Korea'S C&M: First HD in H.264 Cable Service in Asia

C&M Co., Ltd., a leading cable TV MSO in Korea with more than two million subscribers, has deployed Harmonic's DiviCom Electra 7000 encoder for Asia's first live high definition (HD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video service in a cable environment.

The increasing availability of HD content and affordable HDTV sets and set-top boxes is strengthening consumer demand for HD services in Korea, as in many countries around the world. This trend, combined with intensifying competition from satellite direct-to-home providers and the expansion of video-over-DSL services, necessitates the addition of more HD programming by cable operators such as C&M.

"We wanted to implement the best and most advanced technology available for our new MPEG-4 HD service," said Jin W. Ko, CTO of C&M. "Harmonic has an outstanding reputation and track record in the industry. The Electra 7000 is a superior compression solution that enables the delivery of a higher quality HD service to our customers while significantly reducing our bandwidth requirements."

"C&M is a leading edge cable operator, deploying the latest compression technology to build a future-ready service today," said Raymond Tse, Vice President of Asia-Pacific Sales for Harmonic Inc. "This implementation represents one of the world's first deployments of H.264 encoding in a cable environment, and C&M's selection of the Electra 7000 for this new service highlights the strength, versatility and performance of the platform. At Harmonic, we are focused on delivering innovative solutions that enable operators to enhance their service offering and provide the consumer with a more compelling viewing experience."