Tribune Broadcasting Selects Harris Corporation's Digital Turnaround Processor for 21 Stations

Tribune Broadcasting Selects Harris Corporation's Digital Turnaround Processor for 21 Stations

DTP to Form Core Component in Tribune's Broadcast of THE TUBE Music Network Programming

CINCINNATI, April 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) today announced that its Digital Turnaround Processor (DTP) has been selected by Tribune Broadcasting for 21 of its stations, and will comprise a core component in Tribune's upcoming broadcast of THE TUBE Music Network programming.

The DTP is an all-MPEG-2 compressed stream processor that allows broadcasters to seamlessly splice, rate-shape and overlay still and animated graphics/logos on pre-compressed, high-definition and standard-definition streams inexpensively and with superior video quality. The DTP allows a remotely encoded DTV signal to be localized with such applications as logo overlays, crawls, time and temperature, stock information, and local weather and news, enabling content owners to derive additional revenue from their national content by making it more relevant to local audiences. In addition, the DTP has the ability to save MPEG-2 spots (for later splicing) on mirrored internal storage received over an IP network. By avoiding artifact-inducing MPEG decode/re-encode concatenation, the original MPEG stream picture quality is preserved to the greatest extent possible.

"We wanted a system that would enable support of industry-standard protocols for control as well as text ingest and audio insertion for EAS (Emergency Alert System) messages and text crawls across all channels of our multiplex," said Ira Goldstone, vice president/chief technology officer, Tribune Broadcasting. "Additionally, channel logo insertion, pre-encoded spot delivery, SCTE 35 controlled spot playout and spliced insertion were important features we required to meet our business objectives. Java GUI and PSIP generation were also important. The DTP was the only system we found that could do it all."

THE TUBE will be available on Tribune television stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and 15 other major U.S. markets, potentially reaching 17 to 19 million homes. THE TUBE takes advantage of multicasting technology, which allows broadcasting stations to distribute a main signal plus up to three secondary signals. Tribune stations will begin broadcasting THE TUBE Music Network programming this summer.

"We are pleased that Tribune Broadcasting has selected our DTP system for this major project," said Tim Thorsteinson, president for Harris Broadcast Communications Division's Leitch Business Unit. "Working entirely in the compressed domain, the DTP enables broadcasters to decrease storage requirements, lower distribution costs and streamline operations, and we look forward to helping Tribune capitalize on its stations' digital broadcast capabilities and provide this new programming to its viewers."

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. With headquarters in Melbourne, Florida, the company has annual sales of over $3 billion and more than 13,000 employees -- including 5,500 engineers and scientists -- dedicated to the development of best-in-class assured communications(TM) products, systems, and services. The company's operating divisions serve markets for government communications, RF communications, broadcast communications, and microwave communications. Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at http://www.harris.com/ .

Source: Harris Corporation

CONTACT: Laura Whitaker, Vice President, Leitch Marketing
Communications, +1-408-782-1201, or laura.whitaker@harris.com, for Harris

Web site: http://www.harris.com/

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