Interesting Tidbits

[PajamaDarkness]

Here's an update:

TiVo was aquired by Rovi for $1.1 billion.

To conincide with the TiVo purchase, the building had removed the Rovi branding from the building and replaced it with the modern-day TiVo logo.
Suprisingly, something actually was put in the frame of the old TV Guide sign:
(best image I could get)
The satellites seem to still be there, however.
Also, here's a Street View pic from December 2007, which shows the TV-Guide sign where the TiVo/Rovi sign would've been later on:

[AriX]

Nice update! Believe it or not, I'm currently in Tulsa, OK and visited the building on Thursday, so I have some images to throw into the mix.

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Here's a close-up of the satellite dish. I believe this dish uplinked the Prevue/TV Guide feed. Presumably it's now unused as Pop moved out of the building entirely about a year ago (and may have stopped using it for this purpose earlier than that).

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Signs of the building's former purpose aren't hard to find. In the truck delivery area, there is a "TVGN" sign. Upstairs in the TiVo office, there's a room labeled "Motorola IPG Test Lab" (they probably still do IPG development there). And on the front entrance of the building there's still a sign calling out UVSG by name!

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Here's a photo of me wandering upstairs:

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The building is awesome. One of the prettiest office buildings I've seen. I should have taken pictures of the interior. Apparently in the past, it was a shopping mall. I desperately wish I had gotten there before TV Guide left!

[woddfellow2]

I remember passing that building in May 2011 (when I still lived in the area), and it still had the TV Guide and Rovi logos on it at the time.

Additionally, some of the 1989 film UHF was shot there (search for "Kensington Galleria").

[WeatherSTARIII]

That's pretty cool that you got to visit the TiVo Building in person. I've never been to Tulsa in person before. I wonder if you had to get a special pass just for touring the place? Also, was the "Motorola IPG Test Lab" room and the truck delivery section still off limits to visitors? Was there even security? I could bet that Rovi/TiVo likely scrapped scraped every last remaining legacy Prevue/TV Guide computer units many years ago ever since they took over the place. I could even bet some of the employees were kind of confused at first by mentioning any legacy Prevue/TV Guide related stuff.

[PajamaDarkness]

Yet another update: Turns out TiVo Corporation (Rovi/TV Guide) was acquired yet again, this time by Xperi Corporation. I do wonder if the building will get yet another change?

[nwgatwcfan]

I did some research on both homes of EPG/Prevue/TVGC.

The original home of 3801 S. Sheridan Ave in Tulsa is up for sale. For a little over $4.525 mil, you can own the original headquarters of EPG. Currently, Platt College is leasing the space. The building was built in 1982, which would be just after EPG started its business.

Secondly, I was able to find that UVSG didn't move into the Lewis Ave location until early 1993. If you search for Kensington Galleria, which is the name of the mixed-use mall, search for an article from tulsaworld.com and subject "Dillards Leaving Kensington Galleria." Per this article,

The converted area was renamed the Kensington Office Center. A little more than 30,000 square feet will be retained for retail use. United Video Satellite Group, a locally based satellite communications and marketing company, announced a couple weeks ago it will move into the Kensington Business Center. It will occupy 105,000 square feet.

The article date is Jan. 27, 1993. Interesting enough, this would be the same time that the blue grid came out. So that would mean that all of the development of both the a2-black and a2 grid would have been done prior to the move.

And a last research tidbit, I found a magazine article online where UVSG also housed Zephyr Weather Information Service in this same location back in 1985. This would be the weather data information that would have fed some of the Character Generators available to cable systems. One would wonder if this is also where the weather data information came from to serve Prevue Weather?

Steven
nwgatwcfan

[AriX]

Sharing a quick new tidbit... came across this Sneak Prevue newspaper ad recently, from all the way back in 1992! https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3130414 ... l-ad-1992/

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[woddfellow2]

[...]

And a last research tidbit, I found a magazine article online where UVSG also housed Zephyr Weather Information Service in this same location back in 1985. This would be the weather data information that would have fed some of the Character Generators available to cable systems. One would wonder if this is also where the weather data information came from to serve Prevue Weather?

Steven
nwgatwcfan

At 4m41s in this interview, the EPG and Zephyr Weather Service are mentioned.