Intelsat and Harmonic Team up on Ultra-HD Demo Channel in North America

Intelsat’s Atlanta, Ga. teleport. Photo: Intelsat

[Via Satellite 09-08-2015] Intelsat and Harmonic have partnered to start a linear Ultra-HD demonstration channel available in North America. The channel, HVN Intelsat UHD, will broadcast from Intelsat’s Galaxy 13 satellite located at 127 degrees west, providing Multi-channel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs) with an opportunity to prepare and test their Ultra-HD transmissions, as well as opportunity for U.S. cable programmers to conduct their own testing of Ultra-HD content.

Intelsat and Harmonic plan to show the demo channel at the IBC2015 Conference from Sept. 11 to 15, 2015.  The show demo will use an end-to-end Ultra-HD video processing system from Harmonic, and Intelsat will transmit live and linear 2160p60 (HEVC Main 10 profile) video content via C-band on the Intelsat Galaxy 13 satellite. The content will then travel from Intelsat’s Atlanta, Ga., teleport facility using the IntelsatOne IP/Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network to the operator’s Fuchsstadt, Germany, teleport facility, where it will be uplinked via Ku-band on the Intelsat 905 satellite located at 335.5 degrees east, and received and decoded at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The initial commissioning test signal will leverage transport stream servers located at Intelsat’s teleport facility in Atlanta, Ga., and Harmonic’s ProMedia Xpress multiscreen transcoder and packager for pre-compression of the video loop. Later this year, Harmonic will deploy its MediaGrid shared storage system, Polaris playout management suite, Spectrum X advanced media server system and Electra X3 advanced media processor to enable full Ultra-HD channel production and transmission from the company’s HVN Center in California. That signal will then be uplinked in Intelsat’s teleport facility in Atlanta, Ga., via the Galaxy 13 satellite.