In what iBiquity (the intellectual property holder behind HD Radio) is calling a "watershed moment" in the history of digital broadcasting, a Swiss station has purchased and is broadcasting on the first HD radio transmitter in Europe. 

88 Radio Sunshine exists in a portion of the Alps where FM signals are spaced only 100 kHz apart on the dial, and several months of testing were performed before the announcement of the new signal at HD Radio Days, a conference in Lucerne, Switzerland this week.

"BE's implementation of the HD Radio system easily met all our digital requirements, even exceeding technical expectations despite our mountainous coverage area," said Markus Ruoss, principal owner of 88 Radio Sunshine, a private commercial radio station located in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Field-strength measurements of HD Radio broadcasts on Radio Sunshine exceeded acceptable levels, giving the station a green light to begin uninterrupted HD Radio broadcasts on its main and eventually some of its 12 boosters and translators in the region. Radio Sunshine is operating HD Radio broadcasting under voluntary status with the Switzerland Office for Communication (OFCOM).

Until now I hadn't been aware of any plans to use iBiquity's HD Radio system in Europe. The addition of some European markets to the consumer base for recievers could help being down prices, which are still a major hurdle for consumer adoption in the US.

Read the press release here.

Our sister blog Engadget is all a buzz about SIRIUS' first entry into the DAP market. Tech Effect even managed to snap a picture of the device when CEO Mel Karmazin briefly flashed it during his keynote at this week's Convergence 2.0 conference, and we were lucky enough to be tipped off.

No new concrete details but, SIRIUS promises that they'll have the new DAB in stores by the end of the summer.

Engadget expects to see more pictures and get more specs before the launch date, and we'll be sure to keep you posted.

[via Engadget]

I reported over on The Digital Music Weblog that UBC is preparing to offer on the go downloads directly from your digital radio reciever. You'll soon be able to listen to a digital radio station, hear a song your like and purchase it on the spot to be downloaded to your choice of portable player at a later time.

I point out some issues with it, and I can't exactly call my self jealous of the UBC offering. One thing however bugs me, and it's becoming a constant theme. The US has entirely botched the roll-out of HD radio, first by chosing the wrong format (causing more expensive radios and incompatibility between the US and Canada) and we're going to pay for it in the long run. SIRIUS and XM are able to thrive not only because they offer uncensored content, but becuase they offer a level of choice that you simply cannot cram into the space between 87.9 and 107.9 on the dial.

Europe is already getting a taste of what can be done, and digital radio sales are soaring. New technologies are being built around the digital delivery system, and more are surely to come. Will the US miss the boat entirely, just like we've missed out on RDS (the Radio Data System for in car delivery of text information)?

[via The Digital Music Weblog]

Our big sister Engadget (otherwise known as "the pretty one") passed us the lowdown on the Samsung neXus.

"We've always been a bit skeptical of portable DAPs like the Sirius S50 and Samsung neXus that promise to let you listen to sat radio content on-the-go, because since neither device includes a built-in satellite receiver, you're stuck with the programming you've recorded while the player was docked at home."

We'll conceede that our sis' has a point, you can't listen to live programing on the go with the neXus. However, if you work in an office building where you can't get a shot at the sky, there is a real point behind the neXus. Dock it at night, grab a few fresh hours of your favorite channel and then listen to it when your access to blue sky is limited.

Engadget says that you're better off shelling out a few more bucks for the Pioneer Inno or Samsung Helix, which both allow you to pick up and record live feeds right out of the box, no dock necessary. I agree, but I still wouldn't pass up a neXus at a reasonable price point.

[via Engadget]

This is patent non-sense, as it's one of those ideas that isn't actually so much an idea as it is the natural progression of things. However,  XM Satellite Radio has applied for a patent to incorporate HD radio transmitters into satellite radio recivers. Instead of the current FM modulators available in most radio models, XM seeks to add HD capability allowing a portable radio what is essentially a wireless digital input to a car audio system.

In the patent application, the company notes that its "high quality digital signal broadcast by XM Satellite Radio is ideally received by a digital satellite receiver for best audio reproduction, but in many instances an analog frequency modulation technique is utilized to reproduce the digital signal to take advantage of existing FM receiver car audio hardware.". As satellite radio owners know, "high quality digital signal" is a little bit of a misnomer, it's not exactly CD quality. An HD Radio modulator might help slightly, but you're still reproducing a compressed digital signal that is full of artifacts and noise.

