Harmonic updated its mid-range multichannel media server with solid-state drive (SSD) storage.

Separately, the company rehired Matthew Aden to head up sales to MSOs in North America. Aden had been Harmonic’s vice president of worldwide sales and service from 2007 until last December, when he joined Casa Systems as senior vice president of worldwide sales. Prior to joining Harmonic the first time, Aden worked for Terayon, and before that for Motorola/General Instrument.

With the introduction of the SSD option, Harmonic believes its Omneon Spectrum MediaCenter is the first modular server system to offer a choice of SSD or hard-disk drive (HDD) storage.

The system is aimed at broadcasters and remote playout facilities requiring from four to 12 channels in a single video server configuration.

The 2RU MediaCenter SSD chassis offers up to 4 TB of usable storage in several SSD configurations, allowing broadcasters to choose the capacity most appropriate for their needs. The system supports up to 12 channels at 50 Mbps, with 600 Mbps total real-time bandwidth available. SSD storage reduces operational costs, as it requires less power and cooling, and it also operates more quietly than HDD-based systems.