Thomson Broadcast's new high-efficiency Futhura Plus television transmitter added to its award-winning debut at IBC2011 by picking up a STAR award from the editorial staff of TV Technology Europe magazine. "The Futhura Plus is the state of the art in green transmitter technology — a clear leader in the market, both in performance and in reducing a broadcaster's carbon footprint," said Nicolas Dallery (photo), president of Thomson Broadcast. "This award adds to a highly successful product launch at IBC for the Futhura Plus. The R&D effort that went into its development is part of Thomson's continuous drive to bring greater efficiency and performance to the industry, which will result in further launches of class-leading products in the near future."
The Superior Technology Award Recipient (STAR) award is designed to celebrate and showcase the preeminent technological innovations available to the broadcast industry. Twenty-five STAR awards are given each year to new products that help users save money or accomplish a task more easily. The products selected help advance the industry through technical novelty or innovation, or by filling an important gap in the production or transmission chain.
The Futhura Plus transmitter incorporates several advanced technologies to deliver substantial energy savings of up to a 50-percent improvement in efficiency over current standard transmitters on the market. Thomson's innovative drain modulation technology plays a large part in making the Futhura Plus the most environmentally friendly transmitter on the market, and an important contribution to lower energy consumption 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 realtime Digital Adaptive Pre-correction (DAP) technology corrects linear and non-linear 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 12.6 kW OFDM. Equipped for all OFDM standards in the UHF frequency band, the Futhura Plus features Thomson's latest software enhancements for the exciters.
The Futhura Plus was also the recipient of a Pick Hit award from Broadcast Engineering at IBC2011.
