Squarial

The Squarial

a Squarial (right), adjacent to a Sky Minidish
Manufacturer	British Satellite Broadcasting
Available	Obsolete
Notes The Squarial became obsolete when the Marco Polo satellites were shut down (and sold) upon BSB's merger with Sky

The Squarial (a portmanteau of the words square and aerial) is a satellite antenna used for reception of the now defunct British Satellite Broadcasting television service. The Squarial was a flat plate satellite antenna, built to be unobtrusive and unique. BSB were counting on the form factor of the antenna to clearly differentiate themselves from their competitors at the time. At the time of development, satellite installations usually required an 80 cm dish in order to receive a clear signal from the transmitting satellite. The smaller antenna was BSB's unique selling point and was heavily advertised in order to attract customers to their service.

The Squarial was launched at a high profile event in MarcoPolo house, BSB's headquarters. The media were invited to a demonstration to see how much better MAC pictures could be than PAL. But MAC took a back seat when BSB unveiled the mock up Squarial, to replace the dish aerials usually needed for satellite reception. The Squarial was a surprise to everyone, including the four companies which had signed to manufacture the receivers which would have to work with the new aerial. The Squarial deal, with British company Fortel, had been struck only hours before the London event. BSB was itself surprised at the press reaction.

Press and TV crews were in such palaver to report the news that they forgot to ask if it worked; and it did not. All that existed was a wood-and-plastic dummy. Believing that someone would be able to make the Squarial work as well as a much larger dish, BSB built a whole advertising campaign on the Squarial. STC in Paignton was the first company to make a British Squarial. These were a little bigger, 38 cm across, to provide adequate reception throughout the UK, and more expensive than a dish. Due to production delays and limited availability of the STC squarial and to save face at launch, BSB sourced already available Squarials from Matsushita in Japan who were producing them in quantity for the Japanese market, industry rumours at the time of launch suggested that BSB were buying in the squarials from Matsushita for several hundred pounds each and heavily subsidising the cost to the 4 manufacturers of DMAC receiver. The Matsushita squarial was of a slightly better build quality compared to the STC design and was used by Ferguson, Philips and Tatung while ITT-Nokia supplied the STC squarial. However all offered the 30 cm traditional mini dish for a slightly lower price (several dish manufacturers were used including Lenson Heath and Channel Master)