Appear’s NEO20 has been deployed across several of its headend sites in the Netherlands, and is supporting live video distribution for B2B customers, based in DVB-C transcoding for multicast streams.

When Kabeltex evaluated its own systems earlier this year, it found that it lacked a redundancy plan if any of its transcoders were to fail. The existing transcoders were five years old and only transcoded at a low bitrate. Since deploying Appear’s NEO20, Kabeltex is using the NEO20 to support transcoding and delivery of its prime television channels.

The NEO20 is an energy-efficient, server-based compression solution that is denser and 10 times more energy-efficient than a pure software transcoding solution. The plug and play solution offers accelerated HEVC transcoding, and can deliver up to eight Ultra High-Definition HEVC 10bit streams while simultaneously transcoding in AVC, simplifying server deployment and operation.

With picture quality being the ultimate measure of performance among viewers, Kabeltex has been impressed by the fidelity of the NEO20, considering it a positive step-up from its previous solution.