Source Cable deploys Harmonic edge QAM gear

Canadian cable TV operator Source Cable has deployed Harmonic's NSG 9000 HectoQAM edge QAM system in its headend to boost broadband Internet performance and support video-on-demand expansion.

Harmonic NSG 9000

Harmonic's NSG 9000.

Infonetics Research recently reported that revenue from CMTS and edge QAM deployments was up in the fourth quarter of 2011 as cable TV companies continued their DOCSIS 3.0 cable broadband upgrade projects.

Harmonic said its HectoQAM system has hot-swappable RF-QAM modules that will allow Source Cable to easily grow the number of service groups, and more than quadruple the QAM capacity for existing service groups without service disruptions. The vendor has a firmware licensing policy that lets cable TV operators using the system to adopt a pay-as-you-grow architecture strategy, which could be particularly appealing for regional or smaller cable TV operators.

"The Harmonic HectoQAM solution delivers up to 648 QAM RF channels of cable TV services, including high-speed Internet, VoD, switched digital video, or video broadcast," according to a company-issued press release. It also uses a small form factor of 2 RU and low power consumption per QAM channel, and supports DOCSIS 3.0 and modular CMTS standards for downstream data transmission.

For more:
-see the release

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Harmonic acquired Omneon in 2010