Harris Corporation Systems to Help Broadcast Red Bull Air Race World Series 2007

Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, announced that it has delivered a variety of television broadcast systems to Presteigne Broadcast Hire, one of the UK’s leading providers of broadcast television equipment and systems hire, to broadcast the Red Bull Air Race World Series 2007. The Red Bull Series, an international series of air races, started in the United Arab Emirates in April and runs through November 2007, with the final event taking place in Perth, Australia.

Harris delivered a 15RU Harris® Platinum™ router and a large number of HD modular processing and conversion products, including the Harris® 6800+™ series and NEO® XHD series of up-, down- and cross-converters. This new equipment will further supplement the company’s existing line up of Harris routing and distribution products, which includes Integrator® Gold™ and Panacea™ routers and the X75™HD multiple-path converter/synchroniser.

The new equipment will be at the heart of a large HD de-rig system being used for the Red Bull Air Race World Series 2007. For the second year running, Presteigne is providing the technical facilities to Germany’s SIVision TV Production GmbH for this global event, which makes its way from location to location around the world, taking in countries such as Brazil, the U.S., Spain, Turkey, Portugal, the UK and Hungary, just to name a few.

“Providing the infrastructure backbone for our coverage of the Red Bull Air Race World Series, the Platinum router supplies the essential functionality for an HD production of this magnitude, including 256x256 routing capabilities and ability to route a large number of digital signals through the facility with ease,” said Mark Tomlin, Head of Engineering, Presteigne Broadcast Hire. “The Platinum router’s ability to support a mix of different signals — video and embedded audio, from SD to HD, all in the same frame — is also crucial to this mission-critical event.”

Presteigne Broadcast Hire is building a complete TV facility at each location in quick succession, and this year’s equipment needs have expanded and are more technically complex than those in years past. To help achieve the best results, Presteigne is providing one of its largest HD flyaway systems to the broadcast centres at each location. The HD flyaway system allows Presteigne to quickly set up the facility to provide not only the transmission facilities for worldwide broadcasters, but also the production facilities for playing the live material to the large display screens at each of the locations.

“The production is using native HD, which is then downconverted through one of the 80 Harris broadcast or utility downconverters for onward distribution,” said Dave Dougall, vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa for the Harris Broadcast Communications Division. “Presteigne’s use of X75 HD multi-path converter/synchronisers allows them to do more with less equipment, as it combines SD to HD upgradeability with up-, down- and cross-conversion, SD/HD frame sync and extensive video and audio processing capabilities — all in a space-saving 1RU package.”

The high-capacity, small-footprint Platinum™ routing switchers provide high-quality signal routing up to 256x256 in 15RU and 512x512 in 28RU. Built for maximum reliability in even the most harsh, 24/7 operation, Platinum™ is designed for network, local broadcaster, mobile production, cable, telco, military, government and corporate applications — any environment that requires routing of a large number of signals.