When President George W. Bush's re-election campaign hits the road for a bus tour of the American heartland, neither the president, the members of the campaign nor the news media traveling along can afford to be out of touch with breaking news, world events or the activities of the competition.
So, their custom motor coaches are equipped with TracVision L3 satellite TV antennas from KVH Industries Inc. The award-winning TracVision systems offer complete in-motion access to satellite TV programming, including 24-hour news networks like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
These systems ensure that everyone traveling with the president can get all of the latest news and maybe a bit of entertainment as the vehicles make campaign swings.
"The speed of political campaigns is increasing with breaking news followed by immediate responses from the competition," said Jim Dodez, KVH's vice president of marketing. "When a campaign or the media is on the road, they need to have access to all of that news from all of the same sources that they depend on in their offices."
With TracVision, every television on a motor coach can show a different satellite TV channel while KVH's TracNet Mobile High-speed Internet System offers two-way access to the Internet with broadband downloads, even as the vehicles are crisscrossing the country.
The KVH TracVision L3 delivers satellite television and audio from DirecTV, the Dish Network or other high-powered satellite systems worldwide while the vehicle is both in motion and parked.
The president's press pool is not alone in making use of KVH's TracVision antennas. ABC News has also mobilized three campaign buses - known as "Red," "White" and "Blue" and leased from Nashville, Tenn.-based Hemphill Brothers - to cover the 2004 presidential election.
The buses serve as mobile television and radio studios. Each of three buses is equipped with KVH TracVision satellite TV systems, which allow the producers and reporters traveling aboard to watch ABC's own news shows, as well as other programming, virtually anywhere as they travel throughout the United States.
