Coming from a corporate telecom/datacom background, in early 1980 TEI Innovations formed an engineering consulting practice to provide telecommunications design and implementation services to clients ranging from major corporations (Belk Stores, First Union National Bank & Carrier Corporation) to some unconventional startup ventures. One such unconventional venture was the Praise the Lord (PTL) Satellite Network. There we advised Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker on the design & implementation of the property-wide telephone and cable TV systems they required to relocate their Charlotte-based 24-hour satellite channel and associated operations, to an 1,800-acre undeveloped property in Fort. Mill, SC to create their Heritage USA Christian destination site……later converted into Regent Park, a conventional mixed-use area. 

  

Later in 1980, TEI Innovations financed the launch and development of its’ first technology start-up company, Private Satellite Television (PSTV). This new venture was inspired by a recent FCC de-regulation order, which eliminated the previously strict federal licensing process required to install Television Receive-Only (TVROs) satellite earth stations.  

 

This was in the early days of new cable TV franchises being awarded to cable operators by cities like Charlotte. For the first 2-3 years of rollout after the City of Charlotte franchise was awarded, like virtually all other cable operators, they chose to bypass apartment complexes and their residents, because they considered them to be less desirable potential subscribers. 

 

TEI recognized this as a business opportunity and created a new satellite-based technology package for widespread garden-style apartments. It included PSTV installing their new un-licensed satellite earth stations (TVROs) on each apartment property, and pulling new individual cables into each apartment unit (enabling the sale of subscription services), leasing 24-hour satellite transponder space from GTE SpaceNet, and combining free, local “off-air” TV stations, along with new, emerging satellite-delivered TV channels (such as CNN, ESPN, etc.), to offer a cable TV programming package that was competitive with the city’s chosen franchise operator.  

 

The key to our eventual success with apartment properties was PSTV forming revenue-sharing partnerships directly with the apartment property owner. These effectively became cable TV franchise agreements with the owner to exclusively deliver cable TV subscription services to their residents, not the City’s franchise holder. 

 

Under these individual property partnerships, PSTV made a considerable investment to install the onsite technology on each property, pay all subscriber satellite TV programming fees, and pay the owner our agreed upon Franchise Fee, which was a percentage of the gross revenues billed by PSTV to their residents. 

​

In exchange, PSTV received an exclusive twenty-five (25) year, Cable TV & Telecommunications Franchise Rights Agreement from each property owner, which became a recorded easement that ran with the land. In addition, the apartment owner and their property management company actively promoted PSTV’s satellite cable TV subscription services to their residents.  

 

As PSTV grew across the country, it raised growth capital from seven (7) SBIC venture capital firms. These included Charlotte’s Kitty Hawk Capital fund, led by Erskine Bowles, the former head of the SBIC, and later Chief-of-Staff to President Bill Clinton. In early 1986, after six (6) years in business, PSTV sold all their systems, subscribers, and Exclusive Property Rights Agreements to Time Warner Cable’s Denver-based ATC subsidiary company. 

 

As TEI’s first technology venture, PSTV was effectively the country’s first DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) operator, pioneering the technology that today has evolved into more modernized DBS video services, such as DirecTV & Dish Network. 

 ​ 

Later in 1986, TEI launched its’ first two-way satellite-based IP Data networking technology application that resulted in another pioneering venture. This time, TEI financed and developed TEI SkyNetworks, which offered rooftop dish antennas known as Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs) to major multi-locational corporate enterprises, for the purpose of connecting their widespread stores, properties, etc., and associated Point-of-Sale (POS) registers and other data terminals, back to their centralized Datacenters via two-way, high-speed satellite links.  

 

Many Fortune 500 companies at the time were customers, including the Lowes Companies, Cummins Engine, Coca Cola, American Express/First Data Resources, etc. They each essentially “outsourced” the design, installation & ongoing management of their entire satellite-based, private corporate IP data networks to TEI SkyNetworks, under minimum five (5) year term service agreements. 

​ 

In 1989, TEI SkyNetworks formed a joint-venture partnership with Racal Electronics, PLC, a British public company (Bracknell, England HQ) that was the original parent company of Vodafone, once the world’s largest cellular service operator. Racal’s U.S. division was Racal-Milgo (Sunrise, Florida HQ), at that time the largest datacom equipment manufacturer, sales & service distributor in the U. S. For TEI to fully benefit from the Racal international brand, the new 50/50 venture operated as Racal-Milgo SkyNetworks. That joint-venture company remained Charlotte-based & TEI controlled & managed for the next 2.5 years, during which it became a national company. In 1992, Racal exercised their option to acquire TEI’s remaining 50% interest.  

​ 

In 1995 TEI responded to another recent FCC order and began to develop 802.11 terrestrial radio technology in the unlicensed radio bands (2.4 GHz & 5.8 GHz). From conducting tests in Uptown Charlotte, TEI was soon selling high-speed wireless internet services to local businesses at half the local Telco price. After becoming recognized as the first Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) in the country, TEI licensed their technology to MultiNet Connections, a venture capital backed company to market and sell across the country. 

​ 

After continuing to experiment with 802.11 terrestrial radio technology in search of new business applications, TEI Innovations in 2008 was retained by several Carolinas municipality clients to engineer, install & manage outdoor “Free Wi-Fi” systems for their downtown business districts. During those deployments we repeatedly received requests from local police chiefs about their desire to add wireless video cameras to their new, outdoor Wi-Fi networks.   

​ 

Exploring the technical feasibility, we quickly learned the many complex reasons why the video surveillance camera (CCTV) industry did not then offer any outdoor wireless cameras, a trend that continues today, as 95+% of cameras installed are hard-wired, mostly indoor, cameras. However, with TEI Innovations’ wireless IP Data networking background, we were able to develop this new, outdoor wireless camera network technology application into a proprietary VPS product offering and bring it to market in less than a year, without any CCTV industry background or experience.  

 

For over fifteen (15) years now, TEI Innovations’ Video Patrolling Services (VPS) division has specialized in the design, deployment & management of VPS 6.0 outdoor wireless camera network technology for local law enforcement agencies across the country, with hundreds of municipal (Police), county (Sheriffs) & federal (Public Housing Authorities) government agency customer installations in place. 

 

With that track-record, we are routinely chosen as a sole-source supplier by our government agency’s purchasing departments, most recently by the Broward County (FL) Purchasing Department for their Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO), the nation’s 4th largest Sheriff’s Office.  

 

​