July 12, 2009
Insignia Releases $50 HD Radio Portable Player
Yes, it's under $50, but it's just a radio tuner: This is laughable. In an era of $20 MP3 players, is there really a market for a $50 radio tuner, even if it pulls in HD Radio? The Best Buy exclusive Insignia NS-HD01 handles analog and digital FM with 10 presets. Honestly. No MP3 playback. No storage. No AM. No off-the-air recording. No tagging support for later retrieval. And at this price point, one wouldn't expect Wi-Fi and Internet radio tuning. Still!June 22, 2009
iBiquity Forced to Build Own Portable Player
iBiquity CEO Robert Struble tries to explain away to the Wall Street Journal why firm is building its own portable HD Radio player: Sure, Microsoft's very modestly selling, very decent Zune players will feature HD Radio in a new model later this year, but iBiquity is making its own portable, too. That makes nearly no sense if the firm could find any other company willing to incorporate the long-awaiting portable digital AM/FM chips.
Companies like iBiquity that work with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), who product PC and consumer electronics gear nearly never get into the business of making their own branded devices because this kills the motivation for the firms they sell technology and reference design hardware to. The only reason a company gets into the business of making its own branded stuff is that they can't find a partner.
That's why the rather marvelous technology behind MusicGremlin never made its way into anyone else's devices, and MG had to release its own players. Its players weren't bad, but a small firm can't do the full-on polish and full-on marketing of Apple or Microsoft. (MG was eventually sold to SanDisk.)
Struble does some excellent tap dancing in this interview, where the reporter doesn't have the history to cite his previous statements over the last several years, some of which were repeated here. I've interviewed Struble in the past, and he's a perfectly frank guy (especially among CEOs), and ready to admit when things don't work out. But the company's technology has stalled and is floundering.
Portable devices have been promised for "next year" every year for at least three years, maybe four. This fall, they will finally appear. The number of stations that have added digital broadcasts has stalled at around 15 percent of all U.S. broadcasters. The AM situation is ugly; I don't know how that will play out, but it's possible that HD Radio for AM is a dead end, which doesn't doom the advantage of the FM side, the only way to market receivers today.
As the Wall Street Journal reporter notes, there's enormous interest in playing an iPod through a car stereo (and a vast number of kits and built-in options for that as well as factory-installed integration), while J.D. Power's found that only 10 percent of those surveyed had interest in adding HD Radio.
Struble pushes on the company's advantage by having a partnership with Apple (iTunes Tagging), but then reveals that he thinks iTunes Tagging isn't actually that great because it requires a dock with tagging intelligence. Struble wants iTunes Tagging built into iPods and iPhones; I wonder if Apple has any interest in that? I would love to know whether 1,000 or 100,000 or a million songs have been tagged and purchased with the feature. Apple and iBiquity know.
Struble also mentions future tech, which has been "soon" or "next year" for a long time, such as real-time traffic reporting, image data for covers of albums and other details, and selective broadcast areas. Selective addressability--being able to allow a specific radio to receive a broadcast--wasn't mentioned.
None of this interview reeks of desperation, but there's a lot of plate spinning. I don't see how iBiquity can continue indefinitely without a dramatic increase in stations choosing the technology and units sold.
I suspect that the decision to release its own portable player comes close to last ditch. If a portable player doesn't spark more interest, then what kind of growth does HD have? If the AM problems can't be solved and more stations brought on board, then you have an untenable path for future technology.
I do fear that the sets sold to date--which could be over a million, but no one knows for sure--could actually stop receiving digital broadcasts in the future, if iBiquity can't ultimately make its technology become dominant. Then the FCC has to get involved, a new standard must be adopted, and new radios released.
I Like Tagging! At Least in My Car
I finally put an HD Radio capable receiver in my car: I'm a cheapstake, so despite having written about HD Radio for years, the only set I only is a Radio Shack Accurian tabletop model in my office. With HD Radio having stalled, it just didn't seem like an important feature to get elsewhere. And, as I've noted many times, iBiquity has seemingly been unable to crack the home receiver market.
The reason is likely because receiver makers are focused on integrating HDMI, computers, and other audio sources into a package, rather than more terrestrial radio. At home, people listen to digital music collections and stream Internet radio. I suspect that there is a continuously and rapidly declining home AM/FM listening market, with AM having a more stable audience because of its talk radio and religious content.
Which is why it's perhaps funny that I finally put HD Radio in one of the family cars. An old and crummy Aiwa jsut gave up the ghost, and I found a $170 JVC with HD Radio reception, a front-panel USB jack for an iPod or iPhone (or even a memory stick), a CD player, and a front aux mini-stereo jack. This was ideal.
