Harmonic announces that U.S. cable operator Midcontinent Communications has deployed Harmonic's Narrowcast Services Gateway 9000 universal edgeQAM for its new DOCSIS 3.0-based service. Harmonic's edgeQAM technology provides the flexibility, scalability, and output density to enable Midcontinent Communications to bring faster internet speeds -- up to 50 Mbps -- to its residential and business customers in North and South Dakota and Minnesota.

Harmonic's NSG 9000 comes with a Mass Configuration Tool that Midcontinent Communications used to facilitate and simplify the simultaneous configuration of multiple NSG 9000 systems. MCT also enables Midcontinent Communications to perform easily firmware upgrades and remote configuration as well as backup and restoration for multiple devices.

Harmonic's NSG 9000 universal edgeQAM is a highly integrated digital video gateway that multiplexes on-demand content streamed over the IP network. Housed in a modular, 2-RU chassis, the NSG 9000 can perform PID filtering, multiplexing, scrambling, QAM modulation, and RF upconversion. Harmonic's family of edgeQAM solutions includes the new NSG 9000 HectoQAM, which can scale up to 648 QAMs in 2-RU and incorporates new technologies that significantly improve efficiency and ease of operation, setting new benchmarks in density and flexibility.

Harmonic leads the industry in edgeQAM deployments with more than one million QAMs shipped to cable service providers worldwide. Harmonic's edgeQAM technology powers video-on-demand, broadcast, switched digital video, modular cable modem termination system, and cable IPTV services that serve more than 50 million cable TV subscribers around the world.