Newsgroups: rec.video.satellite
Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 13:43:38 PST
From:         Vijay Vaidyanathan <vijay@ZYCAD.COM>
Subject:      New Products etc at the San Diego SBCA Trade Show (longish)

Hi all:

This past weekend I was at the SBCA Trade show in San Diego CA. It
was open to dealers, manufacturers, programmers etc, and I decided
that my wife, daughter and I needed a well timed vacation: here
are some of my impressions, I will be posting some more detailed
info on the products soon.

All in all, it was a fun vacation. Let me try and describe the
significant (to me!) events - in no particular order.

[warning: the following is about 200 lines long ...]

1. Drake announces 3 new IRDS:
------------------------------

They are phasing out the current line of 3 IRDs (including the
1524) and replacing it with 3 "newer" versions. I paid attention
only to the top of the line (the 1524 replacement) called the
1824, since the other two still dont have subcarrier discrete
stereo, and I would not buy or recommend any IRD that doesnt (of
source, this is very subjective, so no flames please!).

The 1824 seems to be a mixed bag. In terms of signal quality and
other technical considerations the 1824 will match the 1524.
However, they have added some new features. The menus are now
Spanish/English blingual. You DONT have to go to the front panel
and press two buttons everytime you put it in PROGRAM mode. The
front panel looks a lot more stylish (I always felt it was rather
clunky looking!). To be perfectly honest, I still think that the
interface is hard to use, perhaps I'm just stupid! The picture
quality looked pretty good, but then again, they had very ordinary
TVs there.

I made some interesting contacts, including a person in their
manufacturing who offered to let me know if they ever get any 1524
refurbs, to sell. Let me know if there is any interest.

One of the things that struck me about Drake was that they seemed
to have a lot of good products, but are pathetic at pushing it. As
an example, the LARGEST distributor in the US is RS&I, but they
dont even seem to carry the Drake, even though R.L. Drake and Co.
does not impose any territorial restrictions.

[Drake was handing out Free Beer!]

2. My favourite new product: The HTS tracker 70 premier
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I wanted to see this product as it was on the top of my buy list.
I was VERY impressed. This is a new design, (SMT technology, newly
designed Power Supplies etc) and everything about it reeks of
COMMON SENSE. From all I could see, it has a terrific picture (but
I wont have a way of comparing it until I see it on MY TV!), but
ooodles of little features that make it very easy to use. For
instance the remote control is very well laid out and, it supports
MACROS. The UHF remote has modes so that two premier 70s wont
interact (for instance if your neighbour has one or, as they say,
you have a couple of them in your store display!). The VCRS module
is FRONT LOADABLE, which means you can remove and move or switch
modules easily. When the RS stuff comes in, you'll be able to
stick in the new card with no problem.

BUT THE REAL STUFF follows: they sell a little card that hooks on
to the back panel and gives you a SERIAL PORT! The later models
will have this built in. The serial port is MUCH MORE flexible
than the chaparral 100C, since you can do EVERYTHING over the
port: You can QUERY the IRD for instance, for signal strength!
(which I dont think you can do with the 100C), you can find the
dish position, change satellites, change channels, and
even program the IRD from the computer. Basically, it seems to
support every thing that the remote can support. I loved it.

It has the same remarkably easy way of tracking the arc as the
drake 1524: you tell it the limits and then 3 satellites, and it
computes the positions of the rest. Then you can tell it to go to
each one and fine tune it.

Its also trivially easy to add a new satellite: You go to the
appropriate menu and tell it where and its format, and the
"Printable Name" for it and you are done! Exactly what you'd
expect, but that so few IRDs let you do, for some inexplicable
reason!

I was also told that they would soon have a way of updating the
satellite database with just a VIDEO Cassette! I wasnt able to
confirm this with anyone, but I plan to ask about this on their
BBoard (see below).

I was so impressed that I placed my order as soon as I got back
into town. I'll have it in a day or two and will have a review for
you in a while.

