December 27, 2006
Canada May Allow HD Radio
iBiquity could score a big win if Canada opens its airwaves to in-band, on-channel (IBOC) digital radio: The Canadian spectrum regulator, the Radio, Television, and Telecommunications Commission, will allow broadcasts in HD Radio format over Canadian airwaves if another agency, the Department of Industry, also approves of the format. This would be an enormous benefit to HD Radio equipment makers, which would require relatively little tweaking--beyond, perhaps, ensuring bilingual compatibility--of receivers already for sale or designed for the US market. CBC has been testing IBOC.
There's a large suspicion that while FM would go the route of IBOC, that AM would perhaps choose Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), which is a path that some in the U.S. believe will occur here as well. DRM has a somewhat different approach and different encoders. AM stations in the US have had little interest so far in HD Radio, which cannot be broadcast during night time hours, due to FCC concerns over interference. (The ionosphere changes its reflectivity in its lowest layer when it is dark out, increasing the skipping range of AM signals.)
Canada allowed satellite digital radio in Dec. 2005. Before then, a kind of gray market existed in which Canadians purchased receivers that were illegal to operate in their own country, but which could receive XM and Sirius signals.
December 21, 2006
HD Radio Showcase at CES Details
iBiquity has released more details about what they'll show at their booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January in Las Vegas: They list a potpourri of products, including four adapters designed to integrate existing car stereo systems with HD Radio; 40 home and automotive products; and live broadcasts from local Las Vegas stations.
More significantly, they'll show off the next generation of features, including store-and-replay units that will allow you to record what you're listening to or pause it; live traffic updates that would appear in car stereo systems; and an electronic program guide. They'll also show a USB adapter with an HD Radio receiver. These are all prototypes, of course.
December 20, 2006
Popular Bluegrass Host Anchors WAMU 88.5-3
An interesting move, and the first I've seen where a personality becomes the voice of an HD-only channel: Ray Davis, described here as a "legendary...music host," will have a live, 3-6 pm program weekdays on WAMU 88.5-3 (Washington, DC)--the station's third HD channel--starting Jan. 2, 2007. WAMU devotes 88.5-2 to a collaboration with WTMD in Maryland, while 88.5-3 is all bluegrass, all the time.
This could be an interesting pull for dedicated licensers. A public radio station thrives on donations, and WAMU already simulcasts its bluegrass offering at Bluegrasscountry.org. Convincing more listeners to get HD Radio receivers to hear regular programming could also boost pledges.
December 14, 2006
New HD Radio Chips from STMicroelectronics (in 2008)
The chipmaker STMicroelectronics has licensed iBiquity's HD Radio technology: The company will produce a compact, low-power chip designed for...well, they don't say it, but this is certainly the chip that will power battery-powered, mobile (not just portable-requiring-AC/DC-voltage) HD RadIo receivers. Per information iBiquity gave me some weeks ago, mobile devices aren't expected until 2008--the same time that STM expects to ship their new designs in large quantities.
December 13, 2006
Wyoming Public Radio Goes HD
Wyoming Public Radio pushing HD Radio signals on 14 primary transmitters: The funding for this project included $828,000 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has a heavy interest in subsidizing the potential for new programming through multicasting, and $244,000 from the state legislature. The transmitters were rebuilt over two summers--they are apparently hard to reach in winter! Multicasting starts next year with HD Classical Channel statewide, with tests in Laramie and Cheyenne. The release notes that this may be the first satellite-delivered statewide digital radio. Very interesting hybrid. Another $150,000 will be required to make this work.
A note on the press release's mention that HD stands for Hybrid Digital. It doesn't. HD Radio is a trademark that doesn't mean anything, per se. It's just a phrase meant to evoke something. Hybrid digital doesn't really describe digital AM/FM, nor does high definition. It's...digital.
Hear That Xylophone!
Many audiophiles dispute HD Radio's quality: I don't want to get into a debate over very fine points, because audiophiles who say that HD Radio is not "CD quality" are absolutely correct. One person has proposed calling it "MP3 quality," which is more accurate, but not correct, either. HD Radio has a far higher dynamic range and frequency response than analog FM, which means that you can hear both deep and high notes better, while also hearing the original sound reproduced with greater fidelity for loudness and softness.
While HD Radio isn't CD quality, partly because it's a compressed format, it does have the range of a CD. It's not MP3 quality, even though the digital radio compression uses a 96 Kbps encoder that's similar for primary FM multicast channels. Why isn't it the same? Because of two factors. First, iBiquity chose a set of optimizations that are designed to make this compression work over the radio. Second, radio stations with any know-how are using preprocessing to optimize their sounds into the compressed format. This allows weaknesses in the compressor to be overcome through clever, real-time choices in the preprocessor. It also means that two stations broadcasting the same song might sound somewhat different.
In this Star-Telegram article about HD Radio, a radio program director suddenly hears the xylophone in a Sly and the Family Stone song--he's been in radio so long, he'd forgotten that these very high, pure notes really exist.
That's my experience, too. When I listen on headphones or in a room to an HD Radio broadcast, it seems spectacular in comparison to analog radio. A CD will always be better, because it's uncompressed sound, so your CD player makes all the choices, not the compression algorithm. But satellite and Internet radio won't sound any different, and may sound worse, especially Internet radio that's using less-than-ideal compressors and have limited bandwidth.
iBiquity at CES
iBiquity announced its plans for the Consumer Electronics Show: CES is an overpowering event with acres of displays. I attended last year and saw mock-ups at iBiquity's booth of radios that still haven't shipped. Nonetheless, they have a more powerful presence this year with more products in the market, and with substantially lower prices. Last January, Boston Acoustics had the only tabletop radio, and it retailed for $500. A few weeks later, the price dropped to $300 before rebate. Now, you can pick up the RadioShack Accurian for $150 before rebate.
iBiquity will demonstrate new devices from manufacturers that are still nearing, but not in production, and others will be announced at the show. They'll be at Booth #4616 in the North Hall for those attending. (I'm sitting out this year.)
December 9, 2006
High Definition Everything Hasn't Hit Home(s) Yet
Interesting piece in the New York Times about high definition whatever not taking hold yet: This was supposed to be the year of digital television, with consumers buying high-definition TV (HDTV) receivers. Oddly, while many sets were sold, the ability to watch actual DTV isn't the leading reason. Before this season about half of the buyers were looking forward to digitally encoded shows; only 25 percent of those shopping now apparently cite that reason. This is in part to how difficult it can be to get HD content from cable. The writer also notes that HD broadcast programming shows up with black borders on his set, for reasons that he can't figure out.
The writer goes on to wonder whether HD Radio can catch because people need to "invest in yet another gadget." But given that there are something like a billion radios in the world, I would cast his as--can people be convinced to trade out their existing radio? Eventually, HD Radio will be built into every radio that automakers put into cars (but every being maybe 2008 or even later), and every amplifier with integrated receiver (with every being probably by 2008).
The article notes that high-def DVDs are in a death spiral of their own making: two incompatible formats "bodes well for about anything but DVD sales."
HD Radio Doesn't Mean High Definition...Or Anything
I'm not a trademark defender, but let me explain: I see a lot of articles and blogs talk about high-definition (HD) radio. But there's no such thing. HD Radio is a trademark; digital radio, or, to be particular, in-band on-channel (IBOC) broadcasting is what's being used in the U.S. Trademarks can't have any pre-existing meaning in the field in which they are used. This is why Owens Corning's Pink is a trademark. Pink didn't mean anything in the world of insulation, so it has an arbitrary meaning, and thus can be trademarked. Words and phrases in common parlance in an industry can't be hijacked by one company (or that's the intent).
HD Radio is a trademark, just like Wi-Fi, which itself doesn't standard for wireless fidelity. Both HD Radio and Wi-Fi are trying to evoke the image of quality without actually having a definition attached. (In fact, a definition would be a wedge to prevent having the trademark approved--if it means something, well, you get the picture.)
The next time you read that HD, or high-defintion, Radio is yadda yadda yadda, well, it's not. That's why I try to use HD Radio to talk about iBiquity's technology and digital AM/FM to talk more generally about the field, and even digital radio to encompass satellite and terrestrial broadcasts.
December 8, 2006
Trade Groups Oppose Broadcast Flag on HD Radio
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reaffirm that they opposed audio broadcast flag: With broadcast flag, originally produced for digital video broadcasts, the digital streaming media is encrypted and includes policy permissions. The encryption prevents simple transfer of the content to other devices. The policy permissions set the rules by which the copyright holders want the material to be used, such as, "can be stored for 24 hours only" or "cannot be burned to disc."
What broadcast flag rules run up against is the generally free and unfettered use of the public airwaves that TV and radio broadcasters have been granted in order to provide free and unfettered programming to viewers. We own the airwaves, and it's our permission that allows media companies to use them. I know that's naive, but that's how it's structured.
Thus, the broadcast flag contradicts a fundamental issue: that we have the right to do whatever we want within the copyright rules to the content that is broadcast. While copyright holders may have had those rights limited, the broadcast flag pushes that even further by removing rights to which we have grown expected and that are enshrined in both law and judicial decision. It's fiat by technology to bypass actual rights.
