Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) has announced that 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) 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.
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 and can handle more than 200 kW of input power with 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 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.
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 futureproof 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.
