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Harris Corporation, LG Electronics Announce In-Band Mobile DTV System, Providing New Business Opportunities for Broadcasters


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The inventor of the transmission standard for digital television (DTV) and the market leader in broadcast equipment and automation technology today announced an innovative new technology designed to extend over-the-air broadcast TV signals beyond the living room to viewers on the go.

LG Electronics Inc. and its U.S. research subsidiary, Zenith Electronics Corp., joined forces with Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS) on the development of new in-band mobile DTV technology. The MPH™ in-band mobile DTV system, dubbed “MPH™” for “Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld,” will make its debut at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention April 14-19 in Las Vegas.

This promising technology, which has the potential to create new markets and revenue streams for TV broadcasters, will be prominently featured in two high-profile NAB exhibits: the Harris booth (N2502, Las Vegas Convention Center) and the Advanced Television Systems Committee “Hot Spot” (South Hall upper lobby). The robustness and reliability of the new system also will be showcased in live, mobile demonstrations throughout the NAB convention.

“MPH™ is designed to deliver the Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld applications that digital TV broadcasters are seeking,” said Dr. Jong Kim, president of LG’s Zenith R&D Lab, which collaborated with the LG DTV Lab in Seoul and with Harris Broadcast Communications Division on the development of the system. “We believe broadcasters will appreciate both the superior performance and unparalleled flexibility of our MPH™ system.”

Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications said, “The results of our joint development with LG Electronics are in response to our customers’ interest in a compelling, in-band mobile solution. The versatile, robust MPH system is the first that strikes the right balance for broadcasters looking to deliver both high-definition programming to fixed receivers and standard-definition programming and datacasting to mobile and handheld devices.”

The MPH system is a multiple-stream approach, with the main service stream for existing DTV and HDTV services, and the MPH stream for one or more mobile, pedestrian and/or handheld services. Key attributes of the MPH system include:

Backward compatibility with the existing ATSC 8-VSB transmission and receiving equipment;

Capability to receive broadcast signals at high (mobile) speed with a single antenna;

Use of practical, small handheld receivers without the need for multiple antennas;

Power savings in handheld receivers;

Flexibility in both data rates and robustness;

Data-rate efficiency, and;

Use of advanced video and audio coding in the MPH™ stream.
The MPH system has the additional advantage for broadcasters of involving neither outside service providers nor spectrum-pooling arrangements.

During the NAB convention, in addition to conducting the live mobile demonstrations, LG Electronics, Zenith and Harris will disclose results of field testing under real-world conditions for mobile and handheld services. Further details will be discussed at a joint Harris-LG press conference in Las Vegas on April 15, the eve of the NAB convention.

About LG Electronics USA, Inc.
LG Electronics USA, Inc. is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a $48.5-billion global force in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications. In the United States, LG Electronics sells a wide range of digital display and digital media products, digital appliances and mobile phones under LG’s “Life’s Good” marketing theme. LG’s U.S. R&D subsidiary Zenith Electronics in Lincolnshire, Ill., is a long-time leader in consumer electronics technologies and a pioneer in digital HDTV, having developed the “VSB” digital transmission system at the heart of the ATSC DTV Standard adopted by the Federal Communications Commission. Zenith’s Emmy-award-winning technologies include TV remote control, stereo TV, flat CRTs and HDTV. Zenith merged with LG Electronics in 1999. For additional information, please visit www.zenith.com and www.LGusa.com.

About Harris Corporation
Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has annual revenue of about $4 billion and more than 14,000 employees - including more than 6,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications(tm) products, systems, and services for global markets, including government communications, RF communications, broadcast communications, and wireless transmission network solutions. Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at www.harris.com.



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