The sun has shown up in Amsterdam and although it definitively feels like autumn, it is now very nice.

I had to go in Amsterdam “centrum” for two press event tonight; Harris and Harmonics.

One common theme to both is the emphasis on providing complete solutions.

It’s not really new to Harris as it has been their model for quite a while.

Harmonics however is a relative newcomer in that space. Being historically an encoder/decoder company. They have acquired Omneon and entered the content server market and are expanding quickly.

Both companies want to convey the message that customers can rely on them to provide solutions for multi-screen deployments.

I think that this focus shows how the multiscreen world makes it more complex for TV networks and people feel overwhelm by it all. Therefore they will tend not to pick the best elemenfs in each category but rather to rely on a single vendor to build them “something”.

Personally, I would bet my money on Harmonics rather than Harris. At this time the future direction of Harris video division is still a question mark. Harmonic is a fairly dynamic and growing organization and this is more inspiring.