Frost & Sullivan Commends Harmonic for Taking the Top Spot in the Multi-Screen Software Transcoding Market by Leveraging an End-to-End Product Portfolio
-- Harmonic's global sales footprint hedges against shortfalls in any particular regional market, positioning the company for stronger long-term growth
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, Oct. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the multi-screen software transcoding market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Harmonic with the 2013 Global Frost & Sullivan Market Share Leadership Award for capturing the highest market share within its industry. Harmonic's share in 2012 was slightly more than 9 percent, and in 2013, it outgrew the market to reach a market share of more than 10 percent, thereby rising to the top spot in a very fragmented market.
Frost & Sullivan estimates that the market for pure multi-screen transcoding—both file and live—earned nearly $140 million in 2012, growing by more than 14 percent to nearly $160 million in 2013 as broadcasters, pay TV service operators and online video providers expanded their on-demand and live streaming offerings. In this environment, Harmonic established competency in file as well as live applications through its ProMedia® Carbon and ProMedia Live products, respectively.
ProMedia Xpress is a high-throughput audio video communication (AVC) file transcoder developed to fulfill the growing market need for high-throughput, video-on-demand (VOD) transcoding. Similarly, the company's ProStream® products provide both re-encoding and multi-screen transcoding functionality for all key use cases.
"Frost & Sullivan notes that Harmonic also offers the benefit of serving as a one-stop shop for customers that have varied needs, but are overwhelmed by the technological complexity in deploying the numerous form factors and individual technologies needed to make TV-everywhere a reality," said Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager Avni Rambhia.
Frost & Sullivan research further shows that Harmonic is unique in its position as a single vendor offering a comprehensive, end-to-end, multi-screen product catalog, which goes beyond transcoders to include components such as multi-screen stream packagers, origin servers, playout servers, and storage, with critical CMS, DRM and CDN capabilities integrated through strategic partnerships. This sets it apart in a market where customers—particularly, tier II and tier III vendors that have sizeable capacity requirements but limited technical acumen—strongly prefer one-stop shop vendors. This market advantage, coupled with a fundamentally strong transcoding product line, has enabled Harmonic to achieve revenue leadership in the multi-screen industry, as well as capture large deals where transcoders represent a smaller part of the deployment.
Through a judicious combination of acquisitions and organic development, Harmonic has ensured it remains relevant in a changing marketplace. The company was among the earliest vendors to support MPEG-DASH, and in the same vein, is among the first to support disruptive technologies such as high-efficiency video coding (HEVC).
"The company is moving beyond ASIC-centric products toward more flexible deployment solutions to keep pace with the operators' and broadcasters' needs to upgrade systems on the fly rather than outright replace them," noted Rambhia. "This strategy also enables Harmonic to gradually move away from competing at the box level to competing at a solution level, which is better for its long-term prospects."
Another differentiating factor is that Harmonic is one of the few vendors in the encoding and transcoding industry that has a balanced reach in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), as well as in Asia Pacific. Nearly all other vendors obtain the majority of their revenue from North America and Latin America, and have significant positions in either EMEA or APAC, but not both. Harmonics' sizeable presence in all three regions is notable, as these regions are studies in contrast in terms of product requirements, distribution infrastructure, price tolerance and vendor landscape. Achieving significant footprint in all global regions places Harmonic in the enviable position of being able to grow in all three markets.
"With our robust high-value portfolio and rich technical expertise across all areas of the video industry, Harmonic already is the leader in broadcast playout servers, pay TV encoders, IPTV headends, and cable edge QAM systems," said Peter Alexander, chief marketing officer at Harmonic. "This recognition by Frost & Sullivan of the success of our strategy in the multi-screen market underscores just how effectively Harmonic and our video delivery infrastructure address the challenges of today's multifaceted media landscape."
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.
About Harmonic
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure for emerging television and video services. The company's production-ready innovation enables content and service providers to efficiently create, prepare, and deliver differentiated services for television and new media video platforms. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.
ProMedia® and ProStream® are registered trademarks of Harmonic Inc.
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