Fractal Antennas unwire Big Sports

WALTHAM, USA: The latest in technological innovation isn’t a government secret. It’s an unobtrusive antenna in a small pizza-sized box. But this small box is producing a big revolution in live and televised sports coverage, broadcasting, and production, along with other live performances.

Packed inside the ‘radome’ is a fractal shape, a repeating geometric pattern that produces unprecedented frequency coverage and performance. The brainchild of physicist and inventor Nathan Cohen, this ‘fractal antenna’ exploits the mathematics of fractals, a field of mathematics founded by Benoit Mandelbrot.

“Although Mandelbrot was the first to recognize the ubiquity of fractal shapes in nature, and a great facilitator to push them in applications, few realize that fractals are becoming an everyday aid and enabler in technology. It’s a quiet revolution going on around us,” notes Cohen.

Fractal Antenna Systems, a Boston area high tech firm, holds the source patents on fractal antennas, and churns out fractal antenna solutions across many industry segments, including cell phone technology, wireless microphones, surveillance, remote monitoring, imaging, aerospace, DAS, wireless sensors, public safety, RFID, and many others. Fractal antennas have been around for many years, but only in the last year or so have they been widely accepted as an answer to problems posed in wireless and telecom. Cohen poses that “We’ve waited out the naysayers, who resisted the self evident fact that you have something better.”

Sports-wise, ‘FRACTAL’ teamed up with Clair Global and its Wireless First division to make the ‘pizza box’ fractal antenna, dubbed the CF 1090. It is offered exclusively and sold by Clair Global. Recent sporting events using the CF 1090 include the 2012 NBA All-Star Game, the 2012 NBA All-Star Weekend Events, and the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. Rock and pop performances, both live and televised, by the cream of the music chart holders, have also benefited from the CF 1090 antenna.

The key advantages to the CF 1090 antenna are its wide reception without dropouts, in addition to being inconspicuous. “The existing antennas tend to be clunky, like ‘mad scientist’ props from a Sci-Fi movie, with less performance capabilities,” says Cohen, “The CF 1090 enables data and audio as never before. It is all about providing more with less—visually and in hardware.” The CF 1090 essentially unwires the experience, making more elaborate audio and lighting control easy and flawless—and less distracting from the game or performance.

The CF 1090 is available from Clair Global, with info and referrals through Fractal Antenna System.