May 26, 2006
The Drumbeat of No One Listening Continues
The Hartford Courant's consumer electronics writer notes that HD Radio is "drifting in the wind": There will be little change in this attitude until more radio models appear, which sounds imminent, but might be July, August...or even fall. I can't get firm shipment dates from any consumer radio makers. Any dates given to me in the past, have slipped except for Boston Acoustics, the only one to deliver.
May 22, 2006
Broadcasters Seeing More Tools for HD Radio
Radio World reports that the NAB2006 conference turned heads on HD Radio because of demos, tools: New products across all aspects of a station's audio stream were demonstrated at the National Association of Broadcasters show, and Radio World said that this is helping to convince radio broadcasters that HD Radio has arrived--even if home receivers have not.
The rules for use of the spectrum on which in-channel, on-band (IBOC) digital broadcasting have changed slightly, allowing 150 Kbps of bandwidth, and this report says that Harris and BE demonstrated four-audio-channel multicasts that took up just 120 Kbps of that space. (KUOW-FM in Seattle is multicasting three channels, but not at the same fidelities.)
The editor in chief notes, "I would have liked to come to NAB and found dozens of high-impact displays with radios from a half-dozen manufacturers and signs screaming about this exciting new format. After all, stations are telling listeners about it on the air. There were only a few Boston Acoustics and Radiosophy models scattered about."
May 12, 2006
Clear Channel CEO Looks to Cheaper HD Receivers for Lift
The head of the massive radio station chain says that HD Radio will take off as devices become much cheaper: The owner of 1,200+ stations told Reuters that HD Radio receivers need to be embedded in more devices, like iPods and mobile phones. Of course this requires tinier, lower-powered chips with greater discrimination, as early reports indicated that the first-generation chips and modules--soon to be superceded--required quite a lot of engineering to get good reception.
Mark Mays of Clear Channel wants a $99 price point to see a boom in shipping units. We're still looking at a market with just the $299 Boston Acoustics Receptor Radio HD as the only tabletop model. Even with rebates and further discounts, it runs at least $229 and isn't appropriate for every listener or market niche. Polk and Radiosophy recently stated they'd be shipping around summer, but they said that last year, too. We'll see.
I do expect more receivers with the new chips and modules now available to manufacturers. Those who had sat in the bullpen waiting for better silicon, such as Eton, should now produce radios in a reasonable timeframe.
It's essentially ridiculous to see a product announced in January 2005 that hasn't shipped 18 months later, and that's the case with Polk Audio and Radiosophy; Boston Acoustics took nearly a year. These delays can't be explained simply by engineering problems. Fundamentally, something was wrong, and it's being fixed.
May 9, 2006
Polk To Ship in August
Radio World reports Polk Audio's all-in-one radio/CD/DVD player with HD reception ships in August: The company has had numerous delays. When I wrote a short article on HD Radio for the New York Times last July, Polk expected to ship in September 2005. Just a year off. I saw the demo unit at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and they had some key engineering problems they said were unrelated to the HD Radio reception. They'll ship the device for $599--I sort of doubt it will have a street price that high--by Aug. 1. The I-Sonic is XM Ready, meaning that a $50 module will add the satellite service with no additional antenna or other gear.
May 3, 2006
Typical Purchasing Experience for HD Radio
Radio World reports on a test of trying to buy a darned HD Radio receiver: Joe Milliken writes of his attempt in the San Francisco Bay Area retailers to see what was in stock, whether salespeople knew about the technology, and whether there were promotional materials around. The best score is a B- at a old-style retailer--which didn't have any units in stock.
For car audio, it's particularly bleak because while there are multiple radio head units that pair with HD Radio modules, but this writer couldn't find any store that had hooked any of this up for demonstration. In one store, the Boston Acoustics tabletop radio was listed with its January 2006 $499 price; the staff changed the price only when he asks. Sounds like indifference.
This is quite bleak, but the turnaround is coming, as many radio makers will have units out as early as this summer. Once many models hit the market and prices on the low-end units drop, HD Radio will explode in a way that I think no other technology but Wi-Fi (another obsession of mine) has seen. HD Radio sounds so good and works so well in its goals that the limitation appears to be entirely on the availability of shipping equipment.