F7 Broadcast in India expands its DSNG contribution capabilities with Harmonic

Harmonic's Ellipse 3200 encoders and ProView 7100 receiver bring F7 Broadcast a new level of quality and bandwidth efficiency in contribution applications.

F7 Broadcast, one of the largest media companies in India with six channels (five news and one entertainment) has selected a comprehensive solution for video contribution. Harmonic for live events and news coverage.

Using Ellipse 3200 encoders and the integrated ProView 7100 receiver-decoder, F7 Broadcast has managed to migrate from DVB-S / MPEG-4 to DVB-S2 / MPEG-4 video delivery, thus optimizing video quality, increasing bandwidth efficiency, and alleviating operating expenses. The Ellipse and ProView platforms provide a highly flexible and scalable end-to-end solution for satellite news gathering (DSNG) contribution.

Naveen Goel, executive vice president of IT, Broadcast and Engineering at F7 Broadcast, maintains that "Today's viewers have an insatiable appetite for live news. They want to know what is happening, while it is happening, on a variety of devices. In order to provide 24/7 coverage, we needed a contribution solution that ensured bandwidth efficiency and high video quality for multiple channels. Only Harmonic had the perfect combination for video contribution. Their Elipse and “ProView allow us to deliver seamless video coverage to viewers at the lowest bit rates. We are using Harmonic solutions on all DSNG vehicles to send live streams from regional locations to the new main headend in Noida. We are very impressed with the cost savings and improved video quality they offer.”

The Ellipse 3200 contribution encoders provide MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:2, chroma subsampling and 10-bit HD encoding, ensuring F7 Broadcast can offer its viewers the highest video quality available. The Ellipse 3200 include an integrated DVB-S/S2 modulator with simultaneous RF, SI, and DVB-ASI outputs to further optimize workflow efficiency and increase cost savings.

By eliminating the need to purchase separate external devices for satellite uplink, Ellipse 3200 encoders dramatically reduce operating expenses. Ellipse encoders include DVB-S2 technology that improves spectral efficiency thanks to advanced coding techniques, providing F7 Broadcast with savings of up to 30% in bandwidth usage under DVB-S standards.

Additionally, since next-generation codecs and video formats can be easily added to Ellipse encoders through a simple firmware upgrade, F7 Broadcast enjoys a scalable migration path and superior operational flexibility.

The Ellipse 3200 are perfectly interoperable with Harmonic's ProView 7100 IRDS. After compression to AVC HD 4:2:2 at 10 bits using Ellipse encoders, F7 Broadcast uses ProView 7.100 decoders to decompress the content at the same sample and bit rate. The end result is a contribution workflow with near lossless video quality.