Harris Corporation to Introduce New Transmitter for China’s DMB-T Standard at BIRTV; Shipping First Transmitter in August

Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS), an international communications and information technology company, will introduce its first transmission solution for China’s Digital Multimedia Broadcast-Terrestrial (DMB-T) standard at the upcoming BIRTV show in Beijing, China. The company also announced it is shipping its first DMB-T transmitter to Yunnan TV in China later this month, and will provide upgrade kits for Harris DVB-T transmitters currently installed in China.

Harris will debut a DMB-T transmitter outfitted with a new Harris DTV660 DMB-T exciter at the show (Beijing Conference Center, August 23-25th, Booth 8A-30). The DTV660 DMB-T exciter is based on Harris Corporation’s field-proven range of Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard exciters, and features a new modulator designed specifically to meet the new Chinese digital TV standard. The new DMB-T transmitter uses Harris Atlas™ technology, which includes a variety of solid-state, air-cooled and liquid-cooled analogue and DVB-T digital transmitters.

Harris Atlas™ DVB-T transmitters already in the field today can easily be upgraded to the DMB-T standard with a simple board swap and firmware changes.

“Harris is pleased to support China’s DMB-T standard for digital terrestrial television,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications. “Harris has a long history of leadership in transmission, and continues to design new platforms and modify existing technology to support digital TV standards internationally. We look forward to supporting this unique standard as China moves forward with its DTV initiatives for both terrestrial and mobile TV broadcasting.”

The DMB-T standard has been designed to provide the best possible reception quality, even in large metropolitan areas with difficult reception conditions. The standard has been engineered to provide a very high level of spectral efficiency. This provides the capability to transmit multiple programs of video, audio and data within the same channel that was previously occupied by a single analog signal. The standard is also designed to allow both terrestrial TV sets and mobile handheld devices to use the same spectrum.

The medium- to high-power liquid-cooled design of Harris DMB-T transmitters is specifically for broadcasters seeking an efficient, high-power density transmitter, resulting in greatly reduced room air-conditioning requirements and overall electricity costs. The new Harris DMB-T transmitter series also shares the compact footprint of the Atlas™ transmitter design — for broadcasters with limited space in the transmission facility.

During the past three years, BIRT Awards have been granted to several Harris Atlas™ transmission products, including the DVB-T range in 2004; the Atlas Analogue and DVB-T transmitters in 2005; and the Atom™ channel gap filler in 2006.