Ditch the DVDs ? Live TV Goes Mobile

Apr. 17--The insatiable appetite Americans possess for television -- 8 hours per day and rising, according to Nielsen Media Research -- is pushing live programming to what might be considered the final frontier -- the automobile.

A Rhode Island company called KVH Industries has teamed with satellite television program provider DirecTV to bring 185 national channels plus local programming to the family wagon.

Called TracVision A7, the technology was introduced in 2003 to bring DirecTV to vehicles. Local channels were added last year, spokesman Bob Ochsner said.

Rather than a big dish that pops up on the roof of an automobile, KVH has devised a low-profile antenna that is mounted on the roof of vehicles and tracks the DirecTV satellite from whatever direction or speed a vehicle is moving.

"This originally was on the motor home market, the marine market, the limos," Ochsner said. "With RVs they were big ugly domes. People wanted it in their cars, but they didn't want that big ugly dome."

So technology was developed that put the antenna inside a horizontal casing that is only a couple inches high and mounts flush on the roof of the vehicle. It looks sort of like a plastic manhole cover.

"What it does is it rotates continuously and it pivots so that it can follow the same satellite that DirecTV uses," he said. "(The system's manufacturers) are looking at it as a way to target those 20 million cars on the road expected by 2011 that are going to have video screens in them."

Which means, of course, that the kids need never miss another episode of SpongeBob SquarePants again.

Ochsner rolled into town last week in a Cadillac Escalade that featured satellite television programming on two rear-seat LCD screens, a GPS screen on the front dash and a giant 32-inch screen that popped up on the back tailgate. The GPS screen only shows programming when the vehicle is not in gear, said Ochsner, who is on a cross-country mission for the TracVision A7 makers to publicize the technology.

The price tag for the technology is not small. The TracVision A7 system costs $2,995.

Maybe that explains why the biggest percentage of TracVision satellite antennas have been placed on GMC Hummers (21 percent) or Escalades (20 percent). The in-vehicle DirecTV service is $4.99 per month for subscribers who already have the service in their homes.

"We've sold about 125,000 of them, and that was primarily before we added the local channels," Ochsner said. "We are finding that sales of the unit are picking up because people can get their local channels."

But wait, there is more. Ochsner's Escalade was also a rolling WiFi hotspot. KVH industries has developed a system that brings MSN TV Internet services that allow passengers to surf the Web while rolling down the road at highway speeds.

Cost for the Internet is $1,995 for the equipment plus charge for service through Verizon wireless, Ochsner said.

Locally, Auto Gear in Edmond has been installing about "three to four" of the satellite TV systems a month in Oklahoma vehicles, owner Kelly Lee said. Most of the work is done for local dealers who install the satellite systems for customers when the cars are sold.

"We integrate it into factory systems, and we can integrate it into navigation screens or aftermarket stuff," Lee said.

The target market for Oklahoma is travelers because of the distance that people drive in this part of the world, and -- surprise -- sports fans.

"In Oklahoma, Sooner football is huge," Ochsner said as he demonstrated the tailgating abilities of the system by showcasing ESPN on the gigantic screen in the rear of the vehicle.

"It's this whole evolution away from prerecorded content to live," Ochsner said. "People want to stay connected with what's going on now. That implies the kids, and you don't have to lug around the same tapes."

Goodbye Barney. Hello SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Daily Oklahoman

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