The Next Innovation In Winegard’s GETDTV/HDTVTM Antenna Series For Indoor Reception of DTV/HDTV Broadcasts
Burlington, Iowa, November 23, 2004. The right Off-Air DTV/HDTV Antenna is now a Necessity, not an Accessory. Getting the best Off-Air picture starts with the choice of the best antenna for today’s reception challenges. The SharpShooterTM SS-3000 is Winegard’s newest Off-Air Antenna adding to its series of innovative new digital Antenna Platforms. This is a continuation of Winegard’s GETDTV/HDTvTM Series and will be introduced at CES 2005, along with the introduction of Winegard’s new SquareShooter SS-2000, a more powerful amplified version of the outdoor SquareShooter SS-1000.
Bob Howell, Director, Distribution Systems/Off-Air Antenna Business Group at Winegard said, “The single largest contributing factor to successful digital antenna installation and DTV/HDTV reception today is the ability of the metropolitan/suburban consumer to buy an antenna that deals with multi-path or reflected signal. This is a major issue and significant challenge for digital antenna manufacturers and installers, anticipated and addressed last year with the introduction of our SquareShooter SS-1000 outdoor High-Band VHF/UHF Digital/Analog/HDTV Antenna System, specifically designed for digital reception of reflected signals. The SS-1000 was selected as an Honoree in the 2004 Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase.”
It is imperative that any new digital antenna platform design specifically deals with this multi-path issue. The SharpShooterTM does this by selectively looking at each multi-path signal one at a time and by design tends to reject all other multi-paths, allowing the customer or installer to properly select the cleanest digital signal possible and best digital data sources for the ATSC chip set to decode. It then delivers them in a format that the chip set in the receiver prefers and can resonate and process effectively, delivering the best DTV/HDTV picture possible, while rejecting other multi-path signals so critical for downtown urban locations.
The metropolitan/urban market is the largest segment of the HDTV market and was not being served well by existing digital antennas until the release of Winegard’s GETDTV/HDTVTM Series, starting with the SquareShooter. This new addition, the SharpShooterTM, incorporates a specialized “E-Field” design, a significant new innovation by DotcastTM, combined with Winegard’s “Scatter Plane” technology.
“Pre-amplifiers today typically deliver a noise figure of 4.0 dB or more. In contrast, the new technology found in the SharpShooter uses a truly unique non-traditional electromagnetic design for superior performance. This allowed Winegard to totally integrate our patent-pending DotcastTM Ultra-Low Noise Amplifier design into Winegard’s SharpShooter antenna platform. With a demonstrably high carrier to noise ratio of <1dB, our Ultra-Low Noise Amplifier design significantly improves the carrier-to-noise ratio”, said Leo Hoarty, Dotcast’s Chief Technical Officer. This new technology, together with Winegard’s “Scatter-Plane” design, delivers an average beam-width of 65 degrees and a front-to-back ratio of 6.5dB, providing the SharpShooter its muscle to reject multi-path signals and to deliver a low-noise digital signal as no other antenna can, in today’s market.
The unique reception characteristics of this 26.75″ wide SharpShooter allow it to receive and resonate indoor analog and outstanding DTV signals up to 30 plus miles from the transmit source. This fact is unheard of in an antenna package of this size, making it a true engineering marvel. The SharpShooter’sTM technical performance, esthetic design and installation options, absolutely make this new antenna more unique and better suited for the metropolitan/urban segment than any other antenna platform on the market today and will be available just in time to meet the proliferation of the HDTV industry and subsequent exploding HDTV consumer market.
Half-wave length propagation theorem for channel 2 at 54 mega-hertz is about 104 inches. The resonate characteristics of this “E-Field” antenna design breakthrough also provides for a much smaller antenna that resonates throughout the entire VHF/UHF band-pass channels 2 through 69 in a platform that is 26.75″ inches or less in size. Specifically designed to receive and resonate DTV/HDTV transmissions from reflected broadcast signals, the SharpShooterTM is uniquely suited for urban/metropolitan locations where line-of-sight to the transmit source is blocked, allowing apartment/condominium dwellers to now receive digital broadcasts.
Howell went on to say “There is a huge need in this market for an indoor antenna that successfully addresses these issues. Outperforming all, all-band indoor digital antenna systems, there is no other indoor digital antenna platform on the market today that can do what the SharpShooterTM can do. It solves problems no other indoor antenna can solve. If you want the best DTV/HDTV picture, you start by selecting the best antenna. As a true testament to the acceptance of this unique and innovative new antenna platform design, this is only the second time in Winegard’s 50-year history that a product has been pre-sold before it was available, the SquareShooter being first. This is why I feel that Off-Air antennas can no longer be classified as an accessory.”
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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Bob Howell, please call Michael Sherman at 319-754-0604 or send an email to msher@winegard.com, or with Leo Hoarty, please call Neil Vineberg at 631-288-6933 or send an email to Neil@VinebergCommunications.com.
About Winegard:
The Winegard Company is widely considered an innovator and pioneer in product design, performance and assembly and has consistently adapted to meet the challenges of the ever-changing electronics market. It remains committed to continuous improvement in the quality, cost and delivery of its products and services to effectively meet all of its customer’s needs and currently designs and manufactures more than 1,000 different products in four product lines distributed in all states and worldwide, including:
• Satellite Antennas and Mounts: Residential antennas ranging in size from 46 cm to 1 meter.
• Mobile Television Reception Products: RV, Trucking, and Marine applications. Satellite systems ranging from manual crank-up models to automatic satellite tracking systems with GPS/DVB. Off-air antennas including bi-directional and omni-directional VHF/UHF/FM antennas. Ground Antenna Mounts and Accessories.
• Off-Air Antennas: From DC to 5.8 gigs AM/FM/VHF/UHF Antenna Systems, Distribution and Pre-Amplifiers, Power Supplies and Accessories
• Telemetry: Medical and Data Antenna Systems, Distribution Amplifiers, Power Supplies and Accessories.
• Two-way Fixed/Transportable Mobile Satellite Internet Systems: offers real-time IP, video, voice, audio and data communications virtually anywhere, anytime.
About Dotcast:
Dotcast is a privately-held, broadband communications technology developer based near Seattle,Washington. Dotcast has engineered a number of proprietary radio frequency, signal processing and other advanced digital broadcast and signal reception technologies which have important applications in the emerging fields of datacasting and high definition television reception. Dotcast licenses these technologies to its customers and works closely with them to offer extensive, application-specific design, customization, and full technical support services. Dotcast’s leading datacasting customer is The Walt Disney Company, now using Dotcast’s patented dNTSC datacasting technology to provide a constant stream of new Hollywood movies for subscribers to its new MovieBeamTM in-home, movies-on-demand service which is currently available in selected US markets.
