WINEGARD COMPANY AND DOTCAST FORM JOINT VENTURE
TO BRING T0TALLY NEW DIGITAL/HDTV OFF-AIR ANTENNA TECHNOLOGY TO MARKET
These Significant Advances In New Technology
Represent An Entirely Different Approach To Antenna Design
And Will Have A Revolutionary Impact
On The Reception And Distribution Of Digital/HDTV Off-Air Signals
Burlington, Iowa, January 6, 2004. Winegard Company, an innovator and pioneer in product design, performance and manufacturing of antenna technology, announced today the forming of a joint venture with Dotcast, a leader in broadcast communications technology, to deliver a family of antennas that promises to radically improve digital TV reception.
Bob Howell, Director of Distribution Systems/Off-Air Antenna Division said “Dotcast has a patent pending Low Noise Amplifier designed for the VHF/UHF TV frequency band. Winegard has the antenna knowledge, manufacturing capabilities and distribution chain. We entered into this venture to work with Dotcast’s technology to build products that will have an impact on the consumer market.”
The new antennas are based on Dotcast’s proprietary digital architecture, which enables reception 225 times more powerful than traditional rabbit ears in a sleek design smaller than one-third the size of a typical indoor TV antenna.
Dotcast’s high-gain digital TV antenna architecture is currently commercially deployed as part of the Walt Disney Company’s MovieBeamTM movies-on-demand service.
“By teaming with Winegard, we will deliver clear and reliable digital reception for a variety of consumer applications,” said Leo Hoarty, Dotcast founder and chief technical officer. “With a half century of antenna manufacturing and marketing expertise, Winegard is the ideal partner for manufacturing and distributing our digital antenna designs.”
“The Dotcast team of former Boeing Space Systems engineers have designed a truly innovative antenna system with reception that is close to magical and far surpasses anything we’ve seen to date,” said Howell, “We believe that consumers will be thrilled with improvements in their digital reception. Although the first product to result from this joint venture will be a remarkable digital antenna, it can also be incorporated into a pre-amplifiers, distribution amplifiers and several other different applications.”
Dotcast has awarded Winegard Company an exclusive manufacturing and marketing license to its digital antenna architecture covering the North and South American markets.
Winegard is planning a series of antennas for several digital reception markets, including products intended to solve a wide range of indoor and outdoor DTV reception challenges.
If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Robert Howell, please call Michael Sherman at 319-754-0604 or send an email to msher@winegard.com
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About Winegard Company
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 18 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.
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.
For more information, contact David Serlin 253-867-2001 dserlin@dotcast.con or visit www.dotcast.com