The broadcast flag rules would require, in the case of HD Radio, that all broadcasts be encrypted, as I noted, and that any device that can decode the broadcasts would be able to restrict the uses in a very particular manner. This extends to the idea that if you recorded digital audio by bypassing those rules, even using high-quality digital encoding of an analog output of the broadcast, that any other device that could play content back would refuse to play what you'd recorded.
The classic example for TV is that you're recording your child at a birthday party on a digital camcorder and you happen to pan by a TV set playing Little Mermaid or some such. Your camcorder would see the digital flag signal, interpret it, and then shut down or black out, even though any reasonable interpretation of copyright law wouldn't see that use as a violation. (Personal use, limited amount, etc.)
The NAB represents radio stations, among others; the CEA, the makers of radio equipment, among others. If the HD Radio broadcast flag were adopted, all current radios would be rendered obsolete and broadcasters would need to revamp their digital broadcasting equipment.
Satellite Radio May Fail?
There's no assurance that AM and FM will be revitalized, but the billions put in satellite may not pay off: Let's be clear that this blog isn't a toadying, pro-radio-station outlet. There are good stations and bad, and I generally love free over-the-air music, and am pleased that HD Radio is starting to become a reasonable way to listen to more radio that I already like. (I'm an NPR junky, so I can get three channels instead of one from my local broadcasters.)
But this article in Slate explains why satellite radio broadcasters may be in for it. While AM and FM have decades of investment and an idea of what they need to spend in the future to keep up, satellite broadcasters have spent billions to make hundreds of millions, and have billions in commitments to sports leagues, Howard Stern, and others that has to be redeemed, too.
Slate says that while subscriber numbers do continue to climb, that hasn't led to profits because of the high-cost proposition that satellite broadcasters have. And automakers, which have been one of the key ways in which subscribers have been acquired through activated radios with trial subscriptions in new cars, are less likely to offer these incentives in the future.
XM said it would move from 6m to 9m subscribers in 2006. But Slate notes that the company added just a net of about 1.2m subscribers so far this year (7.2m total) and is now estimating just 8.5m by year's end--which seems hard to reach. In third quarter, they added 286,002 net subscribers even though they had 868,0007 new subscribers, because so many customers canceled subscriptions or didn't sign up for service after trials. (XM and Sirius count subscribers who activate free trials.)
Sirius had 3.3m subscribers by the end of 2005, and recently revised its subscriber numbers down. They think they'll hit 5.9m to 6.1m by the end of the year, down from 6.3m predicted in August. Their third-quarter net subscriptions was 441,101, with an average monthly churn of 2 percent. Two percent means that perhaps 100,000 people pull the plug each month. That kind of churn rate is not at all unusual but it has to be countered by an increased rate of new subscribers.
Both companies' cash reserves are dwindling, with $352m in cash in Sirius' coffers and $1b in debt; XM has $285m in cash.
December 7, 2006
HD Radio Demoed in Hong Kong
iBiquity had its technology demonstrated at the ITU Telecom World 2006 conference: Working with two others firms, HD Radio was demonstrated on 100.1 MHz during the event. Ultimately, iBiquity is hoping to spread its flavor of digital broadcast to countries that have made no decision yet; I've also heard there's some interest in harmonization that could allow it to co-exist with other digital radio standards.
December 6, 2006
BusinessWeek Tries HD Radio
Stephen Wildstrom finds Polk better then RadioShack: My testing showed the opposite, but that's partly my bias towards uncluttered interfaces. The Polk has a lot of options, making it harder to use. And the unit I tested had muddy sound. The Accurian has quite clear sound that compared favorably with more expensive units.
Wildstrom notes, of course, that content is king, and that broadcasters aren't doing much that's interesting yet with the multicast format. Which is, of course, because they don't have listeners. I expect to see some stations ultimately experimenting with five or more multicast channels, but they have to--for now--receive specific FCC permission, freely granted, for each additional multicast station.
It's quite likely to me that after a year or two of HD Radio growth that the FCC will consider lower-powered digital-only stations in the interstices of FM broadcasts in various markets. If the signal strength is low enough, digital-only stations wouldn't interfere with stations on the same bands in adjacent markets, and could provide much more diversity of programming. This depends on the political winds.
I did not see the problem with a HD Radio signal breaking up in the way that Wildstrom describes on any of the five receivers I tested. When an HD signal wasn't strong enough and would fade in and out, the radio simply switched seamlessly back and forth between analog and digital. This happened infrequently: a station was mostly either good enough to receive digitally over the period of time the radio initially tries to get a lock and continued to be that good--or it wasn't. In a moving vehicle, I expect results to vary, but there's also much better reception outdoors.
