Radio Frequency Systems will “ramp down” most of its broadcast and defense systems business globally, according to a letter to RFS customers from President/CEO Monika Maurer.

“This decision was a very difficult one, and one that was taken only after many rounds of reviews and discussions with our shareholders.”

Maurer wrote that implementation has started and “is planned to be completed in the coming months.” RFS will fulfill outstanding orders.

With its roots in cable manufacturing, RFS plans to continue making broadcast cable, according to Maurer’s letter.

TV Tech sister brand Radio World reached out to the company’s German and North American operations for comment on the details including the impact on its workforce, and will report any reply.

RFS, headquartered in Germany, has five manufacturing facilities globally and more than 1,000 employees, according to its website, which describes its business as providing “innovative wireless and broadcast infrastructure products and solutions.” Much of that business is with mobile and fixed wireless operators, OEMs, distributors, systems integrators and microwave companies.

The company’s beginnings date to 1900, when a predecessor company, Hackethal Draht und Kabelwerke, was established to make electric cables.

Current product offerings for broadcast include television, DAB and FM antennas, combiners, filters and switching systems. Among recent broadcast work was television infrastructure for One World Trade Center in New York. Just last month RFS launched two new ranges of antennas for next-generation TV broadcasting standards.

This article originally appeared on Radio World. 

MERIDEN, Conn.—Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) today launched the new NGP and NGS series of antennas, which are particularly well-suited to next-generation broadcasting standards, including ATSC 3.0, 5G-TV, DTMB-A and Advanced ISDBT.

“Next-Generation broadcasting will fundamentally change the landscape of broadcast equipment,” said Nick Wymant, RFS global product manager for broadcast. “Although there will still be a need of the very high-power solutions that RFS has been providing for over 40years, there is also a demand for smaller antennas to enable an SFN [Single Frequency Network] model that is better suited to delivering NextGen requirements. These solutions deliver this in a way that is commercially viable for broadcasters and will allow them to be on the front foot when it comes to delivering the anticipated functionality of NextGen TV.”

The NPG series antennas are based on the RFS flagship PEP and PEPL antennas, which serve multiple high-power master sites, including One World Trade Center. The new series is designed for smaller sites operating at medium power levels, the company said.

NPG series antennas leverage RFS achievements, such as Variable Polarization Technology (VPT). The MIMO capabilities of the solution will serve broadcasters adopting NextGen broadcasting to deliver non-traditional content, such as datacasting. Finally, the reduced size, weight and cost also allows this solution to serve broadcasters deploying SFNs, it said.

The NGS series of antennas support multi-channel NextGen TV networks and are well-suited for standalone antenna and SFN uses. Based on RFS’s SBB solution, the smaller antennas are lighter, thereby improving tower loading, and more economical. They can work with RFS’s Starpoint combiners and HELIFLEX for complete NextGen RF systems, while enabling broadcasters to overcome some of the CAPEX challenges of moving to an SFN architecture requiring more sites, it said.

The new antennas also work with RFS’s antenna selection tool to ensure optimum performance.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MERIDEN, Conn.—The Arkansas PBS is working with Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) on a $5.18 million project that will expand its transmissions to the entire state, improve its delivery of educational materials and futureproof its infrastructure so it can take advantage of ATSC 3.0 in the future. 

The deployment is presently underway, with the first site at Lee Mountain launched in April, and the remaining four under construction. The five new sites will have future-ready ATSC 3.0 capabilities and extend Arkansas PBS network coverage to reach 99.5% of the state population.

The broadcaster wanted to expand its coverage from 76% of Arkansas to the entire state but the arrival of Covid-19 accelerated those plans. Faced with the closure of schools at the start of the pandemic, Arkansas PBS launched an Alternative Method of Education (AMI) initiative which created a state-wide broadcast school environment for students K-12. This was seen as a vital service by the Arkansas Department of Education and needed to reach every student in the state.  

Arkansas PBS’s plan to add five additional sites to fill the coverage gaps was granted Covid Emergency Funding over summer of 2020, with the aim to deliver educational resources to the entire state by the end of summer. The proposal was put to tender and RFS was selected to deliver VHF broadcast antennas as well as the transmission lines and RF systems for the project. 

“Although for many Covid delayed projects, in this instance the pandemic accelerated our plans to expand coverage,” Andrew Bicknell, CTO at Arkansas PBS explained. “This made it all the more important to ensure we selected a solution that would not only work for the specific problem we were facing with the AMI initiative, but would be flexible enough to serve our future needs. Working with RFS, we definitely feel they helped to deliver the best of both worlds; a speedy roll out with versatile, futureproof infrastructure that will serve us for years to come.”

The lightweight, low wind load design of the RFS VHF panel antennas allowed installation time to be minimized as they were able to be deployed on existing state-owned towers, RFS reported. 

RFS also worked with Arkansas PBS to deliver equipment that would serve the broadcaster into the future. This included designing equipment that would allow Arkansas PBS to move to an alternate ATSC 3.0 channel in the future or allow for ATSC1.0 / 3.0 simulcast, with the antennas designed with the capacity to accommodate multiple channels.

Nick Wymant, global product line manager at RFS added, “Arkansas PBS presented us with a challenge that is universal for broadcasters, balancing investment to address immediate needs, while also ensuring it is capable of supporting future plans. The VHF broadband antennas and re-configurable RF systems that we used on this project strike that balance perfectly and it was great to be able to assist in delivering a rapid response that we know will serve the next wave of changes that the broadcast industry is facing.”

MERIDEN, CONN.—As the repack continues to progress, Radio Frequency System has a new tool aimed to help broadcasters, the RFS Analysis and Antenna System Planning tool.

AASP is a software package designed to allow users to configure their antenna and transmission line, as well as prepare their FCC filing. With AASP, broadcasters can select from multiple antennas with various power ratings and enter new channel information into the program to receive detailed data. This is meant to assist in the accurate filing of the antenna with the FCC.

The AASP is now available for download.

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.