Portable Internet Radio to take on XM? 231
TheDude writes "A friend who works for a design company attended the Australian EDN awards last night and was impressed with one of the winners, in the wireless category, which was won by Grey Innovation for their Infusion device . It's a Linux based portable internet radio that streams Internet Radio over WiFi. Is this the future of Radio? Given the big push by XM and Sirus , the potential of Podcasting and now the "inFusion", in which direction is mass-audio-broadcast heading? And why isn't anyone really pushing Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), like they have in the UK ?"
The best Radio is FREE. (Score:5, Interesting)
http://209.235.176.54/reverse_evolutionblues.mp3 [209.235.176.54]
Best heard under Heavy surround sound because it hasn't been mixed yet.lol
However I live by words, and YES i do suck. But here is my take. And its free for you. You need surround sound and good stereo to appreciate it, but i give it to you. That way its still mine. :P
And yes I wrote this and performed all the instruments. So its mine to give.
smt 5600 (Score:2, Interesting)
I heard of some people streaming live tv through a home computer and a program called orb to their cell phone.
It looks like wireless media is here.
Re:DIY Music distro system. (Score:2, Interesting)
Digital Audio Radio in the US (Score:2, Interesting)
Because DAB is shared across all stations. They take the spectrum and use wavelength division multiplexing and time division multiplexing to spread all of the stations with digital broadcasts across the spectrum. This allows high station density and no problems associated with signal drop out from distance nodes. However, this situation requires cooperation between competitors vying for listeners, something that is nearly impossible to achieve in the fiercly independent business environment of the USA.
The US alternative is Digital Audio Radio (DAR) using In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) broadcasting. IBOC uses a station's existing carrier frequency and puts the digital signal in the low-power extremeties of the carrier as mandated by the FCC. This is not as efficient as DAB because you don't eliminate the issue of signal dropout from fequency nodes, and you may suffer from interference when listening to the analog signal. The good thing is that setup costs are much lower compared to DAB and, as is true with all digital audio radio situations, the digital signal carries further with lower power than analog.
So why isn't IBOC popular? It's not as robust as DAB and there is little incentive for stations to switch. Who has a DAR receiver in their car? Here's hoping that one day this will be a reality.
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, anytime!
I shouldn't have been so flip, especially about prog rock
Oh, you weren't. You message came across right, I was just adding to it. I guess I came off more "intense" than I was aiming for.
I probably completely abused the term progressive rock.
It's actually a very difficult term to pin down exactly. One person's progressive rock, is another person's plain old rock & roll. For instance, Spock's Beard is very different than Lacuna Coil, and the later has the more radio friendly sound and running times.
Another problem is that bands change over time. For instance, compare "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" era Genesis with "We Can't Dance" era Genesis, "Tales from Topographic Oceans" era Yes with "90125" era Yes, and "2112" era Rush with "Moving Pictures" era Rush. Sometimes the later incarnations are not considered very progressive. Many people have difficulty believing Genesis was a progressive band!
It's made worse, by the fact that the artists don't always see themselves as a progressive band. For instance, Porcupine Tree doesn't consider themselves progressive, but many people classify them as such. They have certainly made progressive music, but they have also changed their sound many, many times.
There are also several genres of progressive rock. You can have progressive metal and progressive folk, for instance.
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically the government spends money on what it wants to, and it's too bad if you don't like it. I want WiFi, you want roads. You can't always get what you want...
Happy with DAB in the UK (Score:0, Interesting)
Guess it works for some of us...
Toby
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:2, Interesting)
Why should that be? Because you say so?
The fact that so many people think the first is good enough is probably why the government costs the average person over half their income now, as opposed to less than a tenth in 1920.
Go and live in 1920 then. Living standards and general wealth are much higher these days, even with the government taking so much money. I'm sure there are plenty of places that charge little tax - but I'm not sure you would want to live in those places.
it makes it a bit hard to suggest we have local governments indulge us with something like free wireless when it can already be done in the private sector
Theoretically it could be done by private industry, but in reality, it is not. And it would be inefficient to have multiple competing services, instead of sharing resources. How long do we have to wait for industry to get their shit together? Just because something can be done by private industry, doesn't mean it should. After all, the government doesn't need to make a profit. With private industry you are paying a large "tax" so they make money. Why waste all that money?
and quit suggesting your neighbor be forced to chip in against her will for your luxury.
For many people it is not a luxury - it's a chance to get a step-up in life, and get some of the things that the privileged take for granted. For many people it could mean the difference between being educated and being uneducated or indoctrinated.
Streaming on my Treo (Score:3, Interesting)
This can't compete with XM on quality and obviously not on signal reception. But a treo with a wifi card would beat the device referenced in this article hands down, in my opinion.
Re:The best Radio is FREE. (Score:2, Interesting)