A company in south-central PA provides technology that enables high-definition TVs to work without threading new cables through walls, but that's just the beginning.
Z-Band, located in Carlisle, makes distribution systems that display high-definition signals on TVs in large institutions including hospitals, colleges, casinos and government buildings. You can see the company's equipment all over the United States and Canada, making it possible for hospital patients to watch TV in their rooms and federal employees to receive job training on instructional videos. Its equipment is manufactured in York.
Z-Band has expanded its products and capabilities since opening in 1999 and continues to produce new technologies. Company co-founder Dick Snyder says it recently began offering a two-way communication system in hospitals, so patients can interact more with their television sets. For example, an ill child who is in for a long hospital stay can play video games with other patients, and an adult patient call up videos to learn more about his medical condition.
The company currently employs a dozen people in Pennsylvania and is in the market for three more workers this year. Also in 2012 it expects to launch a few new technologies. One would enable each TV set in a building to be tuned to one channel, at a certain volume, at the same time. This would provide a way to broadcast important messages in case of emergency. Another would connect each school building in the same district on the same video network.
Source: Dick Snyder, Z-Band
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
