Skip Pizzi writes about the impact of power consumption on practical portable digital receivers:
... Although the common wisdom among consumer electronics manufacturers holds that tired old analog radio has no place in slick new digital handhelds, a recent survey of handheld users found that radio was their most wanted additional feature. So it would make perfect sense that next-gen handhelds incorporate new digital radio formats, and thus they could find their way into the hearts and minds of future audiences. It all sounded great - except for one big, and largely unforeseen problem: the heavy power consumption of digital tuners. ΒΆ This dirty little secret is simultaneously being discovered in the terrestrial digital broadcast, satellite radio and wireless telecom/mobile TV environments. The broadband OFDM receivers that virtually all of these devices use are current hogs - at least in their current implementations. ...
Link: Radio World.
What of the UK's numerous portable DAB units? The most recent Ofcom report indicates that 54% of the portable units sold in there are DAB capable. DAB portables have been available there for years.
Methinks it is yet ANOTHER reason the iBiquity deal was the wrong path to tread.
Posted by: WD45 | Thursday, 28 September 2006 at 11:38