Bulgarian TV transmission network operator NURTS Digital EAD has awarded Harris Corporation 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 early this year.
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. The entire network must be installed before winter closes in so that the network is fully operational by early 2013 when NURTS plans to switch over to DVB-T digital terrestrial TV transmission.
For Harris, this project represents the latest in a series of DVB-T and DVB-T2 digital migrations, which are the leading DTV standards in the central European region.
