CentralCast Partners With Harmonic

Harmonic Inc. has announced a collaboration with CentralCast aimed at improving media processing and video delivery for public broadcasting stations across the United States.

CentralCast, which serves as a centralized master control facility for U.S. public media, is now using Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor to support more than 170 public media channels. The deployment enables content delivery to over half of U.S. public media viewers, with the companies highlighting gains in video quality, operational efficiency, and cost reduction.

"We support a rapidly growing number of PBS stations. Partnering with Harmonic gives us a solid media processing foundation for easy scaling to meet the evolving needs of member stations," said Steve White, chief technology officer at CentralCast. "The unique design of the XOS media processor features a higher channel density than our previous encoding platform, lowering our operational costs while maintaining the pristine video quality our member stations expect."

At the core of the collaboration is Harmonic's XOS media processor, which consolidates media processing and distribution into a unified platform. CentralCast is using the system to deliver 176 transport streams, enabling more efficient use of infrastructure.

The cloud-native design of the processor reduces the need for physical equipment, lowering power consumption and cooling requirements. Additionally, its ability to reduce per-channel bitrate allows broadcasters to carry more services within the fixed bandwidth of ATSC standards without sacrificing video quality.

To address specific audio requirements, Harmonic has implemented support for automatic switching between embedded 5.1 and 2.0 audio formats, ensuring a consistent and seamless viewing experience.

The company also provided CentralCast with professional services, including system configuration and testing, helping accelerate deployment and bring operational efficiencies to public media stations more quickly.

The partnership reflects a broader push within the public broadcasting sector to modernise infrastructure while maintaining high-quality service for viewers nationwide.

www.harmonicinc.com