Automakers Commit to HD, But Shhhhh
Nine carmakers and 49 models will over HD Radio over the next two years, but which ones? When I interviewed iBiquity's head, Robert Struble, for the article that appears in today's New York Times reviewing HD Radios, he said the same thing. Lots of commitments, no announcements as to whom. BMW is the only automaker that offers HD Radio as an option so far on just a few models. Struble told The News & Observer that some models will feature HD Radio receivers as standard equipment starting in 2007.
Visteon HD Jump Shipping?
Today's Trucking Online says the portable HD Jump is out: The HD Jump would be the first portable HD Radio receiver on the market, as Radiosophy's module isn't scheduled to ship until Feb. 1 at this point. The HD Jump is designed to work with existing car radio systems, although the visual on the item is confusing as it looks like an entirely separate piece of gear. More elaboration as I receive it.
Update: I checked in with Visteon. The article is incorrect in writing that the HD Jump is available. The company still expects to ship in mid-January.
December 5, 2006
Big NY Times Round-Up on HD Radio Receivers
My spread in the New York Times on HD Radio is up: I spent a few weeks receiving and testing five tabletop HD Radios, and the results are now in print and online. I was able to get review units from Boston Acoustics, Polk, RadioShack, Radiosophy, and Sangean--apparently, I'm the only reviewer to get my hands on the Radiosophy and one of the few to have touched the Sangean at this point.
My takeaway is that all the radios have excellent qualities and fill different niches. The Accurian is a very fine radio, with its only flaw the decision to omit alarm clock features. Radio Shack dropped the holiday price to $150 before the $25 rebate, and I suspect the price will not go back up to $200 after the Jan. 14 rebate ends. The Polk i-Sonic that I tested had muddy sound, and I hope that's not the case for all units. The Polk lacks equalization features, so despite the bass and treble controls, I was unable to get a cleaner sound out of it.
The Radiosophy Multistream HD is rather cool--just 1.5 pounds for the module with nice rubberized buttons, and a nice look overall. I spoke to the company today, as they had expected to be in production by now and shipping in December. Unfortunately, they've had one more round of delays, and they now expect to ship by Feb. 1. If the unit is purchased (pre-ordered) by Jan. 14, the radio will still qualify for the $50 iBiquity rebate that's due in by mid-Feb.
I love the Sangean's styling. Only Boston Acoustics' design comes close, and it's a very different aesthetic. But Sangean should have invested more in its LCD display, which is oddly clunky looking. I expect that that's a relatively straightforward upgrade for them if they get enough feedback from potential buyers. The radio works very well with a built-in telescoping antenna, which makes the radio easier to move and makes tuning easier.
Equalization (EQ) is the only fault consistent across all five radios. I would expect that digital devices could have very inexpensive and good EQ. None did. The Accurian's EQ is quite awful, but the default, uncorrected sound is very good, so there's no need to use the EQ. (I also dislike the poor design of the icons that are supposed to indicate which EQ mode is in use--a crummy saxophone for jazz, for instance.) Other radios had just bass/treble, or strange preset EQs, and none of the options will please even the least-discriminating audiophile. Except for Polk's radio, the sound without manipulation is quite good for both analog and digital radio.
Another mild issue is antenna placement. I note in the article that HD Radio signals are rather faint by design and regulation. All but the Sangean radio come with external dipole FM antennas--T-designs in which a long lead split into two perpendicular arms. The better the antenna, the more likely you'll get a consistent signal. For some people, a powered FM antenna will be a necessity, and the benefit could be picking up quite distant HD Radio and analog signals on top of the local radio broadcasts. Update: I was informed that powered FM antennas only boost the center band for a station, which could improve analog quality and degrade digital! Time for new powered antenna designs.
The next big market to start expanding is component tuning. Several inexpensive component tuners are due out shortly; Sangean may already be shipping theirs, and Cambridge SoundWorks will have a component tuner and a tabletop radio.
Radio Shack drops price
Radio Shack drops price $50 til Christmas: The Accurian Tabletop HD Radio has a list price of $200 with a $25 rebate to drop it to $175 (through Jan. 14). Radio Shack had a Thanksgiving Weekend sale with the radio offered for $125, bringing the final price to $100. I guess price sensitivity means something for them, as they have a new sale on the radio through Dec. 24--$150 before rebate, $125 after. This is the best-priced radio if you don't need an alarm clock built in, and it's sound quality is very good, especially given the low cost.
December 1, 2006
More HD Ads on Commercial Stations
The HD Digital Radio Alliance kicks in $250m for 2007: The advertisements will promote the concept of HD Radio and particular receiver models. $250m seems like a lot of money, but it derives in part from unsold advertising inventory that's valued nominally. Still, in testing HD receivers recently, I heard quite a few ads for HD Radio.