C-Cube in Harmonic Advanced Digital Video Products; DVxpert Codec Delivers High-Performance Stream Processing Products.

Business Editors

IBC 2000

AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2000

C-Cube Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:CUBE) today announced that Harmonic, Inc. is using C-Cube's DVxpert broadcast digital video engine in a new family of stream-processing products that eliminate the decoding and re-encoding required for Digital Turnaround (DTA) and live broadcast applications.

At IBC, Harmonic will be conducting the European launch of its TransRater family. The TransRater family of products is designed to handle input video stream grooming, splicing, format and bit rate changes as well as time delay. The TransRater family consists of the TR200 for stream grooming, the TR400 for splicing and ad insertion and StreamCache for high definition (HD) to HD and Standard Definition (SD) to SD splicing as well as time-shifting applications. An integral part of the stream processing family, C-Cube's DVxpert broadcast codec is based on the DVx architecture. The compact, 308-pin BGA single chip codec consumes less than 2 watts, but delivers the processing power equivalent to that of a multi-chip solution typically used for bitstream splicing and transrating applications.

"DVxpert's ability to decode and re-encode in a single chip, in real time, is compelling," said Chris Day, senior director of marketing of C-Cube's Broadband Network Division. "This technology not only offers optimal video quality but also helps produce efficient and elegant transrating solutions."

Splicing Woes

Traditionally, tailoring a compressed digital stream by inserting logos or local content (splicing) required the complete decode and re-encode of the digital stream at every major broadcast point. This hardware-intensive process inserts noise into the signal, wastes precious bandwidth and degrades video quality.

With Harmonic's stream processing products, broadcasters are able to freely manipulate digital content in the digital domain. As a result, bit rate changing, seamless splicing, logo insertion, grooming, re-stat muxing, time-shifting, and horizontal reformatting of pre-compressed video signals is now possible with a single pass. "C-Cube's DVxpert allows Harmonic's products to perform bitstream splicing and transrating in the most efficient manner," according to Yaron Simler, vice president of marketing for Harmonic's Convergent Systems Division. "The ability to manipulate MPEG-2 streams is very difficult and requires a high degree of compression expertise offered by Harmonic. When combined with the raw processing power of C-Cube's encoding technology, these two components form the basis for TransRater's industry leading capability."

About C-Cube Microsystems

The company is a worldwide leader in digital media processing and is leading the way with new communication processors and networked consumer products. With a focus on DVD, set-top boxes and codec enabled products, C-Cube is driving the technology for the "networked digital home."

C-Cube is headquartered in Milpitas, California with offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information please see our web site at http://www.c-cube.com.