Harris Corporation Brings Digital Radio Expertise to Dominican Republic Radio Event

Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS), the only radio technology supplier supporting the three leading digital radio standards — HD Radio™, DRM and DAB — recently showcased its variety of solutions at the Digital Radio Forum in the Dominican Republic. Harris teamed with its Dominican Republic dealer, Repuestos de Radio & TV, to provide presentations for regional broadcasters interested in digital radio.

The forum, which was planned by Indotel, the Dominican Republic’s counterpart to the U.S. FCC, showcased radio transmission technology and implementation strategies for all three standards.

“This was an excellent event to generate Caribbean interest in digital radio through a series of educational exhibits,” said Hal Kneller, senior manager, marketing communications and public radio initiatives, Harris Broadcast Communications. “Station owners attended the show in record numbers and expressed interest in moving forward with digital radio. Some Dominican Republic broadcasters are asking the government to issue licenses to experiment with digital radio transmission, especially HD Radio broadcasting, after hearing of its successes in the United States and Latin America.”

Harris Corporation’s exhibition included the FlexStar® HDx exciter operating in hybrid mode with a Harris Z-Series™ tri-mode transmitter, which operates in analog, analog plus HD Radio™, or pure HD Radio™ digital. The company also showed examples of how stations are using HD Radio™ to multicast- broadcast additional audio channels alongside their main HD and analog program streams-in the U.S. Harris also provided a formal presentation on the three digital standards.

“The Harris presentation drove home the point that as the last analog medium in a digital world, radio must make the transition to digital to continue as a relevant medium to the public,” said Hector Cambero, vice president of sales, Repuestos de Radio & TV. “Representatives of numerous islands, including Bermuda and the Bahamas, attended the event and learned much about the cost and technology considerations for planning a digital radio service. Regarding the Dominican Republic specifically, some broadcasters in Puerto Rico are on the air in the HD Radio™ standard at this time, and some of these signals can be heard here. This is one reason why many Caribbean nations seem to be leaning toward HD Radio™ broadcasting: listeners with receivers in nearby nations can potentially pick up the HD Radio™ signal from other nations, and in many cases the language is common throughout the region. The HD Radio™ standard also offers an advantage in mountainous nations like the Dominican Republic due to its ability to minimize or eliminate multipath distortions to provide a clear on-air signal. There may also be advantages to some broadcasters to add multicast program services.”

Although HD Radio™ was the focus of most discussion, Caribbean broadcasters also expressed interest in DRM and DAB. Broadcasters from Europe were on hand to discuss successes with these standards, where both DRM and DAB have experienced growth in specific regions. The DRM standard was particularly attractive to Caribbean AM broadcasters looking to simulcast their signals in analog and digital, potentially over long distances. The DAB standard, which is gaining interest in Mexico and other Latin American nations, offers the unique approach of transmitting Mobile TV services and digital radio channels to handheld devices over the same transmitter.