Drivers and passengers are increasingly coming to expect the same communications services that they find at home and in the office, when travelling in their cars and on trains, buses and commercial airliners. Typical services include high quality digital television and audio, together with Internet and e-mail access. For the automotive market, there is also considerable potential to provide additional dedicated information services whilst on the move, as well as to support vehicle monitoring and maintenance functions. Such services go far beyond active traffic management which typically relies on GPS and terrestrial mobile but have one aspect in common; they are likely to require broadband data transmission to the vehicle. Access to the Internet and satellite TV is currently being trialled on commercial aircraft and trains. This paper reviews the benefits and need for satellite based entertainment to passenger vehicles and charts the course of a product currently under development at ERA to provide satellite TV to sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and recreational vehicles (RVs) for sale in the USA.
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