Asymetrical horn questions

Are asymetrical horns a good solution in covering a large audience in a sound reinforcement situation? If they work, it could be a good approach for using a high quality 2" driver in a simple 3-way system. The theory is that the horn is tilted down slightly and the top of the horn's slot/flare is smaller and produces a narrower beam which "throws" the HF signals to the back, while the bottom of the slot/flare, which is wider, spreads the signals to a wider field and at a lower intensity for the front of the audience. Does this really work?
Is Altec the only company that made these? If Altec's Veri-Intense horns worked, why haven't we seen more (JBL) of these?

Tom

'Sounds like you're describing something akin to JBL's 4660 Defined Coverage Loudspeaker System: http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/4660.pdf

They also used this same "defined coverage" horn in the Everest home audio system.

John