Winegard Company Granted Patent for its Best Selling Off-Air Antenna, the SquareShooter™

Winegard Company announced today that the U.S. Patent Office has just released the Patent for Winegard's SquareShooter outdoor antenna platforms. The Winegard Company, holder of 60 U.S. Patents over the years, now has number 61. “Covering both the SquareShooter™ SS-1000 passive and SS-2000 amplified series of digital Antenna Platforms, the new Patent is an important step in protecting these new products and technologies,” said Bob Howell, Director Signal Distribution /Off-Air Antenna Business Group for the Winegard Company. 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 digital reception challenges.


The single largest contributing factor to successful digital antenna installation and DTV/HDTV reception still remains the ability of the metropolitan/suburban consumer to buy an antenna that deals with multi-path or reflected signal. This was a huge issue and significant challenge for digital antenna manufactures and professional installers, until the introduction of the SquareShooter Series. These antenna platforms were specifically designed for digital reception with the ability to mitigate digital Multipath. Multipath is the term for reflected or bouncing signals, resulting in several different signals from the same broadcast channel reaching an antenna, out-of-phase with each other or at differing time intervals.


The metropolitan/suburban market is the largest segment of the HDTV market and the primary markets for the SquareShooter, where line-of-sight to the transmit source may be blocked and the only broadcast signal available is received from a bounced or reflected signal, such as off a building.


The SquareShooter SS-1000, selected as an Honoree in the 2004 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase, was followed by the introduction of the SS-2000, a more powerful version, equipped with Winegard's new digital preamp, extending the range up to 40 or 50 miles away from the transmit source. With the addition of the new digital preamp, the SquareShooter SS-2000 now delivers even more reception power, extending its reception capabilities to the suburban market.


Although only 16 inches square, The SquareShooter Series was specifically designed to defeat Multipath. It receives and resonates VHF and UHF transmissions from reflected broadcast signals by allowing the antenna to be pointed at another reflective source to capture the reflected signals and still be able to resonate quality DTV/HDTV signals. “The SquareShooter Series is the only digital antenna platforms on the market today that are specifically designed to accomplish this and has become our best selling outdoor antenna platforms. This is a true testament to the need and acceptance of these very unique and innovative new antenna platform designs,” said Howell.


By far, the increase in off-air antenna sales in the last two years has been generated by the growth of the DTV industry. No matter how the transition from Analog to Digital broadcasting unfolds, there's still going to be 30 or 40 million TV sets out there using an Off-Air antenna, because antennas are required to receive Off-Air DTV and free HDTV signals from local over-the-air broadcasters.


Howell continued, “Today, the trend in home HDTV antennas revolves around new technology in smaller packages with aesthetic, sexy designs, that are user friendly, easy to install, designed for outdoor use, compatible with set top boxes, can be mounted practically anywhere and, most importantly, solve this Multipath issue. Winegard's SquareShooters meet all these criteria.”


In keeping with the demand of today's customer for both satellite and local off-air free HDTV signals, for new installations and/or retrofits, the best news for satellite installers is that these new smaller SquareShooter antennas can be piggybacked, with the right mounting hardware, on existing or new satellite installations and in some cases diplexed onto the existing cable, saving the time and expense of another cable run.



If you'd like more information about this topic, link to the SquareShooter flash file with specs, pictures, video and text testimonials on field testing and more or link to a backgrounder on the SquareShooter. To schedule an interview with Bob Howell, please call Michael Sherman at 319-754-0604, send an email to e-mail protected from spam bots or visit .


About Winegard Company


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.



Contact:

Michael Sherman

Tel. 319-754-0604

Cell Phone: 901-351-9861

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