Sarantel

Sarantel, the leading manufacturer of revolutionary filtering antennas for mobile and wireless devices, announces today that Parrot, global innovator in Bluetooth technology for the automotive market, has chosen Sarantel’s GeoHelix® global positioning satellite (GPS) antenna for its new hands-free Bluetooth/GPS car kit. The Parrot 3400 LS-GPS' unique combination of driver-friendly functions, allows drivers to stay in touch while they stay on track. It combines Bluetooth voice recognition hands-free kit with a colour LCD screen and a GPS vehicle navigation device that continuously sends the vehicle’s position to a driver's Smartphone or PDA.


Parrot has established itself as the leader in hands-free mobile kits for the automotive market and is known for its high quality voice recognition, echo cancellation and noise reduction platform that is ideal for the automobile environment. Sarantel’s GeoHelix antenna complements this technology by separating GPS signals from the RF noise. It is therefore possible to more tightly integrate the GPS and Bluetooth devices within the product without hurting the GPS performance. The GeoHelix active antenna's broad beamwidth and omni-directionality also ensured that the 3400 LS-GPS would provide accurate navigation information to the smartphone wherever the product was mounted in the car. It was critical to Parrot that the user not be burdened with special mounting or placement requirements for a navigation antenna. The product also needed to be small, visually appealing, and built around the principle of hands-free communication. Sarantel’s GeoHelix antenna’s small size and independence from ground planes allowed Parrot to keep the overall size of the product smaller than would be possible with conventional patch antenna technologies.

Nicolas Besnard, Parrot's Director of Research & Development ommented, "Parrot has raised the bar in simplifying cellular use in vehicles and enabling anywhere, anytime access to location-based services. We continue our relentless pursuit of innovation and we are happy to work in conjunction with Sarantel to now provide drivers with a full navigation system in their vehicles, combining a Bluetooth® hands-free kit with a color LCD screen and GPS antenna."

David Wither, CEO at Sarantel added, "GPS complements many applications if the right tools are available to accomplish the integration. Hands-free mobile telephony is an excellent example. The GeoHelix antenna allows the designer to integrate GPS without over-burdening the prime function of the product, thereby bringing value to the customer. We were pleased to work with Parrot on this unique combination of applications resulting in a very cool product."

Examples of successful configurations:
Nokia Series 60 + Route 66 (Mobile 2005);Sony Ericsson P910i + Route 66 (Mobile 2006);HP iPAQ 6340 + ViaMichelin MapSonic;HP iPAQ 5455 + Navigon + Sony Ericsson S700i ; and HP iPAQ 5500 + Tom Tom Navigator + Siemens S65

About Parrot
Parrot (www.parrot.biz) is the world's first company to develop and manufacture Bluetooth products that enable seamless integration of vehicles, drivers and mobile phones. Parrot produced the first ever Bluetooth hands-free car kit in 2001 and to date has delivered more than one million worldwide. Today, Parrot offers the industry's broadest car kit product line, which is sold through retail stores in 35 countries. Parrot also supplies its proprietary technology to the world’s automakers and their suppliers for integrated original equipment applications and to the heavy-duty truck market for commercial and fleet management purposes. Parrot’s technology is focused in four key areas: the design of Bluetooth chipsets, integrated circuit design, development of advanced voice digital signal processing, and compatibility testing. Parrot, founded in 1994 by Henri Seydoux, is a global company with offices in 35 countries. The company is headquartered in Paris, France and its UK offices are in Birmingham.