Harmonic has rolled out its Agile Compression Engine (ACE), which is a new transcoding technology that extends the functionality of its ProStream 1000 stream-processing platform.

Harmonic said ACE supports MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) transcoding of up to 20 high-definition or 80 standard-definition video and audio channels in a compact and power-efficient one rack unit chassis.

The IP-based transcoder supports a number of applications, including real-time transcoding for digital turnaround (DTA), mobile video, Internet TV, and digital program or advertisement insertion. Existing ProStream 1000 systems can be upgraded in the field to support the new ACE functionality.

The ProStream 1000 with ACE includes:

• “Any-to-any” functionality by transcoding any combination of MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, HD, SD and numerous audio codecs, including HD to SD down-conversion
• “Any-to-many” functionality with multiple output streams per input service to simultaneously support broadcast digital simulcast/triplecast, switched digital video and VOD services
• Support for mixed statistical multiplex pools of transcoded and encoded services with Harmonic’s DiviTrack statistical multiplexing
• Enhanced audio processing, including transcoding and level adjustment
• Quality of service monitoring and optimization with Harmonic’s Iris software

Harmonic will be demonstrating ACE at IBC2009 this week in Amsterdam.