Thomson Futhura Plus TV Transmitter Wins
Broadcast Engineering Pick Hit Award
PARIS — Sept. 26, 2011 — Thomson Broadcast’s new high-efficiency Futhura Plus television transmitter capped a successful IBC2011 debut by winning Broadcast Engineering’s coveted Pick Hit Award.
The industry’s longest-running prestigious product technology awards, Broadcast Engineering’s Pick Hit Awards are selected by a panel of independent judges looking for innovative products and technology that deliver important technical and financial improvements to a facility’s operation.
The Futhura Plus transmitter offers broadcasters substantial energy savings, with a 50 percent improvement in efficiency over current standard transmitters on the market. The environmentally friendly Futhura Plus uses innovative drain modulation technology for a major advance toward meeting lower energy consumption targets in the broadcast industry. The transmitter’s greatly reduced power requirements offer operational cost savings that can have a considerable impact on the performance of a broadcast business, substantially outstripping the return on investment of any transmitter on the market today. Thomson’s fully automatic real-time Digital Adaptive Pre-correction (DAP) technology corrects linear and nonlinear distortions, while low-operating junction transistor temperatures contribute to exceptional and extended durability.
For use in initial deployments or for extending existing digital networks, the UHF wideband Futhura Plus offers high-power capability suitable for HDTV and 3D services, with up to 35-percent transmitter efficiency and market-leading power density of up to 12.6kW OFDM. Equipped for all OFDM standards in the UHF frequency band, the Futhura Plus features Thomson’s latest software enhancements for the exciters.
“An enormous R&D effort went into the Futhura Plus to achieve such a breakthrough in efficiency,” said Nicolas Dallery, president of Thomson Broadcast. “It’s a tribute to our designers and technicians that this product has been immediately recognized for its significance by the independent industry panel choosing the Broadcast Engineering Pick Hit Awards. The Futhura Plus is the greenest transmitter available today, and will help any broadcaster make a valuable reduction in their carbon footprint.”
About Thomson Broadcast
Since the earliest years of broadcasting, the Thomson name has been synonymous with expertise and innovation at the highest level. A trusted partner to the world’s leading broadcasters, Thomson has pioneered many developments that have shaped the industry, leading innovation in solid-state technology, Digital Adaptive Pre-correction (DAP), Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB); winning multiple Emmy® Awards; and gaining more than 50 patents in technologies that have become fundamental to broadcasting. Thomson Broadcast is building on this great heritage with a market-leading portfolio of transmission products for terrestrial television, radio broadcasting, and state-of-the-art products for scientific applications, combined with world-class systems integration services. With more than 50,000 active Thomson transmission systems deployed worldwide and a global support presence, Thomson Broadcast continues to forge technologies for the future, with initiatives such as the innovative GreenPower and broadcast/mobile convergence programs. In addition to broadcasting, Thomson’s list of projects in the field of special applications dates back to 1981 and includes installations on five continents managed by private and public organizations operating in the areas of scientific research, medical, or industrial applications.
Information about products from Thomson Broadcast is available at www.thomson-broadcast.com.
