Antennas Direct Showing NAB Smart Antenna at CEDIA

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Antennas Direct is exhibiting the CEA-909A-enabled Smart Antenna it developed in partnership with the NAB at CEDIA 2008, from now until Sunday, Sept. 7 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The directional pattern of the CEA-909A antennas can be changed electronically to optimize performance for individual DTV channels using a single-wire protocol from the ATSC tuner.

"Smart antenna technology can make a huge difference in the overall consumer experience, allowing access to all local television signals without having to spend a lot of time aiming or re-aiming antennas," said Lynn Claudy, NAB's senior vice president of Science and Technology.

Richard Schneider, president of Antennas Direct, added, "This effective and practical design of the antenna allows it to be affordable; we believe the antenna would not be marketable if the cost exceeded $150."

Antennas Direct exhibited a fixed (dumb?) indoor antenna and an ATSC digital-to-analog converter combined in a small bookend-sized box at the ATSC Hot Spot at the 2008 NAB Show. That struck me as a better solution for viewers using indoor antennas with their analog TV sets than converter boxes alone. If Antennas Direct can combine a CEA-909A Smart Antenna in an attractive package with a digital-to-analog converter, it should be the ideal solution for non-technical analog TV viewers converting to digital.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung
Contributor

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack. A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.