Winegard SquareShooterTM Backgrounder
Remember the analog days when a little ghosting was sometimes tolerated. Some TV viewers still watch it snow in July. Well, with the dawn of digital TV broadcast signals, you either get it or you don¡¯t, there¡¯s no almost perfect digital picture. And the transition to digital TV cometh for everyone.
73 million TV sets in the US don¡¯t get their signals from cable or satellite, 45 million of which are in homes that rely exclusively on local, 'over-the-air' stations as their sole source of television. And let¡¯s not forget that Free HD is here, now, for those that can ¡°Get It¡±. The CEA has projected that 8 million Digital TV products will be sold in 2005 and 10.5 million in 2006. 84.69% of the U.S. TV households are in markets with five or more DTV stations now. 1491 stations in 211 markets have made the transition to broadcasting a digital signal and are now delivering Digital signals serving 99.99% of the current US 4 million HDTV households, which are up from 1.6 million in March 2004.
Whether it's set-top or outdoor mounted, antennas offer consumers the best way to receive local broadcaster's Digital TV signal over-the-air. As many people have found out, they can't just bring home an HDTV set and use their old antenna system; they need to install a separate antenna for HDTV reception. The only current way to receive true HDTV resolution (1080i) is with an Off-Air antenna or satellite broadcast signals and HDTV satellite is not free. Satellite and even cable customers want the opportunity to receive free Off-Air DTV/HDTV signals. The Federal Communications Commission guarantees DTV consumers the right to install a TV antenna, even if local zoning codes or "Condo Associations" forbid it.
By far, the majority of the new antenna market today is directed at the metropolitan/suburban market. And the fastest growing sector of the market is in the Off-Air reception of HDTV broadcasts. With the number of digital stations rising, the amount of HDTV program doubling since last year and HDTV set sales soaring, Digital TV is fast becoming a necessity for high tech home theaters. The vast majority of these HDTV unit sales will be to these markets.
And selecting the right Off-Air DTV/HDTV Antenna is now a Necessity, not an Accessory.
The single largest contributing factor to successful outdoor digital antenna Off-Air DTV/HDTV reception today is the ability of these metropolitan/suburban consumers to buy and install an antenna that deals with multipath or reflected signal, where line-of-sight to the transmit source is blocked and the only signal they can receive is a bounced signal, such as off a building. This is critical for downtown urban locations for viewers living on the wrong side of a high-rise with respect to the transmit tower. This bouncing is known in RF terms as multipath. This is a huge issue and significant challenge for digital antenna manufacturers, professional installers and the 45 million potential Off-Air DTV/HDTV customers.
Multipath is the result of several different broadcast signals reaching the antenna out-of-phase with each other or at differing time intervals. This creates a digital multipath condition that delivers several sets of digital data 1¡¯s and 0¡¯s to the ATSC chipset out-of-phase and can confuse proper decoding. The ATSC chipset is not sure which set of digital data is the correct data bits to decode. If the amount of multi-path is too high, the ATSC chipset will not decode any data at all. Unlike analog television, the interference caused by reflected signals can prevent a receiver from getting enough digital information from the primary signal, causing a cliff effect and total loss of the picture.
Winegard anticipated it was imperative that any new digital antenna platform design specifically deal with this reflected signal or multi-path issue and addressed this last year when it introduced it¡¯s SquareShooter? SS-1000 outdoor antenna system.
To GETOff-Air HDTM reception, HDTV customers need to buy and properly install the right Off-Air DTV/HDTV antenna. So Winegard said GET2TM.
Normal RF propagation theorem dictates that the full length diameter of an off-air antenna for channel 7 VHF at 175 Megahertz is 64 inches. Although only 16 inches square, the SquareShooter Series was specifically designed to receive and resonate VHF and UHF transmissions from reflected broadcast signals up to 50 miles away from the signal source by allowing the antenna to be pointed at another reflective source such as a building to capture the reflected signals while rejecting all other multi-path signals and still be able to resonate quality DTV/HDTV signals.
Incorporated in its design are both Russian and US Military technologies. From the US military, the SquareShooter uses the sinuous element design similar to those found in missile guidance control systems and from Russia, scatter plain technology that rejects these reflected, out-of-phase signals and prevents them from arriving at the back of the antenna element.
The SquareShooter antenna platform has a 65 degree average beam-width to receive broadcast signals from multiple transmitter locations, coupled with a very minimal reflected signal called VSWR of 1 to 1.3. The most desirable VSWR should be as close to 1:1 as possible, which implies a perfect match between all elements of the antenna system.
It was also specifically designed with a very high 20-to-1 front to back ?digital multipath rejection ratio meaning its gain in a specific direction is very high. And higher is better. The SquareShooter¡¯s front-to-back ratio, being very high, allows the reception of both horizontal and circular polarity HDTV broadcast signals.
Its beam width, VSWR and front-to-back ratio provides the SquareShooter its muscle to reject multipath signal and the ability to tune into the desired reflected signal for the best reception characteristics to receive digital broadcasts.
