KHLM, a low-power television station in Houston (owned and operated by Lotus Communications), has deployed a series of video processing solutions from Harmonic to increase the station’s channel capacity from six channels up to eight digital channels within its allotted 19.39Mb/s ATSC stream.
The increased channel capacity is providing KHLM with more virtual channels, giving viewers more content choices.
Harmonic’s video encoding, stream processing and service management technologies work together to provide high-quality video at low bit rates, enabling a unique business model for low-power stations, said Jim Kalmenson, president at Lotus Communications. “Our expanded channel capacity allows us to grow revenues through additional advertising opportunities and the ability to lease subchannels to content providers who want to offer their own programming.”
Harmonic’s Electra encoders, the ProStream 1000 stream processing platform and NMX Digital Service Manager are being deployed in tandem to efficiently compress and manage the eight video channels. Harmonic's DiviTrackIP also provides broadcast video quality at low bit rates by leveraging a proprietary statistical multiplexing technology.
