been some time since I blogged but man, so much information! I attended Dish Network's Team Summit retailer convention in San Antonio May 11-13th and was blown away with the amount of information! The convention was much larger then Directv's revolution featuring a huge trade show with at least 100 different booths, distributors, displays, giveaways, and food! I scored a really nice backpack for being a Summit Advantage retailer, and learned a good deal from the classes.San Antonio was great! I ended up staying at the Menger Hotel, which is one of the most haunted spots in town! Didn't have any paranormal experiences, but it was creepy and fun none the less. The hotel was directly across the street from the Alamo, and next to the River Center Mall. I really enjoyed the city, walked the river walk several times, visited the tower of the Americas and spent way too much time at the convention center. Much better location then Dallas!
Ok, so what about the convention. Day one was filled with food, classes, and more classes. That night they had Dana Carvy come to entertain the group, which was less then impressive due to crude humor. After Carvy, ZZ top preformed which was pretty cool. I would have liked to have had the Killers come play if it was up to me, but I guess you get what Charlie likes. Day 2 was a repeat of day one with an evening of motivational speakers, big announcements, red carpet walk, party in the Grotto, riverboat tours, and the best of all Pao de Queijo "Brazilian cheese bread" at Fogo De Chao. Pretty fun night. Da
y 3 was yet again more classes, then closing ceremonies at Sea World. I didn't get to attend the Sea World part due to my plane leaving at 7pm.New Announcements from the convention: FREE HD FOR LIFE! Sweet! I'm really pumped about this one. Begging June 3 2010 new AND existing Dish Network customers can get FREE HD FOR LIFE! Here are the requirements: You have to sign up for credit card autopay, with paperless billing, and agree to keep service for another 24 months. That's it! The way they explained it really makes sense. When tv went from being black and white to color the price for bro
adcasting didn't go up, so the same thing should be with standard definition going to high definition. High five to Dish!Other things they un-veiled at the convention was all the things you can do with the new model 922 DVR. This thing is amazing! I got one for the store and love it! The new user interface is very cool, and the secondary tuner is used with a built in sling box! That means that the receiver can broadcast the secondary tuner onto the internet so you can watch your DVR anywhere in the world. They even have apps for the Iphone, Android, Blackberry, and working to get it on really any other smart phone with internet connectivity. If you want a security camera hooked up to your home network, you can in the future view the cameras via your dvr, and also check them from anywhere in the world. If you are into Youtube, Hulu, Boxie, or any other web based video source, you can with the 922 integrate those channels on the internet into the DVR and watch them on your big screen tv. Much better then cramming around the com
puter screen. If you have the 922 connected to your home network you can also view all of your videos and pictures on you tv without having to off load them onto a thumb drive. All Very cool features and available by the years end.Over the past year and a half I have been installing the series 722 DVR receiver. This is a great box and has some cool add on's coming. A new sling box will hopefully be available later on this year, which only has one wire, and that's it! Old sling boxes were quite a chore to install, didn't have HD, and
were not super user friendly. This box is really simple, just plug into the USB port and your done! And it's super light, thin and cool looking. This essentially makes your 722 sling compatible so you sit there at work and really get nothing done.There were so many other things, but these are the highlights. I was impressed with the direction Dish is going with it's new technology, and am excited to use it here in the future. Now if they could just get the Mountain channel we would really be in for a treat.
