Harmonic announces that the Electra 8000 universal encoder was selected by Boston's NBC affiliate WHDH-TV for the recent HD broadcast of the 7 News pre-game and post-game shows at hockey's premiere regular-season event, the 2010 NHL Bridgestone Winter Classic, as well as the local broadcast of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, February 12-28. WHDH-TV selected the Electra 8000 for these highly-viewed sports events due to its superior MPEG-2 1080i video encoding quality, compact design and improved bandwidth efficiency.

For the 7 News pre-game and post-game shows at the outdoor match-up between long-time rivals the Philadelphia Flyers® and Boston Bruins® at Fenway Park, WHDH-TV used the Electra 8000 to simplify the transmission of multiple camera feeds from Fenway Park to their studio by delivering the highest quality MPEG-2 HD encoding at the lowest bit-rates in a compact 1-RU design. Electra's multi-channel HD encoding capability at the venue eliminated the need for WHDH-TV to transfer costlier baseband HD video back to the studio.

For the upcoming Vancouver Winter Olympics, WHDH-TV is using the already deployed Electra 8000 for terrestrial HD broadcast of the events. The ability to easily configure the Electra 8000 for multiple applications provides WHDH-TV with a high return on investment, while lowering operating costs.

The latest generation compression solution from Harmonic, the Electra 8000 supports SD and HD, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), as well as integrated statistical multiplexing, broadcast quality up/down-conversion and other unique features such as Jünger Level Magic automatic audio leveling adjustment. Electra 8000's groundbreaking architecture significantly reduces operational costs with its high density and power efficiency, and facilitates the launch of new value-added video services. Broadcast, cable, satellite and telco service providers around the world have deployed the Electra 8000 to power more than 2000 high quality video channels since its launch in July 2009.