[Infowarrior] - Satellite Television in a Portable Box

[Richard Forno]

Satellite Television in a Portable Box
By LORNE MANLY
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/technology/08satellite.html?pagewanted=pri
nt

LOS ANGELES ‹ Rick Rosner is a self-described television junkie.

Not only he is the creator and producer of many television series, most
notably ³CHiPs² and ³The New Hollywood Squares,² he feels an overpowering
need to surround himself with television everywhere he may be. Fourteen
television sets jostle for space in Mr. Rosner¹s penthouse condominium in
Marina Del Rey.

When more than a decade ago he moved into his previous home, in Coldwater
Canyon, only to learn he could not pick up a cable signal, he dispatched a
production assistant to Phoenix to get something not yet available on the
West Coast: DirecTV. On location shoots he would lug one of his DirecTV
set-top boxes along and then rent or buy a satellite dish and attach it to
his balcony railing with duct tape.

That hassle got him thinking: What if there were a portable satellite dish,
which folds up like a piece of luggage, and could be used for camping and
tailgate parties or in dorm rooms? And that¹s how a longtime television
producer turned into an inventor.

The result of his obsessive handiwork will be on display today at the
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, when DirecTV will unveil the Sat-Go,
a mobile satellite and television system weighing about 25 pounds that will
sell for $1,000 to $1,300. DirecTV hopes that the Sat-Go will help
differentiate the company from its cable-television competition and attract
a different type of customer when the product goes on sale this spring.

³I love to try different things,² the 65-year-old Mr. Rosner said when asked
to explain the moonlighting. ³That¹s sort of the story of my life.²

Mr. Rosner¹s affection for all things television began as a child, when
shows like ³Captain Video and His Video Rangers² and ³The Howdy Doody Show²
captivated him, and working as a page at NBC during college cemented that
connection. When he dropped out of veterinary school at Cornell University
after six weeks, he moved to New York and reclaimed his post at NBC before
getting a job at ³Candid Camera² and becoming a television producer.

The walls of his condominium are crammed with pictures of people he¹s worked
with and for over the years, like Mike Douglas, Regis Philbin, John Davidson
and Joan Rivers. But even while involved in the television business, his
enthusiasms took him in different directions.

When on one episode of ³The Steve Allen Show² the host was made to scuba
dive, an emergency rescue unit came in to school Mr. Allen, and Mr. Rosner
struck up a friendship with the visitors. That led him to taking a course at
the Los Angeles County sheriff¹s department. One night, he and his partner
were parked at a Winchell¹s doughnut shop in Los Angeles when two California
highway patrolmen, complete with darkened helmet visor and shiny boots,
pulled up behind them. But that intimidating sight melted when the two took
off their helmets and sunglasses.

³Right there, it hit me,² said Mr. Rosner over a lunch of shrimp cocktail
and Caesar salad at a dockside restaurant near his condominium. ³That¹s a TV
series. Two guys racing around the L.A. freeway system. Two good guys doing
a job.²

³He incorporates parts of his life into his business,² said Michael Gelman,
executive producer of ³Live With Regis and Kelly,² who became friends with
Mr. Rosner when he worked on ³The New Hollywood Squares² more than 20 years
ago.

A similar connection explains the genesis of Sat-Go. After getting his
inspiration for Sat-Go during an early morning walk in Vancouver, he hooked
up with David Kuether, a friend who was an engineer at DirecTV, and the two
set out to build a mobile satellite TV.

Mr. Rosner then called in a favor from another friend, his former art
director on ³The New Hollywood Squares² who is now the head of ³The Tonight
Show¹s² prop shop. They built a prototype ‹ ³it looked like a big sewing
machine,² he said ‹ and then tried to persuade DirecTV to build and sell it.

At first, they were greeted with a decided lack of interest. But the head of
the set-top box division sent Mr. Rosner and his contraption to see Eric
Shanks, executive vice president of DirecTV Entertainment. Luckily for Mr.
Rosner, Mr. Shanks was a ³CHiPs² fanatic and jumped at the chance to meet
its creator. ³It¹s my second-favorite show,² he said. (³The A-Team² is No.
1.)

DirecTV will be selling Sat-Go in places it has never been before, like
Cabela¹s, the hunting, fishing and camping store, and advertising in
unfamiliar publications, like RV magazine. Although the modest first-run of
production (about 10,000) makes Sat-Go an expensive toy, that price should
come down, and the monthly subscription fee of $4.99 is the same as adding a
box, according to Mr. Shanks.

Mr. Rosner has continued to be involved in every aspect of the Sat-Go¹s
development, particularly its design. Mr. Rosner and DirecTV executives both
knew they wanted it to look like a high-end piece of luggage, one that could
come from the likes of Louis Vuitton. But the color never satisfied. After
the fifth or six try with the manufacturer, Mr. Rosner arrived one day with
a carton full of Hershey dark chocolate bars ‹ the hue reminded him of an
early Bentley from Rolls-Royce ‹ and announced this was the color the SAT-Go
casing should be.

³It just looked so rich,² said Mr. Rosner, who this late December day in a
chilly Southern California was wearing a chocolate brown slacks with a
chocolate brown Sat-Go sweater. ³It said money.²

Mr. Rosner¹s nearly constant presence ‹ in the past year and half he
estimated that he dropped by DirecTV¹s headquarters in El Segundo two or
three times a week ‹ could be unnerving to SatGo¹s development team, so much
so that the head of engineering called Mr. Shanks to complain that Mr.
Rosner was distracting him. But Mr. Rosner has a history of barreling
through obstacles and getting what he desires.

³Rick has always been a champion of the what-if scenario of television,²
said Harry Friedman, executive producer of ³Wheel of Fortune² and ³Jeopardy²
and a friend of Mr. Rosner¹s since they worked together on ³The New
Hollywood Squares.² Mr. Rosner was the first to take game shows out on the
road, plopping ³The New Hollywood Squares² down in New York¹s Radio City
Music Hall and on the beach in the Bahamas. Now that the Sat-Go is a
reality, Mr. Rosner can turn his attention to his next big entertainment
project, a feature film based on ³CHiPs.² Wilmer Valderrama (³That 70s
Show,² ³Fast Food Nation²) will play Officer Frank ³Ponch² Poncherello, the
Erik Estrada role, and Warner Brothers expects to shoot the picture this
year.

But Mr. Rosner is not done with DirecTV; he is helping the company develop
different Sat-Go offshoots. The Sat-Go Pro will come in a hardened plastic
case and be marketed to users like FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. The Sat-Go Light will be about half the weight. And Mr. Rosner wants
DirecTV to build a version with a digital video-recorder, too.

³I am the biggest DirecTV fan in the world,² he said. ³No one appreciates
that company more than me.² And Mr. Rosner wants to make sure no one will
ever have to go without television again.