Elemental, Harmonic slug it out for encoding leadership

Elemental, Harmonic slug it out for encoding leadership
Joseph O'Halloran | 24-04-2014
A competitive assessment by ABI Research looking at the multiscreen encoder market found a virtual tie between Harmonic and the rapidly growing Elemental Technologies.

Overall, the analyst says that the encoding market is expanding not just in terms of revenue, but in terms of the number of companies competing in it and how they deliver their products. It notes that cloud platforms such as encoding.com and Brightcove's Zencoder are finding significant use cases alongside traditional, well-established large system integrators such as Arris, Cisco, Ericsson and Harmonic as well as more start-ups such as Elemental as well as Envivio and Ateme. Roundiong out the market are software and workflow-oriented companies such as Telestream and Digital Rapids, just acquired by Imagine Communications.

Commenting on the battle between the two leading protagonists, ABI Research practice director Sam Rosen said: "Harmonic has a larger portfolio but is generally less disruptive in its innovation. Elemental, meanwhile, is executing on all fronts, including a recent (NAB April 2014) announcement that it was the first integrated into Ericsson's EVE platform – somewhat of an upset to third-ranking Envivio. However, Envivio is not standing still either, having overcome problems encountered late in 2012 and early 2013 to have won significant customers and growing (again)."