Harris Corporation to Migrate Republic of Togo to DVB-T2 Digital TV

MELBOURNE, Fla. & AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, has been selected as the technology vendor of choice for a country-wide digital TV transition project in the West African state of Togo. Harris will completely renew the country’s broadcast TV infrastructure by designing, installing and commissioning an entire digital video chain to transmit throughout the country — using a national network of DVB-T2 transmitters and satellite services.

“Togo is setting a new standard in the African region by adopting a digital TV ecosystem based on the DVB-T2 transmission standard and using our most advanced contribution, production and distribution technologies”

Harris helped to define the requirements for the digital transition with the project’s prime contractor, Togo-based construction company General d’Afrique, and the Togo Government’s Ministry of Communications. A key driver in the decision to select Harris was its market-leading experience and technology base in the emerging DVB-T2 transmission standard.

Togo will become one of the first West African states to adopt and implement DVB-T2. The migration will introduce a better than threefold increase in standard and high-definition TV channel capacity, as well as significantly increase the transmission networks resiliency and robustness.

“We at General d’Afrique, as the Prime Contractor for the digital television switchover in Togo, selected Harris because of their ability to meet all of our digital TV needs with a sophisticated integrated TV production system,” said Helios Rodriguez, general director at General d’Afrique. “We are pleased with the solution that Harris will supply — adoption of the DVB-T2 standard gives Togo great facilities today and also future-proofs their network for many years to come. We know of no other company that can match Harris’ abilities throughout the digital video chain.”

To meet Togo’s digital TV transition needs, Harris will supply a complete solution comprising:

Three complete TV stations including production studios, master control rooms, distribution and post-production centers complete with material indexing, cataloging and storage.
Mobile news gathering equipment.
Satellite uplink and receiving systems at each TV site.
Content distribution systems at the studios (encoding) and each TV site (decoding) using the Harris^® Selenio™ media convergence platform.
Nine TV sites featuring new and refurbished towers, new antennas, electrical equipment, air handling equipment and Harris^® Maxiva™ DVB-T2 transmitters.

“Harris will play a central role in this groundbreaking digital TV transition – not only in supplying the market’s most advanced digital production, distribution and transmission technology, but also in providing the human resources that are so important to the success of this pioneering project,” said Mr. Vincent Pernin, technical manager, General d’Afrique. “Already, we have developed a close working relationship with Harris’ team of engineers and technology specialists. We look forward to an exciting period as we move forward in this initiative.”

In addition to equipment, Harris will provide a range of consultancy, design and training services to the customer. These include already completed site surveys of the studios and TV stations, equipment installation supervision, test and commissioning; and training for all studio kit and production processes, transmission and receiving equipment (system operation and training), satellite uplinks and mobile news gathering systems.

“Togo is setting a new standard in the African region by adopting a digital TV ecosystem based on the DVB-T2 transmission standard and using our most advanced contribution, production and distribution technologies,” said Harris Morris, president, Harris Broadcast Communications. “This investment will provide Togo with a valuable resource that will aid cultural and economic development in the country.”

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 125 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5.5 billion of annual revenue and about 15,000 employees—including 6,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications^®products, systems and services. Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at harris.com.