What I didn't notice is that iTunes Tagging was also included. And it works. I've always thought that iTunes Tagging was a big slog: with an iPod docked, you press a button when you hear a song you like, and later, when syncing the iPod over USB, the tagged song is retrieved and shown in a special section under Store in the sidebar.
With an iPhone and a car radio, though, the process is much more seamless. I wrote this up at TidBITS, a long-running Mac site at which I'm a contributor. See "Tag Radio Songs for Later Purchase While You Drive."
May 27, 2009
Microsoft Adds HD Radio to New Zune
Oh, dear lord, Microsoft thinks it has a secret weapon: The Zune HD will include an HD Radio receiver. This might be the first portable player to get released with HD Radio included, but, really, is this the right move? It doesn't mention whether it's AM/FM or just FM.
Can Microsoft save HD Radio? Of course not. But it's an interesting move. HD Radio's FM broadcasts have a lot going for them, especially in the public radio world.
However, I already have an iPhone. I can stream high-quality broadcasts from the stations I listen to even over my 2007 2G (EDGE) iPhone at no extra cost, wherever I am, no issues with reception or static.
Internet radio might not kill radio stations. Podcasting and Internet radio were both picked up heavily by radio stations, especially those that produce their own shows. But it's hard to see how all the compromises that went into HD Radio will have a net positive effect for stations trying to keep or expand audiences at this point.
April 8, 2009
Pogue on HD Radio
The New York Times's David Pogue scratches his head over HD Radio: Pogue notes how good radio can sound when it's broadcast digitally, but can't find many users anecdotally nor through market research. He notes that tabletop models are relatively expensive and that there are no portable HD players (despite the many years of coming-soon promises).
He doesn't mention the lack of receivers, which I think is another factor in the lack of HD Radio adoption by listeners. If you can't hear it using your stereo system in your home--where many people are listening to podcasts or streaming Internet radio, anyway--then the automotive market isn't the right one to capture listeners. (HD Radio works better in a car because it's more likely to pull in multiple strong signals.)
Pogue likes iPod song tagging, too: he tested three models with iPod docks and tagging support that let you push a button when you hear a song playing over HD Radio. The tag for that song is synchronized with iTunes when a docked iPod is later plugged into a computer allowing you to choose to buy that song. (Of course, only certain stations support this tagging.)
Pogue also examines quite a few of the difficulties: huge included antennas to pick up the faint signals, limited broadcaster support (fewer than 1/6th of U.S. stations), the digital cliff (a poor signal means no reception), analog/digital flap (where a weak signal flaps back and forth between analog and digital playback), the delay in starting to play after tuning, and so forth.
The key aspect here Pogue hits right on the head: "What draws radio customers isn't sound quality, it’s programming. Take satellite radio: it’s not the audio fidelity that draws an audience, it's those 300 (mostly commerical-free) channels...HD's multicast channels could fulfill much the same mission, but these days, few stations have the money or manpower to work on HD channels."
February 10, 2009
Sirius XM May File for Bankruptcy
The merged firm may file for bankruptcy: This may have some impact on terrestrial radio if the company can't restructure its debt with EchoStar, which is a satellite firm that now owns a chunk of Sirius XM debt. It's hard to see consumers agreeing in droves to buy new radio gear and agree to monthly subscription fees at this point in time, but we'll see.
HD Radio appears to remain stalled, despite some new car and traffic update deals that have been done in recent months. I haven't seen any real movement in any direction. Stations are unlikely to invest the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in the current ad (commercial) and donation (public) climate for radio, with no additional dollars accruing due to a measured increase in digital listeners.
I expect Internet radio and podcasting from established stations continues to see more growth, because the cost is disproportionately borne by the receiver: the listener. Bandwidth is cheap for distributing such content.
November 17, 2008
More on HD's Stalled Status
The Wall Street Journal reports on HD Radio's continued free fall: You should read the entire article, which summarizes only a portion of the problems with the HD Radio roll-out over the last four years, but this paragraph has the salient points:
"Still, some industry veterans say HD Radio's rollout was bungled and fear that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing as other audio entertainment options, like Apple Inc.'s iPod music players, become entrenched. 'If they don't get [HD Radio] going right now, they're going to lose it,' says Bill Figenshu, a Skytop, Pa., consultant to radio and other media companies."
That's basically it. Four years into the serious rollout, there are still only a handful of desktop radios on the market with very little to distinguish them from other, cheaper radios. There's is still practically zero integration with home receivers, which makes HD Radio a non-startup for people upgrading their home-entertainment systems.
The article doesn't mention all the trouble, not resolved, with night-time HD Radio broadcasts on AM frequencies. Nor the long delays in getting next-generation chipsets for mobile devices.
Basically, iBiquity's technology and rollout is still stalled at about 3 years , despite an increasing (but minute) number of units shipped: 600,000 for 2008, which is far below any estimates ever given by the company in years past.
What's the problem? Too little, too late. The early chips clearly didn't meet the needs of the audio industry, or were too expensive. Radio station conversions slowed way down. We're still somewhere in the 10 to 15 percent range, and very little of the secondary and subsequent digital FM channels offer anything interesting beyond conventional broadcast.
Podcasts, Internet radio, and the XM/Sirius merger...how much longer can HD Radio hang on in this investment climate where consumers aren't going to buying new radios, anyway?
I have been accused in the past of being a HD Radio shill because I found so much promise in the technology. If you read back through this blog, it's pretty apparent how disillusioned I became when promised timelines fell apart, new features never arose, and the pace of adoption never picked up.
There were a lot of advantages HD Radio had over other forms of broadcast technology, but those have mostly evaporated in a 3G world. On my iPhone, I can get nearly any station I want, even over the slow EDGE connections (about 100 to 200 Kbps) in my first-generation model. Tell me why I need HD Radio when I have Internet radio on my phone, coupled with its podcast features?
August 18, 2008
HD Stalled, Struggling
Billboard reports that HD Radio sales were about 300,000 in 2007, 1m expected in 2008: You may have noticed, the few of you who have been reading this blog, that I haven't posted in months. I was never idealistic about digital AM/FM, but I thought it was an interesting transition that would produce a greater array of interesting programming, along with interesting hardware to go with it.
Hasn't happened.
While public radio stations have taken advantage of the format to use second and third digital FM channels for alternative programming, often programs that they can't fit into a regular schedule and international news, commercial stations have remained bonded together into an alliance that ensures no competition among secondary formats, and nothing original in programming.
HD Radio's patent/format owner iBiquity says that with more radios below $100, sales will increase. I keep asking: where are the receivers? Is there some good reason that inexpensive home receivers, the hub of the home-entertainment system, don't have HD built in? Those are sold in the millions each year, and it's an odd omission. Car radios increasingly have factory-installed or factory-included HD, however, and the tabletop radios continue to be produced.
Frankly, as I walk around with a 2.5G (original) iPhone with several different streaming music options that provide me live Internet radio (from broadcast and Internet-only stations), custom programming, and other options at a fidelity that's not far from HD Radio, I don't see how HD Radio will thrive.
Internet radio looked to be another popular piece in programming stealing share from existing listening sources and expanding the audience of people listening to provided music (as opposed to owned music): regular analog terrestrial radio, satellite radio, and Internet radio would appeal to different markets at different times.
But if you have mobile phone radio on a device that also can store hundreds of hours of purchased or rented audio, where does HD Radio fit into the picture? And where's the future of analog broadcasts, too?
April 9, 2008
Broadcasters Disagree over Increase in Digital FM Power
IBOC signals as currently regulated can't cover same area digitally as their analog counterparts: Despite what the industry has told me for years, a not-very-secret bit of information has come to the fore. The FCC limits IBOC (digital AM/FM as approved in the U.S.) to 1/100th the signal strength of analog. If you have a 100,000-watt analog transmitter, you can broadcast 1,000 watts of digital signal. I have been repeatedly over three years that this provides nearly the same footprint for digital coverage as for analog. Not so. The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) is split over a proposal to ask the FCC for a 10fold increase in digital power. Some stations are concerned that portable devices with HD Radio built in, when they finally start to appear, will be unable to receive strong enough signals. Critics of the notion, which is still being tested by major networks and NPR, are concerned that the power boost would simply cause interference with adjacent or distant stations' analog signals. Many stations may lack the setup necessarily to power the higher signal, too.April 8, 2008
Clear Channel Starts Transmitting HD Tags
The Clear Channel network is now sending out HD Radio tags that work with special digital receiver and iPods: Over 340 of Clear Channels stations are transmitting the information that receivers made by Alpine, JBl, JVC, Polk Audio, and Sony can pick up and hand off to a docked iPod when a special tag button is pressed. That information is that synced with iTunes the next time you plug the iPod into its associated computer. The idea behind tagging is to let people note songs they're interested in and, apparently, buy them. Of course, if there were any portable recordable HD Radio receivers, then you could simply record the song and listen to it later. The recording industry has had long-standing complaints about digital terrestrial broadcasting, wanting to impose a broadcast flag that would overlay every song with information about whether it could be recorded, on what devices, for how long, and how many times it could play.March 25, 2008
XM, Sirius Deal Approved by Justice Dept.
The FCC still needs to approve the merger by the two satellite radio broadcasters, XM and Sirius: This merger has a few major impacts on terrestrial radio, especially HD Radio broadcasts. First, the merger presumes there's enough competition to make it reasonable to allow the two firms to join. The firms argued that Internet radio and HD Radio and "iPods" were enough competition to provide choices to consumers and keep prices lower. Without them competing with each other, they could focus more on making better, cheaper equipment and providing better programming. (It's true that the two firms' doomed themselves by spending ridiculous sums of money for exclusive sports deals--billions in all--without anything like the revenue curve from those customers to justify it.) The other impact on HD Radio is that the final agreements will likely require certain gimmes to the terrestrial radio world. I'm not sure what those will be yet, but it's likely that XM and Sirius will have to stay out of certain businesses and give certain assurances about their behavior backed by fines. Of course, the biggest irony of "satellite" radio is that so much of it is beamed from ground stations. Yup, that's right. The satellite operators are allowed to rebroadcast on the ground, and they do in cities where their satellite signals would be just barely above the noise threshold.February 4, 2008
HD Radio Sales Restated
Industry analyst says HD Radio sales were far lower than previously stated and projected: Mark Ramsay of hear2.0 and Mercury Radio Research writes in a blog post a few days ago that while iBiquity claimed 200,000 digital AM/FM equipped radios were sold in 2006 and 1m to 1.5m would be sold in 2007, the actual numbers were far lower: 40,000 in 2006 and 330,000 in 2007. The 2008 estimate is now 500,000.
This is not surprising but is disappointing. I was always dubious about the claim of 200,000 radios sold in 2006, because there just weren't that many models or radios out there. I spoke to all the manufacturers, and if 200,000 were sold, they've have been jumping up and down, even split over the four or five companies selling receivers (car and otherwise) in late 2006 when I reviewed five tabletop radios that were relatively new or about to hit the market.
The 2007 number seemed ludicrous to me; the 330,000 figure is much more likely because in 2007, you could buy dealer-installed HD Radio units for cars, and at least one decent inexpensive car radio (< $200) was available with HD Radio. The 330,000 figure is probably 70 to 80 percent automotive, I'd guess.
I'm not hearing any good news about HD Radio at the moment, despite more companies selling products, and the whole iPod integration into very specific system setups.
January 7, 2008
iTunes Tagging Hits CES
The previously announced combination of iPod, iTunes, and HD Radio is all over the Consumer Electronics Show: iTunes Tagging allows radio stations broadcasting in digital FM to tag their songs with information that is then, in turn, grabbed by a receiver with an iPod dock and transferred to a docked iPod. When the iPod is connected with a Mac or Windows system, iTunes grabs the tagging details and lets you choose whether to preview or purchase the songs.
Alpine, JBL, JVC, Polk Audio, and Sony are all demonstrating iTunes Tagging at CES.
January 1, 2008
iBiquity Suggests Satellite Merger Requires HD Radio Requirement, End to Exclusive Deals
iBiquity has a neat card up its sleeve regarding the potential XM/Sirius satellite radio merger: The developer and licenser of HD Radio technology wants the FCC to require that digital AM/FM be a required part of new satellite radio receivers if the merger is approved. The company has no opinion on whether the merger itself should be approved or not, but they believe a merged entity would drown out HD Radio, if given the chance. They also want an end to exclusive automotive relationships that may have discouraged carmakers from adding HD Radio as an option.
December 31, 2007
New HD Radio Chips Should Push Portable, More Alternatives
Here we go, finally: EE Times reports that Samsung and SiPort will both offer new HD Radio chipsets to manufacturers of digital AM/FM receivers. These new chips will consume much less power than the chips used in current hardware, and that will, at long last, make it possible to embed digital reception into portable, battery-operated devices, as well as smaller equipment. SiPort's chipset comprises a single chip; Samsung's two.
I still have huge concerns about the AM radio reception problem, as that entire situation is still being evaluated--whether digital AM/FM from one station is interferring with others' analog signals during nighttime broadcasting--but the near-term availability of chips that will enable a next generation of products will at least move the industry further.
