Consumers once had antennas that didn’t always work well. In order to get a better picture, they switched to paid TV. Then they were introduced to DVR and hi-definition television, and over time, they somehow came to believe that the free-to-air broadcast signal wasn’t available, let alone with DVR and HD. It is available. With Aereo, consumers now have antennas that they can control through their devices along with a DVR and that incredible picture quality. 

Remember those HDTV ads that sparkled with crystal clear images of blue skies, bright uniforms and carefully manicured golf courses with sharp blades of grass? There is no doubt that high-definition television enhances entertainment for all viewers, but it’s been especially beneficial for sports fans. This month, millions of people are tuning in to watch the United States compete in a multitude of games. We’re especially interested in golf and tennis, two sports that have undoubtedly been enhanced by HD quality picture; their objects of focus being the miniature golf ball and the elusive tennis ball.

Golf and tennis balls are perfect examples of what HD can do for a sport. They are the most important objects to track in their respective games yet increasingly difficult to see on a screen. While both are hard to see, there’s a major difference between how pixels and your eyes track these objects. To see the golf ball, major skill on part of the cameraman kicks in as the ball moves relative to the earth, but not much relative to the camera. To the eye, it’s actually the background, and not the ball, that is moving. The pixels focus on the object that is not moving, which, in this case, is the ball as the camera keeps it in the same frame. Your brain blurs the background because you are concentrating on what you perceive to be a moving object. With a tennis ball, the background is stable, but not relative to the camera. The players and ball are moving while sophisticated electronics use a pack of mathematical tricks to compress the picture and estimate the motion of the moving players and ball, foreseeing where they will go just a few milliseconds ahead and portraying their progress across the screen using small bits of information to do so. With the golf ball, you’re focused on the object itself. With the tennis ball, you’re focused on its path. Your ability to see a distant golf ball and the movement of an erratic tennis ball has thus improved through the invention of HD, which has forever changed sports entertainment by creating a more sensory experience. And, like the tennis ball, HD has been on its own moving path, such that you can now see the ruffle on a golfer’s shirt on a screen through use of Aereo’s technology.

With Aereo, access to over-the-air HD broadcast is an inexpensive option. Through advanced signal processing, our engineers built the technology so it’s dynamic and versatile – the result is video in 3 rates, seen on the Aereo UI, for you to adjust or adaptively adjust based on your Internet connection, providing a quality HDTV experience and giving you the ability to see beads of sweat on an athlete’s face. How’s that for $12 a month?!