Press Release by TVNZ
TVNZ recently purchased the latest generation Harmonic Electra 8000 Universal SD/HD MPEG-2 and AVC Encoder from Magna Systems and Engineering NZ for use as a secondary head end.
TVNZ is New Zealand's leading television and digital media company with two commercial free-to-air channels TV ONE and TV2, two digital commercial channels U and TVNZ Heartland and one digital non-commercial channel TVNZ 7. TVNZ also has a significant online presence with tvnz.co.nz, providing up-to-the-minute news and entertainment and TVNZ Ondemand its online television catch up site.
Magna Systems and Engineering NZ Sales Manager Keith Brewer explained the uniqueness of the sale, “The interesting thing here is that the Harmonic Electra 8000 Universal SD/HD MPEG-2 and AVC Encoder enables TVNZ to have their free-to-air channels TVNZ ONE, TV2, U, and TVNZ 7 feeding a mixture of HD and SD material, some concurrently, for both DTT and DTH head ends.”
The Electra® 8000 is the world's first 1-RU encoder with multi-resolution, multi-standard, multi-service and multi-channel capabilities. The Electra 8000 enhances bandwidth efficiency and provides up to four standard definition (SD) or high definition (HD) channels of superior quality constant bit-rate (CBR) or variable bit-rate (VBR) video using either MPEG-2 or AVC encoding.
Brewer added, “The Electra® 8000 is a really clever single 1RU encoder which now enables TVNZ to run some TV services should they need to take down their main transmission head ends for maintenance and service. Whilst it’s not technically a DR, as it will be deployed in the same facility as their live head ends, it does also give TVNZ some additional service reassurance.”