Of course, you can patent just about anything these days. The entire patent application can be read here [FMQB.com] as a PDF.

[via FMQB]

The modifications required to get XM radios back in compliance with the FCC may be much smaller that we thought. When Forbes published an article that read "The FCC issue could be more pervasive than previously believed", we previously believed them. Pitty us, as the answer may be much closer to the mundane.



According to Orbitcast, the part needed isn't internal, it's simply a 25-cent ferrite bead. That's right, one of those funny little bumps on the cord may be the cause of all this ruckus. The little loop is used to dampen magnetic radiation emmitted from cables carrying electric current.

This is good news for everyone involved if its true. I'm still not certain this is the issue in question. Other stories have pointed to the FM modulator being the problem that drew the ire of the FCC. If that's the case, I'm hard pressed to see how this fixes the issue.

It's looking like the FCC issues that caused Audiovox to pull certain models of XM radios off of the market, and caused XM to voluntarily suspend sales of certain models of radios containing FM transmitters may be more widespread than previously thought.

According to Forbes, "The FCC issue could be more pervasive than previously believed," wrote analyst Jonathan Jacoby in a research note Tuesday. "We believe that XM and Sirius could temporarily suspend retail shipments of certain radios, but the fix would be relatively quick and inexpensive and likely would not lead to stock-outs at retail."

In all honesty, neither company needs this. Both XM and SIRIUS are relying on phenomenal growth numbers to help keep their stock values up while they continue to lose money while developing infrastructure and programming. Anything that slows subscriber growth could be bad news. 30 - 60 days of poor availability of radios in the retail market is a definite way to slow subscriber growth.

[via Forbes]

The diminutive Samsung Nexus is a relative newcomer to the portable satellite radio market. Receivers are getting smaller and smaller, and attempting to offer more and more features.

The Nexus, unlike a few recent XM devices, doesn't offer the ability to listen to live satellite broadcasts while on the go. It does offer the ability to bring pre-recorded content with you on the go.

Ryan Saghir of Orbitcast has a review of the Nexus today. It's a sharp looking little device, and Orbitcast has loads of pictures.

MPEG surround is getting closer to market reality, and this week will see the Fraunhoffer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS (parent and patent holder of Mp3)  working with Agere Systems, Coding Technologies and Philips, to demonstrate the potential of the new Surround Sound system at AES (Audio Engineering Society) Pro Audio Expo.

MPEG Surround fundamentally reduces bit rate requirements for high quality multi-channel audio compression and maintains backwards compatibility to existing stereo equipment at the same time. It is backwards compatible to stereo MP3; a legacy MP3 device plays back MP3 Surround as high quality stereo.

"We are excited to be jointly demonstrating the MPEG Surround technique. After mono and stereo, MPEG Surround is the next step for sound quality in today's media entertainment", commented Dr. Peter Kroon, Chief Multimedia Architect of Agere Systems Mobility Division. "It brings true surround sound to any media system at next to no overhead in transportation and storage, and preserves consumers' investment as existing home stereo equipment can stay in use. This level of flexibility will be the key for MPEG Surround to be deployed on a global scale."

MPEG surround could have all sorts of super cool possibilities if widely adopted. With embedded surround expected to be used in DivX video files, HD Radio, video games and more.

Orbitcast has posted photos of the newest portable XM Radio player, the Pioneer Inno. The iPod-sized device receives XM's live signal, records up to 50 hours of music, schedules recordings, and plays WMA's and MP3's. Like earlier XM portables, the Inno has a built-in FM transmitter, allowing you to play your satellite radio over analog radio. Nice. Other specs: color display, 50 channel presets, playlist editing on the device, 5 hours of live XM playback and 15 hours of recorded playback. The price? A mere $399. The Samsung Helix, listed on the XM site as having the same features, is, according to our sister (brother? kinsman?) site, Engadget, nowhere to be seen and XM does not list a price. The Samsung Nexus, available on pre-order, is available in two flavors, 25 and 50 hours of recording time. But - dealbreaker! - they only receive XM signals while docked. Listing at $219 and $269, respectively, the pair of Nexus's (Nexae?) are billed as the world's smallest XM radios.