December 5, 2007
Digital AM Nighttime Interference Claim Filed
Radio World reports that a Rochester, NY, radio station has filed a complaint with the FCC over nighttime digital AM interference: Radio World reports this is thought to be the first such complaint. The complaintant, Radio Livingston, runs WYSL, while CBS Radio runs the station that's being complained about. WYSL uses just 500 watts at night (20 kilowatts daytime) while CBS uses 50 kW 24 hours a day. The complaint was filed in October. It's worth noting, as this article does, that WYSL's owner believes in-band, on-channel (IBOC) digital encoding for AM is "bad for AMs that remain analog."
December 3, 2007
HD Radio's AM Troubles: No Real Solution Ahead
Radio World offers a balanced look at the problems with early full-time AM radio deployment of HD Radio, but it's clear that the solution may be ugly: It's been known for some time that iBiquity's technology for digital AM radio was a compromise the outcome of which was unclear. Since the FCC approved 24-hour-a-day digital AM broadcasting--up from daylight hours only--more knowledge has been gained about precisely how much interference is caused to adjacent and distant stations.
Radio World doesn't conclude digital AM is busted, because, they note, "not enough [AM] stations have been transmitting HD Radio at night to provide a realistic evaluation of the consequences."
However, there's no question there's trouble. The consequence of the FCC intervening where interference is present and requiring stations to back off, or of iBiquity being forced to go back to the drawing board, is digital AM/FM as a whole would suffer a huge blow.
Without AM stations being able to deliver a higher-quality digital signal reliably across their coverage area at night, they're unlike to promote HD Radio much, and their listeners are unlikely to upgrade over time. It's serious enough that, Radio World writes, "Owners like Clear Channel and CBS reportedly are having to choose which AM HD stations to leave on at night and which ones they’ll turn off due to interference inflicted on more important co-owned stations."
If iBiquity is forced by broadcasters or the FCC--the latter being unlikely given the commission's full-on approval--to change AM encoding that would likely mean that all HD Radios sold up until that point would be unable to receive future digital AM transmissions. Radio World notes, correctly, that that wouldn't be a problem if updates could be performed via software. It's possible that the chips deployed so far have that ability and could be flexible enough--although only a few radios have an easy way to handle upgrades. (Some can be upgraded by dealers and manufacturers, I've been told).
But this is not good news.
I've been concerned from the beginning of my coverage of digital AM/FM about the paucity of AM stations broadcasting in HD Radio format. I was told that the lack of 24-hour broadcasting ability was the big reason. But I was also told about the compromises that led to the AM specification being adopted.
The more widely spread the knowledge among consumers (and retailers) that digital AM is up in the air, the less likely receivers will be sold.
November 28, 2007
Volvo Commits to HD Radio in Nearly All 2009 Models
Volvo will include HD Radio tuners in most of its 2009 models: The auto maker confirmed that they'll make this a standard feature.
October 24, 2007
Pushback on HD Radio in AM: Citadel Turns off Nighttime AM
Criticisms of problems in using HD Radio encodings for AM stations date back to the earliest days of the technology: The FCC approved nighttime broadcasting of HD Radio over AM a few months ago, but there are still relatively few AM stations using HD Radio, and thus problems are only starting to emerge. At night, the so-called D region of the ionosphere changes character and reflects rather than dissipates signals in the AM radio range. AM radio signals already travel thousands of miles further than intended at night, and both hobbyists (DXers) who enjoy tuning in far-off stations, and regular radio listeners could be affected by digital signal skipping.
I've had a mixed opinion on this front, expecting that if there were real problems, then the FCC wouldn't approve nighttime broadcasts, that broadcasters wouldn't deploy such signals, and that lawsuits would be filed. I don't mean to be naive about the money involved, because broadcasters are equally concerned about interference that prevents their own stations from being heard.
Radio World reports that Citadel Broadcasting, which has HD Radio enabled on 16 of its 66 AM stations, decided to turn off the 10 stations that were broadcasting digital signals at night due to reports of interference. The problem occurs when listeners hear "hiss" and stations on nearby channels hear noise.
There have been rumors all along that AM digital encoding is inadequate and will need to be entirely rethought--that is, the underlying encoding replaced with a superior one. This would require replacement of all the HD Radio sets on the market, except those that have upgradability through various means (USB ports and discs that can upgrade firmware) almost certainly, as any solution would likely require new silicon.
We'll see what happens here. It's possible that in production HD Radio won't be able to work at night; that's always been a concern, and now they have to tweak parameters while still maintaining compatibility.
September 27, 2007
JVC Adds Transportable HD Radio
The KT-HDP1 can be used in a car or at home with separate kits: The $150 receiver requires two separate $60 kits to use with a car and at home. The former comes with all the modules to tie into an FM receiver and auxiliary input for automotive audio, along with a stand for dashboard mounting; the latter, a stand, AC adapter, and some audio cables.