Panbo

The Marine Technology Hub

Category: Entertainment

Gigando touch screen remote, from Palladium 4

Entertainment / Zany

Gigando touch screen remote, from Palladium

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You may never feel comfortable about slapping a bowl of chips and a couple of beers on this coffee table, but it surely would impress the folks visiting your super yacht, and it’s wicked fun. Tucked somewhere in that table is a full on Mac computer that’s networked to a full on distributed entertainment system — curtains, lights, movies, internet, whatever!  As usual, the megayacht sections of the The Fort Lauderdale show were awash in wretched excess, but also as usual, the good folks at Palladium Technologies demonstrated how creative, even joyous, cost-no-problem electronics can get…

Intellian D4 #2, the sat tv wars 17

Entertainment

Intellian D4 #2, the sat tv wars

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I finally got the Intellian D4 sat TV system I’ve been testing to misbehave.  During Saturday’s heavy rains, while trying a lot of wet gizmos on Gizmo, the D4 had trouble locking onto one of the three DirecTV satellites it tries to switch among as you change channels.  Whereas the system has previously worked fine with the boat laying at my float, despite the less-than-optimal antenna location, I’m guessing that the problem was signal interference from the water in the atmosphere.  Further proof: It only had trouble with 103 (aka Spaceway 1) which is not only the harder-to-get KA frequency but is also in the most distant geosynchronous orbit and hence sits at the lowest elevation with the most atmosphere between it and Camden, Maine.  Otherwise, though, the D4 has been pretty much flawless…

Intellian D4 HD TV system, first impressions 5

Entertainment

Intellian D4 HD TV system, first impressions

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One way to know that you’re really getting high definition TV is to stumble on to a close up of Muammar Gadhafi’s face. Holy crap, what has this guy been doing to himself?  But aside from that jolt, setting up and using Intellian’s D4 HD sat tv system went smooth and easy.  Mounted the dome on Gizmo’s boat deck, ran one coax cable to the ACU (the small box top left) and one to the DirecTV receiver; ran a USB cable from ACU to receiver, and an HDMI cable from receiver to HD TV; and finally powered the former with 12v DC and the latter two with 120v AC.  After a few minutes of automatic antenna searching, holy crap I had access to some 587 channels!  (Or so the receiver claims; a lot are pay-to-view, and who’s going to count anyway?)  The amazing thing is that when I switch channels — especially between Standard and High Def — the D4 often has to switch satellites and frequencies, but it’s hardly noticeable.  The pause is about 3-5 seconds in my experience, and that’s quite a technological achievement…