Harris Ships FM Decoders For French Highway Use

Harris Broadcast Europe has delivered 150 additional decoders to Télédiffusion de France for feeding synchronous FM transmitters via satellite. The transmitters enable motorists in France to receive a mix of entertainment and traffic information over a single VHF channel without the need to re-tune their receivers during long drives across geographical regions.
Part of Harris Broadcast Europe, ITIS Products have been working with TDF to improve the synchronous FM systems along French motorways for two years. Harris initially provided two uplink chains and 237 synchronous FM decoder units, and has now completed the delivery of an additional 150 decoders that will be installed by the end of 2001 along motorways.
TDF developed digital synchronous linear FM broadcasting for motorway radio. The technology is based on precise timing between contiguous transmitters, so that interference is reduced when the receiver in the car is midway between two transmitters.
“Two years ago we decided to use satellites feeds to the transmitters. Harris had done the coding and multiplexing parts of this technology, and won the contract because of its knowledge of Eureka 147 technology and the quality of its MPEG encoders,” said Pierre Crespi, technical manager, TDF. “The Harris equipment ensures very precise control of the overall time delay between the source and each transmitter.”