Capitol Connection Blog

“Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.”  Those were the words of now Chief Justice John Roberts as he introduced himself to the nation at his 2005 confirmation hearings.  The statement was a follow up to his analysis that, “judges are like umpires,” meaning that they [judges] do not make the rules, they simply apply them.  In the fall of 2012, however, Robert’s insights lose a bit of traction.  Okay, so maybe baseball fans still don’t watch the umpires that carefully, but we all now realize how valuable those professional football refs are! 

For those of us who are familiar with SWOT analysis, the exercise may seem rather simple; list the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with an existing service or new venture and voila! You’re able to make an insightful decision.  That’s it, right?  Not so fast.

During the past year or so, you may have noticed that some print advertisements, consumer packaging and newspaper articles contain a square filled in with little pixilated markings. Recently television programs have also flashed the codes on the screen. So, what's it all about? Those boxes are what is known as a QR or Quick Response Codes.  The code can be scanned with a cell phone to provide a huge volume of information.  In case this marketing trend is new to you, here's a little QR history lesson.

As previously reported (see our June 29, 2012 Blog), Washington DC has the second largest green roof footprint in the country.   As more and more buildings are going green the question of how roof top equipment can be incorporated into these structures is more pressing.  As you can see from the picture here, The Capitol Connection rooftop antenna system works unobtrusively in these spaces.  This project at 1200 New Jersey Avenue, NW is our most recent collaboration with the green roof movement. 

A recent story on the front page of the business section of the New York Times (7/7/2012) detailed the growing number of businesses that no longer provide phone support for customers. The Times narrowed the scope of their story to tech companies, but the trend is growing among all kinds businesses. Some companies have done a good job of directing customers to websites, where they can check FAQs, use email or contribute their query to a forum.

While last Friday’s derecho storm left many of us sweltering in the dark without any means to phone or email, The Capitol Connection TV transmit system remained intact.  Our faithful engineers were able to check and monitor the signals immediately reporting that everything was working just fine.  Due to the strong winds and lightening, however, some buildings may have experienced damage to the roof equipment resulting in a loss of the individual signal to those properties.  With the 4^th of July falling in the middle of the week, we suspect many of our customers had already arranged time off and have not yet checked their service.   We have reached out to customers in some of our larger buildings and have so far not found any problems.  We have also, however, heard from a handful of customers in other buildings who report a loss of signal and we have sent technicians out to repair the damage.

As many building owners, managers and engineers already know, The Capitol Connection offers our TV service via a “line of sight” microwave system that utilizes roof top antennas.  When installing our service into a new or re-designed building, we are often asked how our roof antennas work with “green roofs.”  The answer is, PERFECTLY! One shining example of the partnership between The Capitol Connection and green roof technology is the Washington DC headquarters of our patron, The World Wild Life Fund located at 1250 24^th Street, NW.  The secret to our successful green roof integration is the usage of non-penetrating mounts as well as compact receive-only antennas that unobtrusively grab out signal.  In many instances, we can also attach our antenna to the side of a building, thereby avoiding the roof altogether.  For more information about how our installations work, please visit our website at http://capitolconnection.org/cable-propmanagers/ or call our offices directly at 703-993-3100 and ask for Danelle Springer or Dave Reininger. 

Since June 13, 2009 all full power television broadcasters have been beaming their programming via a digital format. That format, which replaced the analog NTSC signal, is called ATSC. ATSC is an acronym for Advanced Television Systems Committee. Learn more about the ATSC at www.atsc.org. All televisions sold in recent years incorporate an ATSC digital tuner. A second digital format, QAM, is the standard for cable television.

Do you want to improve your webcast with effective PowerPoint slides?  If so, remember . . .  If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.  Albert Einstein 

As we settle in to the reality of digital TV broadcasting, many businesses have already upgraded existing TVs to units with built in QAM & ATSC tuners.  Since the Capitol Connection TV service is "unscrambled" no box is necessary. What should you do with your old Capitol Connection set top box?  Don't throw it away, recycle it!