Fiber optics vendor goes digital >BY SANDRA GUY, News Editor

Heightened competition marks a sure sign that digital transmission's future is bright in the cable TV industry. Harmonic Lightwaves enters the digital field this week with its TRANsend video and audio compression product family for the broadband network headend.

The products, to debut at the Cable '97 show in New Orleans next week, support video-on-demand and near-VOD deployment, Internet access and other digital-related services. The TRANsend family includes a QAM unit, MPEG 2 program encoder and video transmission platform, which offer service providers enhanced picture quality, greater flexibility and system reliability for services that need digital compression.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company's move from its fiber optic base is expected to pit it against some of its industry partners, including General Instrument, Scientific-Atlanta, Zenith and Thomson, as well as DiviCom and TVCom.

Harmonic Lightwaves is looking beyond cable to markets such as multichannel multipoint distribution service, direct broadcast satellite, switched digital video and interconnection for cable systems, MMDS systems and business-to-business applications, said John Dahlquist, vice president of marketing at Harmonic Lightwaves.

At least two analysts see the move as auguring well for the cable industry's digital future. "Harmonic's entry is one indication [the digital market] is about to take off," said Cynthia Brumfield, analyst at Paul Kagan Associates.

"Harmonic has come up with a family of equipment that will certainly advance the digital transmission," said Archer Taylor, senior engineering consultant with the Strategis Group, Washington.