Harris Corporation announced on 21 April that TV Azteca, S.A. de C.V., one of the two largest producers of Spanish language television programming in the world, has signed a purchase agreement with Harris Corporation’s Broadcast Communications Division for digital television transmitters, and high-definition encoding equipment for HDTV. The equipment will bring HDTV to nine cities in México and will be launched in two phases through mid-2006.
The new equipment places TV Azteca at the forefront of digital transmission capabilities in Latin America and will allow for HDTV transmission in México City, Guadalajara and Monterrey by the third quarter of this year. The services are in accordance with a rollout plan detailed by TV Azteca in August 2004. Phase Two of the national rollout will bring HDTV services to six additional cities (Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Juarez, Mexicali and Tijuana) through the first half of 2006.
The initial TV Azteca order includes six Harris DiamondCD(R) DHD8P1 transmitters operating at 1.8 kW. DiamondCD transmitters have been among the most popular transmitters employed for the U.S. digital TV rollout, with more than 300 deployed in the U.S. at power levels from 1.8 kW to 35 kW. TV Azteca can readily expand the DHD8P1 for additional power output by adding power amplifiers and power supplies. The DiamondCD DHD8P1 transmitter includes the Apex(TM) advanced digital TV exciter, with over 400 installations since its introduction in 2002.
“Harris Corporation is pleased to continue its strategic relationship with TV Azteca as it starts deployment of digital television. Harris has established a broad base of content delivery solutions from its leadership position in U.S. digital television, and we are honored to be selected to extend these market-proven solutions to México as TV Azteca commences its commercial deployment of digital television,” said Dale Mowry, vice president and general manager of Television Broadcast Systems for Harris Broadcast Communications.
Harris’ turnkey solution will allow viewers with HDTV sets to receive picture resolution six times sharper than standard definition analog sets. TV Azteca viewers without HDTV sets will continue to receive their television programming through analog transmission approaches.