Harris Corporation Converts Augusta CBS Affiliate To Digital for HDTV Broadcast of the 2000 Masters.

Business Editors

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2000

A multi-million dollar partnership between Harris Corporation and WRDW-TV will allow the Augusta, Georgia, CBS affiliate to broadcast the dramatic sights and sounds of this week's Masters golf tournament in full digital high-definition television (HDTV).

With this new, Harris-provided capability, the station's digital channel, WRDW-DT/31, will offer stunningly clear Masters images and digital quality sound to nearly 600,000 area viewers as well as to tens of thousands of patrons on the grounds of the legendary Augusta National Golf Club where, from Thursday through Sunday, CBS tournament coverage will be displayed on 125 Sony HDTV monitors located in both public and broadcast venues.

According to Jay Adrick, vice president of broadcast systems at Harris' Broadcast Communications Division, "This collaboration, which began barely two months ago, propels WRDW to the forefront of the digital television revolution. WRDW is more than two years ahead of schedule in making the transition. We're very proud of what we and WRDW have accomplished, and appreciate its strong vote of confidence in Harris' digital broadcast solutions."

Harris provided WRDW with a new multi-channel digital master control for both its analog and digital television (DTV) channels, along with a Sigma(R)CD UHF DTV transmitter. Equipment installed at WRDW includes a Harris FlexiCoder(TM) MPEG-2 encoding system, a Harris MONITORplus(TM) DTV transmission monitoring system, a Harris ARX professional ATSC broadcast receiver, a Philips Venus routing switcher system, a Philips Saturn master control switcher and a Faroudja upconverter.

Under the timetable mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), major-network affiliates in the 30 largest markets were required to have a digital signal on the air last November 1. All remaining commercial TV stations must begin digital broadcasting no later than May 1, 2002. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) recently reported that 119 stations are now transmitting digital programming, with WRDW - in the nation's 109th-largest market - now among those digital pioneers.

WRDW-TV is owned by Gray Communications Systems, Inc. (GCS). GCS is a communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., and operates ten CBS-affiliated television stations, three NBC-affiliated stations, four daily newspapers, an advertising weekly shopper, a satellite uplink and production business, and a paging business.

At the forefront of the digital transition, Harris is a worldwide leader in analog and digital transmission systems for the terrestrial broadcast market. Harris offers the largest range of field-proven analog and digital transmission equipment. Many digital television firsts have been credited to Harris including: the first-to-market 8-VSB exciter, transmitter, and DVB-T exciter - the first to transmit a commercial HDTV signal - and the first complete operating DTV air-chain. In the United States, Harris continues to provide more digital transmitters and systems to broadcasters than all of its competitors combined.

Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) is an international communications equipment company focused on providing product, system, and service solutions that take its customers to the next level. The company provides a wide range of products and services for commercial and government communications markets such as wireless, broadcast, government, and network support. The company has sales and service facilities in nearly 90 countries.

Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at www.harris.com.