News | August 15, 2019

RFS Successfully Supports American Tower Spectrum Repack Projects At Major Broadcast Sites Across The United States

Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), a global designer and manufacturer of total-package solutions for wireless and broadcast infrastructure, recently announced it is successfully providing American Tower with broadcast equipment to support the company’s spectrum repack projects across the United States. American Tower is one of the largest global Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and a leader in broadcast network evolution. To date, RFS has supplied broadcast antennas, combiners and RF systems to help American Tower and its broadcast customers achieve their repack goals at more than a dozen broadcast sites across the United States.

A unique combination of broadcast innovation, reliability and people
RFS is successfully supporting American Tower at broadcast sites in major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and New York City. As part of its efforts, RFS has provided complex broadcast equipment, such as multi-station transmission systems and multi-channel antennas that feature RFS’ patented Variable Polarization Technology (VPT). For example, in Boston, RFS is providing American Tower with a PEP70E top-mounted broadband UHF panel antenna that allows multiple broadcasters to share the antenna, but individually use different polarization ratios. The 14-level antenna includes 70 panels with more than 200 kW of input power capacity and can broadcast horizontal, elliptical or circular polarization. Polarization ratios can be easily adjusted with a simple phase change in the high power multi-station channel combiners, which are used throughout these sites. Equally impressive is a truly broadband elliptically polarized SBB series antenna with fixed 25% +/- 5% vertically polarized component from 470 to 700 MHz with a total input power up to 100kW, installed as an auxiliary at the Norfolk site.

RFS is one of the few broadcast equipment manufacturers globally that can deliver broadcast equipment with this level of sophistication. The company also provides American Tower with full system design and engineering support to ensure challenging deadlines can be met, as well as installation and commissioning services.

“We have extremely high standards for our suppliers and our goal is to always exceed customer expectations,” says Jim Stenberg, Principal Engineer – RF Broadcast at American Tower. “RFS has proven they can reliably deliver the state-of-the-art broadcast solutions we need, when we need them.”

“We’re thrilled with the success of our repack projects with American Tower,” says Eddy Vanderkerken, Director of Sales – Broadcast at RFS. “It’s an incredibly important recognition of the technical innovation, deep broadcast expertise and reliable solution delivery we provide. With our unique combination of our technology dove tailing with future plans for ATSC3 and 5G, our people, and our manufacturing facility in Meriden, Connecticut, we are ideally positioned to help any broadcaster in the U.S. with their requirements, whether they need a single-channel antenna or a very complex system.”

A longtime innovator in broadcast technolog
RFS has been an innovator in the broadcast market for more than 40 years and is known for its ability to deliver solutions that meet the most challenging technical and quality specifications within tight timelines. The company has provided broadcast equipment and expertise for extremely high-profile deployments, including the future proof broadcast antenna deployment at One World Trade Center in New York City. To ensure it can effectively support repack requirements at any level, RFS invested heavily in expanding its manufacturing capabilities and capacity in Meriden, Connecticut, in 2016.

About RFS
Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) is a global designer and manufacturer of cable, antenna and tower systems, plus active and passive RF conditioning modules, providing total-package solutions for wireless infrastructure.

RFS serves OEMs, distributors, system integrators, operators and installers in the broadcast, wireless communications, land-mobile and microwave market sectors. As an ISO compliant organization with manufacturing and customer service facilities that span the globe, RFS offers cutting-edge engineering capabilities, superior field support and innovative product design. RFS is a leader in wireless infrastructure.

Source: Radio Frequency Systems (RFS)