[access-uk] Re: Accessible Internet Radio

  • From: "Jackie Cairns" <cairnsplace@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:51:20 -0000

Ron, this has passed me by. What is it and how does it work please? See, I don't know everything unfortunately (big smile). 


Jackie
----- Original Message ----- From: "ron sears" <r.sears1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:44 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Accessible Internet Radio
Hello All. If this radio is not accessible, why not go for the SAMOBILE network sold by Steve Nutt. There are quite a number of stations from all over the world and lots in the U.K. You could listen to these using your RF wireless headphones. There are also hundreds of audio described films and other content. The cost is about the same as your radios you are researching and you won't have 
a problem with accessibility.

Cheers

Ron
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jackie Cairns" <cairnsplace@xxxxxxx> 
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 5:46 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Accessible Internet Radio


Hi All
Right, here is the latest on the accessibility of Internet radio. I've been 
messing around for over a day and have come up against some problems that
I'll share with you now so you know the score.
Firstly, we picked the Intempo Internet radio from Argos at £119.99. As it 
happened, it was one of the only choices of five they had in stock, but it
was my first pick anyway.

The Intempo came with wireless capability, and an ethernet port.  More
importantly, it had 99 presets and a remote control to allow you to key in
those presets directly. When Ian turned it on, he told us that the display 
came up with the welcome logo, and then found the network.  Of course it
came up with Sky, and asked for our security key. Now in answer to Marie's 
question, you have to use the dial to spin it round for each letter or
number you want to key in, then select it.  This is totally useless for us
by the way.
Once it accepted the security key and proceeded to log onto our network, it 
asked whether we wanted Windows Media Player or stations.  We selected the
latter.  Then it wanted to know if we wanted genre or locations, and we
again chose the latter.  There was a massive list of countries, with
Afghanistan at the top of the alphabetical list. Ian chose the Netherlands, 
and found Sky Radio, which came on after a few minutes of waiting.  If you
turned off the radio and turned it back on again, it defaulted to the last
station we were listening to, so that was helpful.

But after initially listening to the station, we started to notice it
cutting off altogether for maybe 30 seconds or so, then coming back on.
Then whatever was playing began to jump like the arm on a record being moved 
over it at random.

Senior Ian checked that this was not happening on Sky Radio using the
Internet on the PC, and it stayed completely steady. So we tried the radio 
directly using the RJ45, and got the same results.  We turned all the PCs
off and just had the radio running, with the same outcome.
We decided today that we would have to try another radio in case the Intempo had a fault. We knew it couldn't be our connection to the Internet because 
everything else has been working normally.  So the only other radio Argos
had was a Bush at £89.99.  They couldn't give us another Intempo as it was
the only one they had, but were happy about refunding us our money.

When we brought the Bush home and Ian went through the same procedure, the
exact same thing started to occur.  This radio has 10 presets and is
wireless only.
So now we have a dilemma. For some unknown reason, both radios, bearing in 
mind they are different models altogether, do the same thing when they are
connected to a radio station, whatever that station happens to be. We tried 
Capital FM and the BBC, but it still did the same with both sets.

I have to be honest and say that these radios are completely inaccessible
for a non-sighted person to navigate.  Even if you remember that the radio
asks you for genre or locations, and you manage to remember how many times
to go up and down the massive list in each category, you are on a hiding to nothing because you don't know any of the stations available. We knew this 
when we started out, so aren't so much frustrated about that.  What we had
planned to do is pick a few of our favourites and store them into the
presets.  But if the radios don't have fast enough processors, and keep
dropping out or jumping, I don't know what the pleasure is in all honesty.
Carol asked why it would not be simpler to just use a PC. I just wanted an Internet radio to be able to move it anywhere away from the computer without having it switched on all the time. For example, lying in bed and listening 
to something without being tied to a laptop would have been nice.

Now guys, the positive thing is that I am currently talking to TNAUK about
their talking Internet radio. I can't say anything else at the moment, but I'm in the process of bending their ear and arm (smile). When I know more, 
I'll certainly post it because I've no intention of being involved in any
trial and then not compiling some sort of evaluation review that be for all 
to read.

If anyone has any ideas why these radios do this, I would be fascinated to
know. I wonder if the processors aren't as fast, so therefore have smaller 
memory buffers.  But how they sell on that basis, I don't know.

Any comments welcome, on or off list.

Jackie

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