BUSINESSES RELY ON DISHES, TOO, FOR INFORMATION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993                   TAG: 9303050160
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN GIBBONS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BUSINESSES RELY ON DISHES, TOO, FOR INFORMATION
Satellite dishes are popping up on top of businesses and institutions like mushrooms - but they're not being used to watch basketball games. At least most aren't.
Retail stores, banks, stock brokers, farmers, hospitals, churches, and even this newspaper use them as components in the increasingly electronic nature of information.
Matt Whitcomb, of ACS Satellite Systems in Vinton, says satellite dishes are being used by "all businesses, if they are on anything like a national level . . . Lowe's for instance, or Kmart; they all have them."
"If you're dealing with someone on a national level then it's almost a must, because they have instant inventory control, for instance," he continued. "They have instant pricing and they transmit data back and forth. So they know what their operations are doing in a micro-second, with that and the use of computers."
Doug Campbell, manager of the Roanoke Lowe's Cos. store on Orange Avenue said the dish on top of his store does "a kind of networking where they do cash transactions, pulling our transactions through our computers back to the home office [in North Wilkesboro, N.C.], this kind of thing."
Lowe's credit manager, Jim Underwood, added that, "Credit card transactions used to be done over the phone, but now it's done directly through the satellite. . . . Instead of taking minutes, it takes seconds." He also said the Lowe's home office will "send training through the satellite, and we'll either tape it or show it live."
At Kmart in Roanoke, manager Dan Lauer said the Franklin Road store's dish is part of "a complete information network for us. We do our merchandising through the system. That's how we transmit all the information. We do not have any land lines anymore. Transmitting information to our office [in Troy, Mich.], all our information, be it merchandising or information concerning pricing, is all done across the satellite network."
Among the churches with satellite dishes, Evangel Foursquare Gospel Church in Roanoke stands out - if only for the sheer number of the dishes it owns - three big ones.
Pastor Ken Wright says the dishes are used for "Christian broadcasting . . . just religious programs: music, preaching, teaching, children's programs." Wright said it was a big part of his church. "It has to do with our overall ministry," he said. "We patched our church into Christian television."
For farmers, a new combine with a small satellite dish and an onboard computer recently was put on the market by AgriCAD, Inc.
The Dekalb, Ill., company uses the dishes to hook the combines up to the Defense Department's Global Positioning System satellites. From these satellites, the company's computer software makes a detailed map of farmers' fields, enabling them to pinpoint relative crop yields.
Other companies are working on other applications of satellite technology for agriculture.
One of the more unusual dishes popping up in Virginia is one that's going to go in the middle of the Gathright Dam being built in Allegheny County by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Whitcomb, whose company has been contracted to install the dish, said, "We will be mounting a dish in the middle of the lake. They'll be using that one to monitor primarily weather conditions because they're involved in flood control."
But some of the dishes used by businesses are being used to watch basketball games, and football games, hockey games - all manner of games and other programming. Hotels and motels use them as a price-effective alternative to cable in the rooms they rent. Bars and restaurants have found satellite dishes useful in bringing in customers.
In downtown Roanoke, where TV reception is practically limited to two local stations and cable is not available, Corned Beef & Co. manager Mariah Gerow said her restaurant's satellite dish has "really worked for us well. . . . We used it a lot for `Monday Night Football.' That was real good to us. We just opened for Sunday brunch two weeks ago, and of course we missed football this year, but next year we hope it will be a big thing for us."
Carrol Bell, owner of the Coffee Pot Barbeque and Grill in Roanoke, which draws more live music groups than TV, was more muted about his satellite dish, which he's owned for about 10 years. "We don't use it anymore, everything's scrambled."
Bell went on to add, "When it first came out, it was great. I loved it, and it brought me a lot of business . . . . We originally used it for MTV, when nobody else could get it. We don't even put MTV on much anymore, it's not that big a draw like it used to be when I was the only place in the whole valley that had it.
"I think that the days where it was really good for my particular application are gone, unless I change my format to a sports bar or something like that."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB