Mouth watering

Even with our focus on high-tech tailgating, there's no denying that one of the big attractions for tailgating of any sort is the food. Of course, putting satellite TV and awesome food together makes for an even better time. A perfect example of this is this article in the Houston Chronicle from October 8th. Not only does it reflect the passion that Houston Texan fans show as well as the cuisine of Texas tailgaters but it also provides some recipes, too! Sadly, I read the article and wrote blog entry at lunchtime, all the while thinking about Roddie's Rowdies Texas Beer Brats while my PB&J sandwich and bag of cut-up carrots and peppers taunted me...

State of the Parking Lot – Commissioner’s Report on Week 4

This past weekend, Joe Cahn, the Commissioner of Tailgating, reported in from the worlds of pro and college football, and he assures attendees of parties in parking lots everywhere that both communities are active, happy, and well fed as the season progresses. We wish we could say the same for the teams the Commish visited, but unfortunately, even his presence could not bring a victory to the Furman University Paladins or the Carolina Panthers.

On Saturday, Furman University’s Paladins took on the Wofford College Terriers in a Southern Conference game that, while unsuccessful for the home team, drummed up lots of enthusiasm outside Paladin Stadium in Greenville, SC. “Small colleges do not mean small tailgating,” said the Commish, “Enthusiasm and people arriving early are not limited to large schools.” A few high-tech tailgaters were in the crowd in Greenville, one with a home-designed trailer with a custom, flip-out TV! “People are starting to build their own tailgating vehicles, and it’s great. American ingenuity at its best.”

Joe did lend his expertise to one potential high-tech tailgating mishap, assisting a DIRECTV® customer in adjusting the home satellite dish he had brought so that everyone close by could see the football coverage being broadcast on ESPN. The Commish promptly directed this dedicated high-tech tailgater to www.hightechtailgating.com, to check out the TracVision® A7 from KVH – and save himself some hard labor in the process! Mounting an automatic, in-motion antenna atop the vehicle offers an easier solution than trying to maneuver an unwieldy dish designed to live on the side of your house.

Home satellite dishes were prominent on and around SUVs and pickup trucks among pro football fans as well. Joe reports seeing several of these at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC, (ranked #23 on the National Tailgating Index) as the Carolina Panthers took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. There were also four or five RVs (in addition to the JoeMobile) sporting low-profile, mobile satellite systems.

Stealing the thunder from live satellite TV in Carolina, were the large, custom BBQ rigs distributing pork shoulder and ribs to masses of hungry tailgaters. Some of these were even painted in team colors, and bedecked with pit masters who could rival the Panthers cheerleaders (at least in enthusiasm, if not in dance ability.) This shines light on a whole new possibility for high-tech tailgating: live TV, live BBQ, custom paint, and intense fans…what could be better? And these vehicles have more than enough roof space for today’s low-profile systems.

As the Commissioner of Tailgating signs off for Week 4 and makes his way to The Meadowlands in NJ (tied for #18 in the Index) for this Sunday’s New York Giants vs. New York Jets game, we can look forward to finding out just how New Yorkers tailgate next week. Until then, we want to know – what’s the craziest high-tech tailgating vehicle you’ve ever seen? Send us your story (and photos!), and see the best of the best right here.

A low-tech approach to high-tech tailgating goes awry

Everyone has their tailgating stories - the person who got lost in the parking lot or mistakenly sat on and crushed a styrofoam cooler or the buddy who insists on throwing a football around and thinks he has the arm of Tom Brady but has all the accuracy of an election night exit poll - you know, the stuff that happens any time a bunch of people get together to have some fun.

Well, Chris Boggs' recent article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his commitment to tailgating led to some interesting tidbits about other peoples' experiences, and one definitely caught our eye about an incident during a University of Virginia at Georgia Tech football game:

We were tailgating over near the IC when our groundskeeping buddy gets the call of a “vehicle fire” in the Van Leer parking lot. We quickly all hop into his gator and haul over, only to catch the fire fighters finishing off the last of a torched Toyota with UVA paraphernalia. The we roll past a lovely Virginia coed scolding her boyfriend…"Tell me again why you put the grill in the trunk!" Apparently, this all-star put a red hot camping grill in her trunk because he "didn’t want anyone to steal it."

Oops! See...that's why you want to go high-tech tailgating with something safe, like a Freedom Grill!

High-tech Tailgating Hits Atlanta

The High-tech Tailgating Tour continues to turn heads as it treks across the South. The TracVision A7-equipped Cadillac Escalade has been logging the miles as it hits TV stations and newspapers in Miami, Tampa, St Petersburg, Orlando and Atlanta – and reporters, producers and local residents have taken notice. In Tampa, CBS 10 traffic reporter Meredyth Censullo donned a Buccaneers shirt to christen the A7 essential for at-stadium celebrations (and decreased traffic stress). In Orlando, NBC 6 consumer reporter Michele Meredith drove all over town in the Escalade getting local residents' reactions to live TV in the car. The consensus? The A7 is a hit – not just at the stadium on Saturday or Sunday but during the weekday carpool, family roadtrip or anytime that kids are in the backseat for longer than a few minutes.

And in Atlanta, Fox 5 "Good Day Atlanta" co-host Mark Hayes opened an entire KVH-suggested tailgating segment sitting in the backseat of the Escalade before exhorting the obvious benefits of tailgating parties that feature live NFL and college game action right in the car. (Mark was less enthusiastic, however, about Atlanta's 28th-place finish in the "America's Best Football Tailgating Cities" Index.)

Mark Hayes (r) interviews a local tailgating gourmet with the High-tech Tailgating Escalade as a great backdrop

Of course, we're never too busy for a little history. Fox 5's traditional Southern Colonial-style studio on Briarcliff Road in Atlanta is located on the former route of Union General William T. Sherman's famous march toward Atlanta during the Civil War. Under Sherman’s immediate command, General O. Howard’s 4th Corps occupied an entrenched camp on the present Fox 5 studio site on July 10, 1864. Studio security guards tell us that Union and Confederate artifacts have been found over the years on this site.

The world's classiest television studio

Tailgating Media Tour Hits the Road in Florida

Our coast-to-coast high-tech tailgating tour, a joint venture of KVH Industries and DIRECTV, kicked off this week to demo the wonders of the TracVision A7 and live mobile DIRECTV programming for tailgating to media across the country.

First stop is the South where the specially equipped KVH Cadillac Escalade is appearing live on TV stations in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina throughout the week. During a live segment Tuesday on FOX 13's “Good Day Tampa,” anchor Russell Rhodes sang the praises of live TV in the car – and discovered why any loyal Buccaneer fan shouldn't be caught at Raymond James Stadium without it. (Rhodes and the rest of the FOX 13 staff were quick to point out that the Bucs are 2-1 after beating the St. Louis Rams on Sunday).

Since the TracVision-equipped Escalade wouldn't fit in the FOX 13 studio...

...the studio came outside to the Escalade

Watch the FOX 13 broadcast here!

Look for the KVH Escalade this week – and equally surprised news and sports anchors – in Miami, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando, Atlanta and Charlotte. Reporters from the Miami Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Orlando Sentinel and other papers also are getting their own personal high-tech demos.

Keep an eye out for TracVision and high-tech tailgating in a major U.S. newspaper near you!

Not surprisingly, due to the popularity of college and NFL football throughout the Sunshine State, Florida ranked high in the “America's Best Football Cities Tailgating Index” – with Miami finishing sixth and Tampa seventh in overall “tailgating friendliness” out of 32 cities evaluated. Don't tell Texas, but those Floridians really know how to high-tech tailgate!

What's black and silver and watched all over?

High-tech tailgating is a coast-to-coast phenomenon. Anywhere you find a team playing, you'll probably find tailgaters and among them, some high-tech aficionados. One of these is Riz Chaudhry, Raiders fan, owner of Chaudhry Custom Sounds of Tracy, CA, and one of the winners of this year's National TracVision Installation Competition. High-tech tailgating lets him multi-task on Sundays – he cheers on the Black & Silver at McAfee Coliseum (#15 on the High-tech Tailgating Index), entertains fellow tailgaters with football on the big screen, and shows off his TracVision-equipped Hummer H2 show car to other prospective tailgaters.

Big screen, big sound, and all the big games on Riz Chaudhry's Hummer H2

This year, his primo tailgating ride attracted some media attention, including the folks from Behind the Shield: Online, a Raiders online news source.

Jeanette Thompson, host of Behind the Shield: Online, interviews tailgaters camped out by the Chaudhrymobile

So just how much of a high-tech tailgating powerhouse is this Hummer H2? Tailgaters never need to miss the pre-game show or the big games thanks to this vehicle's TracVision satellite TV, DIRECTV programming with local channels and network broadcasts, plus a 42-inch LCD TV screen in the back of the vehicle with two additional 15-inch screens, four 9-inch headrest monitors, one 10.2-inch drop-down screen, two 7-inch LCD TVs in the visor, and four more 7-inch screens in the doors.

Remember kids...live satellite TV in the car is for passengers only unless you're parked. If you're driving, keep your eyes on the road!

Excuse me? Where did you say there was a TV screen?

So not only is high-tech tailgating fun, it gives you an opportunity to show off your creativity as well as gets yourself on TV!

"Why, yes, Jeanette. That is a TracVision on the roof behind me."
Riz Chaudhry being interviewed for Behind the Shield: Online.

Tailgating Fans Win when New England Fans’ Loyalty Tested with Simultaneous Pats, Sox Games

New England fans are loyal to a fault. Members of Patriots Nation and Red Sox Nation are, for the most part, one and the same; this region knows no preference between baseball and football, only a fierce camaraderie and undying belief that their teams (the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox) are the best.

On Sunday, September 16, the ubiquitous “they” in the world of professional sports made a huge oversight in the eyes of these dedicated New England fans – the Patriots/Chargers and Red Sox/Yankees games were scheduled to be played simultaneously. What was a New Englander to do? Missing out on a match-up between legendary baseball rivals, or not being present to cheer on a recently demoralized football team, were out of the question. The solution? High-tech tailgating, of course! Joe Cahn, the Commissioner of Tailgating, was in the parking lot at Gillette Stadium for the Patriots’ tailgating festivities, and reported that most of the TV screens he saw were monitoring both the football pre-game reports and the lead-in to the Red Sox vs. Yankees baseball match-up.

With headquarters at the heart of Patriots and Red Sox Nation, KVH Industries is home to many die-hard Patriots and Red Sox fans. In fact, KVH’s general counsel reported on Monday that she had to rely on a tiny, 5" portable TV for updates from the football game in Foxboro as she cheered for the Red Sox while sitting in the stands at Fenway Park in Boston. However, she was yearning for one of KVH’s TracVision mobile satellite TV systems to catch the live play-by-play in all its crystal-clear, big-screen glory.

Short of cloning and actually attending both games, high-tech tailgating fans had the absolute best seat in the house for cheering both their teams on in very important games this past Sunday. Perhaps if there were more high-tech tailgaters, enabling more fans to practice their dual cheering, there could have been two New England victories instead of just one on Sunday. Something to think about for those who told the Commish they were shopping around before purchasing this year’s tailgating accessories…

Aside from the pre-game reports for the game, what do you watch while you’re tailgating? Let us know!