CES: Audiovox Introduces New Antennas

By
published

Audiovox said increased consumer demand for TV antennas has led the company to expand its RCA and TERK antenna lines.

At last year's CES, Audiovox showed the ANT1500 antenna, a 1-inch-square flat unit that was less than an inch thick and had been designed to outperform "rabbit ear" antennas.

One of the new products at this year's show is the RCA ANT800, a paintable outdoor antenna using the same technology as the ANT1500. Just as the ANT1500, the new antenna is omnidirectional when mounted flat, so a rotor is not needed to receive signals from different directions. The ANT800 has an MSRP of $89.99. TERK also has a new outdoor non-directional antenna, the FDTVO, with an MSRP of $119.99

Last year's RCA ANT1400 and ANT1500 indoor antennas had a plain, dull white plastic finish. The new ANT1600 is slightly smaller than the ANT1500 and sports a high-gloss black finish. It’s promised to be available this spring, and the non-amplified unit carries an MSRP of $59.99. There’s another model with a preamplifier—the ANT1650B—that goes for $20 more.

Audiovox has added two low-cost indoor antennas to the RCA line—the non-amplified ANT1000, with an MSRP of $12.99, and the amplified ANT1050 for $19.99. New indoor antennas are being added to the TERK line as well.

I didn't see any mention of new Audiovox smart antennas designed to take advantage of the CEA-909 interface available on many DTV converter boxes.

I hope to be able to report on more antennas in next week's RF Report.

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.