Moving pictures: Salt Lake company brings TV and Internet to vehicles

Like millions of people, C. Reed Brown and Darin T. Anderson watched the end of the Super Bowl, savoring the ball game on live TV.

But they were watching it on a Monday. Halfway around the world. While on the road.

All thanks to the technology developed by their company, Salt Lake-based MotoSAT, which specializes in antennae that pull in television and Internet signals for use in vehicles.

"We were about three hours south of Seoul, in an area that's like their Silicon Valley, and we watched the end of the Super Bowl on Monday because we were 16 hours ahead, while we were driving," said Brown, MotoSAT's president. "And it was beautiful."

"Here we were in Korea, who would have thought . . . in a car?" said Anderson, business development manager.

MotoSAT leaders have been thinking about it for a few years, putting together communications platforms for autos, recreational vehicles and soon ocean-going vessels.

The company's two-way, high-speed Internet products are marketed under the DataStorm name. Looking like a traditional satellite dish, DataStorms sit atop stationary vehicles, letting the occupants surf from inside — no phone connection needed.

"With this, all you need is a clear view of the southern sky," Brown said.

Outlying areas demand a bigger version, called the DataStorm F3, twice the size of the original DataStorm.

One of the dishes has even been attached to a Jeep, helping a U.S. Forest Service employee remain in touch with the rest of the world.

"He likes to be out where he can be and then go online and have real-time communication," Brown said. "You can even do streaming video over these dishes."

But even well-known folks use DataStorms. Traveling musicians have them atop their tour buses, and President Bush will have one on a campaign bus this year. National Geographic has used it for off-road mapping, and NASA is a customer, too, along with bookmobiles and oil rigs.

All make use of an automatic satellite finder that rotates and elevates the dish to the proper position.

"A typical oil rig will move four to five times a year. In the old days, they'd put a fixed unit on there. When they'd go to move it, they'd bring out a technician for $5,000 or $6,000 and he'd realign it," Brown said.

"With our system, you just mount it on once and when you move, you turn on your computer and the screen comes up that says 'Find Satellite,' and in about four minutes, you've found the satellite, so you're online."