NPR has selected Melodeo's Mobilcast platform to deliver a set of 45 of its podcasts to cell phones. NPR will get a branded, dedicated channel in the Mobilcast application. Mobilcast allows podcasters to easily add their feed to the Mobilcast directory, and users of the service can search, stream, and download podcasts to their phones. Mobilcast is installed by handset manufacturers, carriers, or users and is available on Cingular, Rogers Wireless, and T-Mobile (no Verizon or Sprint yet, dammit). This seems like a perfect place to try to do dynamic advertising - I mean narrowcast ads, one listener gets one ad. A podcast aggregator, a closed system, copious user information, limited playback controls... seems like fertile ground. It's also great to see NPR pushing podcasting to new heights; they are, after all, one of the more fervent purveyors of multicast HD Radio.

[via SymbianOne]

On March 21 Delphi issued a press release that I saw mentioned over at The Auto Channel. It at first sounded like a normal press release about a new radio being released by Delphi, but reading through it an item caught my eye. That was "It can be equipped with digital satellite radio reception from either of the two North American satellite radio companies."

The radio is generally designed for commercial vehicles and Delphi even went to professional drivers and found what they wanted and needed. So the new radio has ergonomic controls and rugged materials for better wear. They also worked on reducing mass on the radio and thereby reducing costs of the unit. And the unit does just do Satellite radio, it has CD/MP3 player as well as AM/FM and NOAA. And it can also charge and play an iPod as well. This is a full featured unit even has an alarm clock in it.

[via The Auto Channel]

With all this focus on digital radio, it's easy to forget about traditional radio. Our friends at TimeTrax, however, have not. They are releasing TraxCatcher Classic, a device designed to pickup FM broadcasts, record them to MP3, cut up the tracks (minus commercials and DJ blather), and apply track information. The device costs $160 and will begin shipping in April.

If you're not familiar with TimeTrax, they make hardware and software that allow you to time-shift XM or Sirius programming. By connecting a TimeTrax adapter to your satellite radio, you can record the broadcasts to your PC (sorry, no Mac version) with automatic tagging of artist and song information. The TimeTrax software, Recast, allows you to schedule up to 10 future recordings as well as record what's live now, eliminate the recording of certain artists or songs, only record certain artists or songs, and avoid duplicate songs. The TimeTrax family of products for satellite radio range in price from $45 for the software (you would buy this only to add either XM or Sirius to your already-purchased TimeTrax setup, which allows one service per license) to $170 for everything you need to connect to Sirius.  A complete XM setup is cheaper: $130. In April, you will be able to buy a complete package that includes a portable Sirius Sportster for $299. TimeTrax even offers refurbished systems for 25% to 30% off.

Here we have a wonderful example of the market telling service providers they're moving too slowly. Some enterprising programmers, irritated with not being able to listen to Sirius or XM on their cell phones, have written applications to do just that. A program called SiriusWM5 has appeared, allowing PocketPC users to listen to their Sirius subscription ("I GOTTA HAVE MY HOWARD!!!") on their PocketPC phone (or PDA). Naturally, Sirius has a beef with this: "Our lawyers are diligently pursuing this," says the #2 satellite radio company, whose subscriber base just passed 4 million. There are also programs to receive XM broadcasts, such as Pocket Satellite Radio and MiniXM, and of course XM has released the Hounds of Law on their makers. Currently, a few Sirius channels are available for an extra cost on Sprint Nextel phones, though Howard Stern shows are not available.

[via Reuters]

We have had some SIRIUS S50 portable device coverage here in the past including Kevin Tofel's post on the last minute changes they made in response to RIAA intervention, and now we got news of an agreement concerning the device. SIRIUS and Universal Music Group have reached an agreement over the S50's ability to separate individual songs from the satellite stream into individual MP3 files.

Music industry leaders were concerned that the ability to save songs individually was a lost chance at being able to sell that song. The music industry wants their money and felt they should be getting paid for these lost sale opportunities. Record labels had threatened to sue SIRIUS over the S50 device for copyright violations. Back in December an agreement was reached to extend the deadline to work out the final deal.

The final details are not known, but it seem that SIRIUS will be compensating Universal Music Group and avoiding any legal proceedings. These charges are not going to be passed onto the SIRIUS subscribers. This deal is expected to serve as a basis for similar deals with other record companies, and since the current deal only covers the S50, most likely it will also be used as the template for other devices in the future.