Harris Secures Digital TV Transmission Contract with NURTS Digital EAD in Bulgaria

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

  • Bulgarian TV network operator NURTS Digital EAD selects Harris for digital TV transition.
  • Harris will supply 196 DVB-T transmission systems across Bulgaria.
  • Project demonstrates Harris’ leadership in national over-the-air digital TV roll-outs.

MELBOURNE, Fla. & DENVER — Bulgarian TV transmission network operator NURTS Digital EAD (formerly Towercom) has awarded Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) a nearly $8 million contract to transition the country to DVB-T over-the-air digital television (DTV). The project will spread services into more sparsely populated rural areas and represents the completion of Bulgaria’s TV digitization strategy as the government moves toward an analog TV switch-off date in early 2013.

Harris, in cooperation with its Bulgarian dealer, New Tek, will supply 196 transmission sites with Maxiva™ UAX DVB-T air-cooled transmitters and low-power Maxiva UAX Compact Class gap filler systems with power ratings between 10W and 1kW.

Maxiva UAX transmitter designs are based on the Harris® PowerSmart® architecture. The PowerSmart design offers the broadcast industry’s highest power density and operational efficiency for over-the-air transmission, with its unrivaled compact footprint and green, energy-saving performance. The transmitters also include Harris® Apex M2X™ software-defined exciters to maximize over-the-air signal quality and performance.

Harris is able to supply large volumes of easy-to-install transmitters adapted to specific customer requirements, such as N+1 control architectures for transmission redundancy, within a very short timeframe. The pre-assembled transmission systems, now being delivered, are ready for installation upon arrival.

“The delivery schedule for this project is extremely short — we must install the entire network before winter closes in, so that the network is fully operational by early 2013 when we plan to switch over to DVB-T digital terrestrial TV transmission,” said Alexander Kirilov, CTO, NURTS Digital EAD. “Few companies could meet our requirements, but we are very happy with how this project is developing with the professional support of Harris.”

“NURTS Digital EAD’s commitment to digital television represents one of the largest purchases of DVB-T technology in Europe by a single company. We are helping support their goals and vision of bringing high-quality DTV services to nearly the entire country’s population,” said Harris Morris, president, Harris Broadcast Communications. “Our team has risen to the challenge of providing complete DVB-T solutions under a tight deadline to illustrate our market-leading DTV transmission capabilities.”