These facts were proven in both Winegard¡¯s Chicago, IL and Tampa, FL beta tests. Phillip Partian, Senior Vice President, Dow Electronics participated in the Beta field testing for the SquareShooter in Tampa, along with Steve Zahn, a respected TV reception professional in the Chicago area, both proving the exceptional reception characteristics of this new line of antennas.
The SquareShooter SS-1000 quickly became Winegard¡¯s best selling antenna, because it solved problems no other antennas could solve. As evidence of its unique design, the SS-1000 was selected as an Honoree in the 2004 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase.
The right DTV/HDTV antenna, considering the role reflected signal plays in dealing with multipath, is not an option, it is now a requirement. Most of the DTV/HDTV antennas returned to retailers are either the wrong antenna for the location or are in perfect working order and returned because of faulty installation techniques. This means there is a huge need to educate consumers and sales personnel about receiving Off-Air Digital and HDTV signals. You can help.
The FCC took a giant step in this direction, when it held a televised press conference moderated by FCC Chairman Powell in October of 2004 to explain its ¡°DTV Get It¡± educational initiative. Powell unveiled a new web portal to serve as a one-stop source of information on the DTV transition and available high-definition programming. The only HDTV antenna shown at this press conference was Winegard¡¯s SquareShooter.
At CES 2005, Winegard introduced its ¡°new and improved¡± SquareShooter SS-2000 Amplified Antenna Platform, the next innovation in Winegard¡¯s GETDTV/HDTv TM Series of Digital Antenna Platforms. The SS-2000 is a more powerful amplified version of the SS-1000. This newest outdoor High-Band VHF/UHF Digital/Analog/HDTV Antenna System from Winegard, is now equipped with Winegard's new digital preamp, extending the SquareShooter SS-2000¡¯s range up to 40 or 50 miles away from the transmit source. This is pretty amazing for an antenna that is only 16 inches square, solves reception problems no other antenna can solve, can be painted to match the house and can be mounted practically anywhere.
The amplified SS-2000 has an input level of 350,000 mV and 12 dB flat gain across the entire bandpass specifically designed to assist the ATSC chipset with the correct digital decoding of digital broadcast transmissions. Because it utilizes non-traditional electromagnetic antenna design for superior performance, it will outperform all but the largest high-band VHF/UHF directional antennas systems on the market today.
As evidence of their unique design features, in March of 2005, Winegard Company, holder of over 60 patents over the years, took an important step in protecting these new products and technologies. The formal examination is officially over for the SquareShooter and Winegard now awaits issuance of the US patent this summer. The patent will cover both the SquareShooter SS-1000 and the SS-2000.
TERK Technologies launched a new comprehensive initiative to support the growing HDTV market in July of 2003 and selected Winegard to build 3 HDTV antennas for TERK. In order to quickly penetrate Best Buy, the following year, Winegard made the decision to supply TERK with the SquareShooter SS-1000, while still marketing it as the SquareShooter through Winegard¡¯s traditional distributor outlets. In November of 2004, TERK started shipping this new antenna, branded as the TERK HDTVs antenna.
The unique appearance of the SquareShooter and the fact that it is enclosed in a weather-protective housing that can be painted to compliment the color of a home, make it a must in today¡¯s urban/metropolitan antenna market and ideally suited to comply with architecturally sensitive neighborhood and covenant restrictions.
Because of its size and versatile installation options, it can be mounted practically anywhere for the best DTV reception such as on walls, fascias, roofs, patios, attics, or railings. With the addition of Winegard¡¯s DS-1000 pole mount, meeting DIRECTVa and DISHa Network wind load requirements, the SquareShooter, can be mounted above the satellite dish. To save the time and expense of running a second coax cable, the SquareShooter can also be diplexed with the existing satellite system to incorporate the Off-Air and satellite signal onto the existing one cable run. The mounting assembly uses familiar DBS satellite antenna hardware and will be easily accepted by DBS satellite antenna installers.
By far, the majority of the antenna market is serviced by discount retailers. Consumers, to date, who purchase consumer electronics from these retailers, have not been looking for high quality and performance from their antennas, but this is changing. The SquareShooter will be a more expensive antenna and it should be. This will not be a problem, because, contrary to TV component prices, retail prices for antennas are steadily going up and HDTV antenna customers will be more than willing to pay for quality, performance and distinctive styling to complement the new HDTV systems.
The challenge for Winegard was to design and produce a high quality antenna, with outstanding demonstrable performance and contemporary styling and do it at a wholesale price point which would allow dealers to price the antenna at an attractive retail price point at the upper end of the scale allowing for a very attractive margin. To those consumers who are informed and interested in maximizing the performance of their HDTV components, price will not be their first consideration.
There is a huge need in this market for an outdoor antenna that successfully addresses all these issues. The SquareShooter Series of outdoor HDTV Antenna Systems is the only digital antenna platform on the market today that can do it. As evidence of this, the introduction of the SquareShooter SS-1000 was the only time in the 50-year history of the Winegard Company that a product was pre-sold before it was available; the SquareShooter SS-2000 is the second. This is a true testament to the need and acceptance of these unique and innovative new antenna platform designs. |