I also spoke with the HTS folks there, and its very apparent that
someone there has a THING about computer control: they are
planning a system by which a dealer can dial into their computer
and log bug reports automatically from the remote control (i.e.
THIS sequence of key-presses causes THIS!).

Finally, I was also invited to get an account on their bulletin
board, which I plan to do shortly. I came away with the feeling
that the Tech Folks at HTS are onto something very new, and they
seem to be pretty good at what they are doing! more later!

3. SCPC receivers
-----------------

I was disappointed to find that neither the Heil nor the Univeral
was on display ... however, I did find another SCPC receiver that
was kind of directed at the home market (i.e. No companding hence
not broadcast quality). It did have continuously variable
bandwidth though, something I'd love to have, as well as direct
digital frequency display. Price? about $1200 ....

[I'm going to take a break from work next week and hope to finish
up my home SCPC receiver. I'll have more for you in a bit. I got a
little carried away for a while with that project (I had plans for
a little microprocessor controlling it!) but I'm back to more
realistic expectations now!]

4. Arc Set
----------

The much talked about (on the net) Gourmet...Entertaining arc set
was available, and the guy who was selling it ("the
inventor/owner") was a cute but grumpy old man with a pipe. He was
positively INSULTING to his potential customers, but in an
ineffective sort of way, so no one seemed to take it tooo
seriously. I bought one and tried it at home with my NEW
dish(!!!!!) and voila: it took me all of 10 minutes to get my dish
to track the arc. its a little pricey at $60, but I think its OK,
specially if you can get someone to split costs with you ...

5. Distributors
---------------

One of the most important aspects of my trip was that I am now set
up as a dealer with a large number of distibutors. In particular,
I can now get virtually every brand of IRD - not just the Drakes
and Unidens (which, by the way, I never liked!). I also tied up
with a programming house that will allow me to charge the
customer's credit card AND has 24 hour HUMAN being support.
Currently I work with NPS that wont let me charge your credit card
except for monthly subscriptions, and also dont have 24 hour human
support.  However, NPS DOES have ONLINE access, which is very
valuable to me ...

6. Freebies and Give aways:
---------------------------

Drake was handing out Free Beer!

HBO had HBO cookies and buttons and one of those "Movie
descriptions" books,

Disney was GREAT: they had one of their illustrators there who
would sketch your favourite Disney character for you on the spot!
There were HUGE lines there, and I got one for my wife and
daughter on the last day. It was my wife's birthday, so that
worked out well!

SPICE had some scantily clad buxom young ladies handing out
autographed pinup photographs.

Playboy had some sort of TV show behind curtains, I didnt go, so I
cant describe it to you!

Primetime 24 had a pitch that went something like this: "now that
your customers have the Yarn Channel, and the Hula Hoop channel,
dont you think they may need something more Basic?" and they were
handing out Hula Hoops!

Chapparal had a guy there who had a program that would print out
visible sats/dish sizes etc for any place on the globe. He has
promised to send me a DOS version.

7. Potentially Politically Incorrect Observation:
-------------------------------------------------

My wife and I noticed that a large number of the folks wandering
the floors as dealers were basically slippery looking gents that I
wouldnt buy a used car from ... I dont know what it is about them,
but they seemed to mostly be USED CAR SALESMEN.

I thought that it was a little unfortunate that the dealer portion
of the industry seemed to be dominated by MEN who seemed CLUELESS
about the technical aspects of it (from the questions I
overheard). The usual questions were related to commissions /
residuals / bonus / cooperative advertising etc etc and NOT ONE
(thats not an exaggeration) about features. I thought it was a
pity.

There were plenty of obviously experienced installers there, but
very few people whom I felt had their "hearts in it". I guess it
becomes hard to do that if you are doing it as your only fulltime
business, but then again, MY fulltime business is software
development, and I love it! I guess I'm lucky!

Oh well, more later!

- Vijay
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vijay@netcom.com
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Newsgroups: rec.video.satellite