Harmonic has introduced CLEARcut 3.1, an application that expedites the production of high- quality, low bit-rate SD and HD video and audio for applications such as dynamic ad insertion, video-on-demand (VOD), network personal video recorder (nPVR) and time-shifted TV. The new version incorporates features of growing importance as take-rates for existing narrowcast services grow, more personalized services are introduced, and the volume of material associated with these applications expands. Used in conjunction with Harmonic's DiviCom encoders, CLEARcut enables cable, telco, satellite and terrestrial operators to offer an increasingly user-directed just for me TVSM experience.
CLEARcut stores both the highly compressed digital streams and the associated metadata to simplify asset management and ensure the resulting video stream can be seamlessly distributed within existing broadcast and on-demand services. It also enables the creation of templates to streamline branding for ads or VOD packages. CLEARcut's live capture makes it possible to continuously store real-time broadcast content taken directly from the operational headend. This simplifies the process of feeding content into emerging services such as time-shifted TV and nPVR. The system accepts both short-form material —ranging from standard advertisements to mini-advertorials — as well as long-form content, including full TV programs and feature length films.
For more information, visit www.harmonicinc.com.
