longer a need for a test point after each and every function. When a channel goes down, DevOps can troubleshoot the issue from a single interface, as opposed to checking each separate piece of hardware equipment to determine the root of the problem.

Deploying a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution hosted in the public cloud and maintained and monitored by a video infrastructure provider takes the notion of simplified workflows to the extreme. Operators do not see any technology change because everything is managed and monitored for them, resulting in a much slimmer organization, allowing operators to focus on more important tasks at hand like monetization.

CLOUD-NATIVE APPLICATIONS WILL BE DEPLOYED SOLELY ON PUBLIC CLOUD

While content security in a public cloud infrastructure was once a concern, the industry has responded with a range of technologies that address the problem; and it continues to do so. With security issues well in hand, it’s likely that in three to five years, the industry will be fully relying on public infrastructure, such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud, for cloud-native media processing. The easiest and fastest way to deploy a cloud application is with public infrastructure for multiple reasons. Building a private infrastructure requires a very high CAPEX and OPEX investment in hardware, and the ROI isn’t guaranteed. Moreover, private cloud infrastructure can take months to build, whereas operators can launch cloud-native applications on public infrastructure instantaneously. Scalability is another benefit of public cloud infrastructure. With public cloud infrastructure, video content and service providers pay for the resources they use as they grow. Cloud services can be added and removed quickly, and making improvements to the user experience can be immediate.

NEW WORKFLOWS WILL EMERGE IN THE CLOUD

Over the last year, the industry has seen cloud-native offerings that support various elements of the media processing workflow, from ingest to playout, graphics, transcoding, encryption and delivery. In 2017, new workflow applications for the cloud will emerge, such as the move to an all-IP over the internet distribution model. Channel origination is another area where operators are looking to the cloud to simplify their workflows.

When channel origination moves to the cloud, several important workflow changes take place.

The operator’s existing traffic system provides the cloud-native application with the schedule of all of the files required for playout, including primary and secondary events, as well as the file location. The cloud application takes care of the rest, from logging into an external storage system and retrieving the file to normalizing it if needed, adding secondary events like graphics, and ensuring that the file is distributed in the right format for both OTT and broadcast.

VIDEO QUALITY AND BANDWIDTH EFFICIENCY WILL INCREASE IN THE CLOUD

Video compression optimization is trending, and it’s not only available for traditional workflows. We’re starting to see real-time video compression optimization solutions that can be utilized on cloud-native technology to deliver a superior viewing experience on HTTP-connected devices while reducing bandwidth consumption by up to 50 percent—without requiring any changes to underlying existing delivery infrastructure and video players.

CONCLUSION

Cloud-native technology is making a huge impact on media processing and delivery, going beyond the limitations of virtualized appliances and hardware-defined video architectures, which are costly to deploy and maintain, exceedingly complex and limited in scalability. With a cloud-native application or SaaS, operators can launch a service quickly and change the workflow once it goes live, with minimal investment, generating instant revenue through capabilities such as time-shift TV, VOD and cloud DVR. Of course, video content and service providers will need to shift their entire mindset, in terms of approaching functionalities from a holistic, service-oriented standpoint.

For operators that already own a private cloud for voice and data apps, adding a video service makes perfect sense from an ROI point of view. But the majority of video content and service providers will find that the public cloud offers the agility, low cost and scalability they are looking for to be competitive in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing video service environment.

 Yaniv Beniv-Soussan is vice president-product management, cloud and SaaS with Harmonic.