At the NAB Show this year, Harris Corp., is expanding on its ONE initiative to demonstrate integration among its own product lines as well as interoperability for third party applications.
When it launched its ONE marketing campaign two years ago, the company had just wrapped up several years of acquisitions including the likes of Encoda, Inscriber, Videotek and Leitch. Integrating the various platforms and applications into comprehensive production and distribution solutions was the ultimate goal of the company and the results of its efforts will be on full display at the Harris booth this year.
"Harris is a compilation of at least 50 different businesses acquired or sprung up organically over the past 20 years," said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications.
TORONTO TEST LAB
Even a company as large as Harris understands the importance of playing together with other applications, so to that end, the company has established a US$2.5 million interoperability lab in Toronto. The facility houses 43 racks of equipment from Harris' server, automation, master control and transmission lines.
"We can replicate the customer's environments so we can validate that it will all work together," said Brian Cabaceiras, vice president for strategic marketing and technology at Harris Broadcast.
Harris' introduction of its Nexio AMP server platform last fall was a clear demonstration of its commitment to an integrated production environment. Harris said it has delivered more than 100 Nexio AMP systems to customers in Japan, Germany, and North America.
Another new integrated platform is NewsForce, which will also be introduced at the show. NewsForce can be described as an "interoperability compilation" of Harris servers, nonlinear editors and character generators with Apple's Final Cut Pro.
"We optimized [these applications] for Final Cut Pro," Cabaceiras said. "We believe that we do Final Cut Pro better than anybody."
Graphically speaking, Harris will introduce Inscriber G7, its most advanced HD/SD 3D graphics and animation system for live-to air environments. An optional MOS version allows journalists to create customized, template-based graphics from within any newsroom computer system.
Harris will also show a number of multiviewer systems, including several from recent acquisition Zandar Technologies.
The Harris Centrio multiviewer will be demonstrated as a standalone platform or as part of a system solution integrated with the Harris Platinum router. In addition, the Zandar Predator II multiviewer for control and monitoring environments, Zandar QS100 HD Quad "multiviewer in a card" and Zandar FusionPro series multiviewers for mission-critical environments will be shown, as well as new advanced control options including the Z-Configurator user interface and the new Z-Controller software.
On the test and measurement front, the company will introduce the Harris Videotek OPT-3GB input module for its existing TVM and VTM product range, which allows broadcasters and cable operators the ability to monitor very high-bandwidth 1080p signals in a 3 Gbps distribution environment.
Finally, Harris executives described the company's evolution in the digital signage market as a gradual buildup, starting with a simple Inscriber graphics component and adding its traffic, scheduling and billing as well as control and monitoring solutions. The company is so enthused about the market potential that it has created an advanced advertising initiative to determine ways to enhance its position.
NEW TRANSMITTER FOR T-DMB
A new 4 kW transmitter from Harris Corp., designed to improve T-DMB reception, is also being introduced at the 2008 NAB Show.
The DMB 670-4000 supports international regions that use the T-DMB standard to transmit mobile TV and digital radio from the same transmitter.
The DMB 670 range comprises highly compact DAB transmitters able to deliver multiplexed DAB and T-DMB mobile TV channels to mobile, handheld consumer devices. The higher-powered DMB 670-4000 retains the same footprint and energy-efficient, air-cooled design of its 2 kW predecessor.
According to Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications, "The DMB 670-4000 transmitter addresses unprecedented power levels for DAB/DMB broadcasting in a market-leading, energy-efficient package to provide a more robust transmission platform that better serves consumers on the move."
DMB 670 transmitters are available in power levels from 500 W to 8 kW.
During the 2008 NAB Show, Factum Electronics will provide head-end compression and multiplexing equipment to enable T-DMB demonstrations by Harris.
