[opendtv] Re: HD Radio chip marks SiPort's recovery

At 2:40 PM -0400 3/11/09, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

 > The real future of HD radio is in the bits, not the primary analog

 service.


Well, the audio digital service is a big draw, to me. Like DTV, the
digital audio carries multiple subchannels. In this area, music stations
tend to have two program channels in digital, and talk stations, or talk
+ music, tend to have three subchannels.
I include audio services in the bits I was talking about. It's the old single analog service that is of little interest for mobile digital devices, despite the fact it eats up most of the bandwidth.
It is easy to capture a song in digital format - just cache the bits like a video DVR. It is already possible to identify these digital songs and mark them for purchase using a service like iPod tagging. Next step is to be able to purchase the song so you can move it into your library, rather than waiting to download it later. And needless to say, there are all kinds of data services that could provide a value add to an iPhone or iPod Touch. 



Since radio is so well suited to mobile and portable use, it seems to me
that the audio digital subchannels should be a big draw. Any new data
streams might or might not be a big deal. This is a repeat of what was
discussed years ago, wrt ATSC data services
The thing that killed ATSC data services was VSB. Too complex and too unreliable. MAybe with the new mobile TV standard this could change.
The digital FM tuner is far less complex to implement but can still deliver data services to a device reliably. Look for news headlines, weather, traffic and possible location based advertising. 


.


 The FM band is better suited to delivering bits reliably.


I think the real problem with sending IBOC on MW (i.e. the AM band) is
that it interferes with analog AM service, especially at night. Also
that it is limited in capacity, compared with IBOC VHF service. If
analog AM could be shut down, MW digital radio could be VERY
interesting, because the audio quality is very good. A huge improvement
over AM analog audio.

As to selling music over broadcast radio, I have my doubts. If I were a
station owner, I'd sooner get me a web site for that.
All the bits are coming together to enable this. And the broadcasters need a new revenue stream to pay for the performance fees that the NAB is fighting... 

http://www.rbr.com/radio/13323.html


Regards
Craig


----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org 
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts: