Sales of Harris Corporation's NEXIO™ server surge among broadcasters in the Middle East

The NEXIO server platform has been chosen for news, production and playout applications by many of the area's major broadcasters, including Al-Jazeera International in Qatar; 1/9 Media in Libya; DigiTurk, Turkey; JMC/ArabSat, Jordan; Al-Majd Channel in Saudi Arabia; Al-Rafidine TV in Iraq; Cham TV, United Arab Emirates; Al-Sa'aa, O-TV, Athir TV, WOW TV and the Ministry of Defense in Egypt; Fashion TV Arabia, Al-Jaras TV, Kounouz TV and Shehrazad TV in Lebanon; and Al-Resalah TV and Gulf Sat in Kuwait.

"Before making our purchase decision, we completed a rigorous evaluation of servers available on the market and spoke with a number of television stations in the region for some feedback on the choices they had made," said Mustafa Murad, technical director at Gulf Sat in Kuwait.

"The NEXIO server from Harris repeatedly came up as one of the most reliable and robust systems for channel transmission. The worldwide acceptance of this product, along with its inherent scalability and flexibility, was a key driver in our decision to purchase the NEXIO server platform at Gulf Sat."

NEXIO video servers provide a streamlined infrastructure for producing, processing, managing and distributing any type of media. Within the NEXIO™ framework, SD/HD video, audio and metadata are instantly and securely accessible to all users, creating a true shared storage environment.

NEXIO XS™, the most recent addition to the NEXIO server platform, is a modular, SD/HD transmission server system that offers integrated, agile, software codecs with an extensive range of compression formats and back-to-back DV/MPEG playout — all in a single, three-rack unit (3RU) frame. Featuring all-software codec technology and front-panel access to drives, NEXIO XS™ is one of the most advanced, streamlined, easy-to-use, SD/HD server systems available today.

"The Middle East market has been thriving for a number of years now, and we are delighted with the recent uptake of the NEXIO server platform in this region," said Dave Dougall, vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the Harris Broadcast Communications Division.

"It is a testament to the robustness and scalability of the NEXIO™ platform that it has been such a significant success over recent months. We also feel that our strategy to set up an office in Dubai Media City and to hire exceptional, local talent such as our managing director, Said Bacho, has contributed greatly to our recent momentum in the region."

Designed on a seamless codec model, NEXIO XS™ enables back-to-back playout of multiple formats on every channel and is able to encompass new codecs the moment they become available. It provides an extensive range of I/O types, integrated applications support and encode options, including Long GOP MPEG2 at SD and HD resolutions, DV25, DV50 and IMX. Front-panel access to boot and media drives, as well as USB and IEEE-1394 (FireWire®) ports, makes NEXIO XS™ easier to use and service than other available options.