Norwegian Triple-Play Services Provider Altibox Selects Harmonic's VOD and Digital Mosaic Solutions

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) today announced that Altibox (formerly Lyse Tele), a telecommunications service provider based in Norway, has deployed Harmonic's StreamLiner® video servers, Armada® intelligent asset management, and ProStream™ 8000 digital mosaic solution. This deployment enables advanced IPTV video-on-demand (VOD) services and multi-channel mosaic viewing for Altibox subscribers across Norway and Denmark. Altibox is initially introducing this advanced IPTV offering for Norwegian Elite Series football programming with plans to expand to additional sporting events in the future.

To deliver an unrivaled viewing experience to football fans across its network, Altibox relies on StreamLiner video servers and the Armada asset management system for live content ingest and recording, and instantaneous provisioning of up to ten simultaneous matches to over 200,000 set-top boxes in the Altibox network.

With this deployment, subscribers can watch a live football match and switch to on demand viewing of important events in other matches using Altibox’s intuitive Electronic Program Guide (EPG). This capability gives subscribers complete control of their viewing experience when multiple matches are played concurrently. In addition, the ProStream 8000 digital video mosaic solution generates the multi-channel mosaics that allow the subscriber to watch up to eight simultaneous football matches on a mosaic grid or in full-screen mode, and interactively link to the VOD content to follow highlights from all matches.

"Harmonic helps us offer our subscribers high quality, state-of-the-art IPTV services and a significantly enhanced viewing experience for sports and other premium content,” said Tore Kristoffersen, CTO at Altibox. "We can combine VOD and standard broadcast TV experiences to bring a new level of interactivity to our IPTV service, giving us a competitive advantage in the market.”

"Harmonic continues to deliver technologies that enable leading-edge operators like Altibox to successfully deploy innovative and advanced on-demand services,” said Ian Graham, Vice President of Europe and Middle East Sales at Harmonic Inc. "Our powerful and highly scalable software-based solutions provide operators with a unified system easily tailored to provide value-added services such as time-shifted TV, VOD and interactive video mosaics to enhance the TV viewing experience.”

As the popularity of services such as VOD, time-shifted TV, and network personal video recording (nPVR) continues to grow, the ability to effectively manage and control the on-demand infrastructure is becoming more critical. The StreamLiner and Armada solutions enable satellite, cable, and telco operators to more easily and intelligently scale on-demand content delivery by dynamically allocating assets at the network edge based on popularity. In addition to providing a powerful solution for traditional VOD and innovative applications like the new Altibox service, StreamLiner video servers can efficiently deliver content to the TV, PC and mobile devices as a component of Harmonic’s recently enhanced MediaPrism™ converged video delivery solutions.

About Altibox (formerly Lyse Tele)

Since 2002 the energy provider Lyse, together with local partners in Norway and Denmark, has been delivering communications services using fibre-optic technology under the brand name Altibox. Altibox services include interactive TV, internet access, video-on-demand and telephony, all delivered over one fibre cable. Over the next year alarm and mobile phone services will be included in the same infrastructure.

Altibox products and services are offered by 35 partners in Norway from Harstad in the north to Mandal in the south, and from Altibox in Denmark. There are currently 145,000 customers connected to Altibox. Partners are mainly energy providers of all sizes located in cites and communities throughout Norway.

About Harmonic Inc.

Harmonic Inc. is redefining video delivery with the industry’s most powerful solutions for delivering live and on-demand video to TVs, PCs and mobile devices. Harmonic’s 20 years of technical innovation and market leadership enable the company to offer a unique and comprehensive solution portfolio—including encoding, transcoding, content preparation, stream processing, asset management, edge processing, and delivery. Broadcast, cable, Internet, mobile, satellite and telecom service providers around the world choose Harmonic’s IP-based digital video, software, and broadband edge and access solutions. Using these award-winning and industry-leading solutions, operators can reduce costs and differentiate their services by offering consumers a higher quality, personalized multi-screen experience.

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.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27(A) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21(E) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements related to: plans to expand to additional sporting events in the future, and popularity of services such as VOD, time-shifted TV, and network personal video recording (nPVR) continuing to grow.

Our expectations and beliefs regarding the capabilities of Harmonic’s VoD and ProStream 8000 digital mosaic solution and its benefits for Altibox may not materialize, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Harmonic’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its recent Reports filed on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Harmonic does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

EDITOR’S NOTE – Product and company names used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.