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Harmonic Licenses Fraunhofer IIS Audio Codecs for Professional Broadcast Encoders.


ERLANGEN, Germany -- Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS (Internet Information Services) Microsoft's Web server. IIS runs under the server versions of Windows, adding HTTP server capability to the Windows operating system.  announced that Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ
 in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations

U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on
: HLIT) is using Fraunhofer's floating-point MPEG-4 High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (audio) Advanced Audio Coding - (AAC) A successor to MP3, allowing lower bit rates and more stable quality.

See MPEG-2 AAC Low Profile and MPEG-4 AAC Main Profile.
 (HE-AAC) and MPEG-1 Layer-2 audio coding software for the DiviCom([R]) Electra[TM] family of broadcast encoders. The high performance Electra 7000 HD and Electra 5400 SD H.264 encoders will be shown at the Harmonic booth (#SU9620) and the Electra 7000 will also be featured at the Fraunhofer booth (#SU6830) during the upcoming NAB2007 exhibition in Las Vegas on April 16-19.

As an option to its Electra multi-channel compression platform, Harmonic has integrated the efficient and speed optimized Fraunhofer DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive  audio software in a multi-channel audio card.

The Harmonic Electra encoders are used in broadcast, satellite, cable and telco IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) Also called "TV over IP," IPTV delivers scheduled TV programs and video-on-demand (VOD) via the IP protocol and digital streaming techniques used to watch video on the Internet.  headends or studios for real-time encoding of HDTV (High Definition TV) A set of digital television (DTV) standards that offer the highest resolution and sharpest picture. Although some HDTV sets are available in standard (rather square) screen sizes, the overwhelming majority of sets are wide screen, which eliminates  and SDTV (Standard Definition TV) A set of digital television (DTV) standards with 480 lines of resolution. All SDTV formats are interlaced, and SDTV pictures are not as sharp as progressive scan EDTV or HDTV (Enhanced Definition or High Definition).

SDTV Vs.
 content. In addition to systems supporting H.264 compression, the Electra product line also includes multi-channel MPEG-2 SD encoders. Fraunhofer's HE-AAC and Layer-2 software delivers discrete multi-channel audio quality at bitrates as low as 128 kbps.

"Our customers increasingly roll out HD and SD channels with multiple 5.1 or 7.1 audio services, and need a cost-effective, integrated solution to reduce audio bandwidth," said Arnaud Perrier, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Harmonic Inc. "The HE AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. AAC, especially MPEG-4 AAC, provides greater compression and better sound quality than MP3, which also came out of the MPEG standard.  codec from Fraunhofer IIS offers best-in-class quality and allowed us to rapidly incorporate this function into our market-leading line of Electra enco-ders."

Harald Popp, head of the Multimedia-Realtime Systems department of Fraunhofer IIS, says: "Harmonic is the industry leader for digital TV broadcast encoders, offering its customers ultra-high compression efficiency, and we are happy to see our high quality MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs).  audio codecs used in their outstanding Electra family of products."

MPEG-4 HE-AAC is the most efficient audio codec widely adopted in mobile multimedia, digital radio and TV broadcasting and is the de-facto standard for music download services on mobile phones. MPEG-1 Layer-2 is the proven audio compression scheme used on DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc.
DVD
 in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc

Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology.
 and digital TV transmissions for years.

Fraunhofer IIS

Founded in 1985, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, with its 480 staff members, ranks first in employees and revenues among the Fraunhofer Institutes. Fraunhofer IIS has achieved worldwide recognition for the development of the audio coding method mp3.

Fraunhofer IIS provides research services on a contract basis and licenses technology in the areas of audio and video source coding, multimedia realtime systems, digital radio broadcasting and digital cinema systems, integrated circuits and sensor systems, design automation, wireless, wired and optical networks, localization Customizing software and documentation for a particular country. It includes the translation of menus and messages into the native spoken language as well as changes in the user interface to accommodate different alphabets and culture. See internationalization and l10n.  and navigation, imaging systems and nanofocus X-ray technology, high-speed cameras, medical sensor solutions, and communications technology in transport and logistics.

Its budget of 58 million Euro is financed primarily by projects from industry and public institutions, with less than 20 percent subsidized by state and federal funds.

For more information visit www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm.

Harmonic Inc.

Harmonic Inc. is a leading provider of versatile and high performance video solutions that enable service providers to efficiently deliver the next generation of broadcast and on-demand services including high definition, video-on-demand, network personal video recording and time-shifted TV. Cable, satellite, broadcast and telecom service providers can increase revenues and lower operational expenditures by using Harmonic's digital video, broadband optical access and software solutions to offer consumers the compelling and personalized viewing experience that is driving the business models of the future.

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with R&D, sales and system integration centers worldwide. The Company's customers, including many of the world's largest communications providers, deliver services in virtually every country. Visit www.harmonicinc.com for more information.
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Date:Apr 12, 2007
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