Technology360

Does radio need to worry about IP-delivered audio?

Back in September, Radio World published a column titled “The Problem Isn’t Demand, It’s Bandwidth” by veteran broadcast engineer, Frank McCoy.  The title was a bit of a non sequitur, because of course if there was no demand, bandwidth wouldn’t be a problem. 

McCoy notes that:

… There are dire predictions that radio's best days have come and gone. Who can blame the pundit who sees only a simple consumer choice between listening to what some radio program director predicts that I (and 20,000 other people) want to hear, and choosing for myself exactly what I want when I want it? …

He asks,

… Should we all be concerned that the days of the 1,000-foot tower are gone and that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection is a possible new competitor? Will radio as we know it become just another feature of cell phones? Will in-car Internet give commuters millions of station choices?  ¶  The answer is no. …

He arrives at this “comforting” conclusion by comparing the bandwidth required by IP audio streams in a real-world situation vs. available bandwidth, finding that IP audio just won’t scale up enough to be a threat to radio broadcasters.

The exercise is interesting, but it would be a mistake for us to draw much comfort in it – at least if your goal is to stop worrying about other platforms.

Here’s why.

[1]  Distribution technology isn’t a static thing.  For example, one of the commenters to his article points to a new broadcast-friendly technology called Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS) now being rolled out in certain cellular telephone networks.  Other multicasting* efforts are also in development or available.

*NB: IP multicasting has a different meaning than does broadcast multicasting.  Rather, it is a way to achieve one-to-many bandwidth scaling without having to have to “home run” each stream back to the original server.  In other words, IP multicasting is roughly comparable to what we mean by broadcasting.

[2]  Other technology components aren’t static, either.  Better compression and error correction algorithms are being developed all the time which enable more and better services in less spectrum.  And, for music stations, there is already the profound effect already felt from digital music players like the iPod, which in turn benefit from improvements in mass storage.  Moore’s Law posits a doubling of data capacity every 18 months.  One might ask, why take up valuable spectrum to repeatedly retransmit bits that can be more easily stored in a listener’s purse or shirt pocket?  Or, as Pandora, Slacker and other streamers-that-learn have done, why not, if you’re going to retransmit bits, at least customize the radio experience on the fly?  Smart radio operators in the future will learn how to stitch value into, and thereby extract value from, these customizable streams.

[3]  IP streamers and broadcasters aren’t the only games in town.  Digital TV broadcasters are about to get into the act with the ATSC-M/H standard in this country as DVB-H and 1seg have done so elsewhere.  While billed as mobile video services, they also do mobile audio much more efficiently than the IP streaming most stations use now, so look for some of that traffic to migrate to the television spectrum.

[4]  Ever since the brainy actress, Hedy Lamarr, co-invented frequency-hopping radio in 1941, our notions of spectrum as protected real estate have been under challenge.  Some feel that spectrum as we know it is an obsolete concept – that smart receivers and smart transmitters can much more efficiently utilize the spectrum than can the geographically-allocated transmitters and dumb receivers that we now use (a huge amount of existing spectrum is un- or under-used due to the need to protect cheaply-made receivers).  I posted back in June about efforts to raise a public debate about this from the New America Foundation, which had just published four papers on the topic.  I doubt that either the economics of the consumer electronic industry or the requirement for the FCC to maintain a detailed and accurate database of transmitters in use will favor this idea any time soon, but these conditions, too, are not static and will likely become more favorable to more spectrum-efficient technologies in the future.

[5]  Lastly, we broadcasters shouldn’t think of this as a complete migration of broadcast listening to mobile IP platforms insofar as its economic consequences.  To be consequential to us, these services have to only skim the cream off our listening to harm the thinning margins that most stations are experiencing.  So these new services don’t have to capture the full broadcast load of listener attention to do damage to legacy broadcasters.

Some 50 years back, radio faced another challenge as television decimated its previous programming model.  Needle-drop radio replaced it and a new business model was born.  We need to be at least as agile in adjusting broadcast service and business models as technology has shown in its ability to evolve over time.  As the old joke’s punch line goes, one doesn’t have to run faster than the bear, just faster than you.

As always, opinions expressed here are my own.  --Dennis

NPR and iBiquity strike deal on HD Radio power increase

National Public Radio (for which I work) and iBiquity Digital Corporation today jointly filed with the FCC a framework to allow an increase in digital power of at least 6 dB while minimizing the occurrence and severity of interference to existing analog operations.  I’ll withhold specific comments except to say that this agreement makes me more optimistic about the future of digital radio in this country than I have in a long time.  It’s intended to help digital radio succeed.  I’m following this with the press release and then links to two press reports which have already appeared.

NPR & IBIQUITY STRIKE DEAL ON HD RADIO POWER INCREASE
Blanket 6 dB increase, interference safeguards recommended to FCC; higher power levels possible

November 5, 2010, Washington, DC; iBiquity Digital Corporation and NPR announced an agreement for managing an HD Radio™ power increase that will significantly improve reception of HD Radio signals. The two organizations are jointly presenting their recommendations to the FCC today and encouraging the Commission to move to adopt the power increase quickly. 

“We are delighted that the radio industry is now poised to push this technology ahead together. We’ve found practical and balanced solutions that will greatly improve reception while limiting interference to existing analog operations,” said Bob Struble, President and CEO of iBiquity Digital Corporation.

The agreement proposes that the Commission authorize a blanket 6 dB increase for all commercial and non-commercial radio stations’ digital power from the current level of -20 dBc to a power level of -14 dBc; this is four times the current power level. NPR and iBiquity consulted with a broad spectrum of commercial and noncommercial stations over the last few weeks, and identified several conditions and criteria to manage the power increase process.  These conditions were informed by NPR Labs' recent field research, “Advanced IBOC Coverage and Compatibility Study,” filed with the Commission earlier this week.  Conditions of the blanket increase included commitment by iBiquity and NPR to additional enhancements to the HD Radio™ system. The development work of the two organizations will focus on single frequency networks to fill gaps in digital coverage, asymmetrical digital sidebands to reduce the potential for digital interference to short spaced first adjacent analog stations, and low bitrate codecs and conditional access crucial to moving radio reading services into the mainstream of digital radio broadcasting.

Notably, the two organizations offered an approach to additional power increases beyond a 6 dB increase, depending on spacing criteria and conditions that limit harmful interference, and initial models suggest most stations will be able to exceed 6 dB. 

Mike Starling, Executive Director of NPR Labs, said “We are optimistic about the future of HD Radio broadcasting, and eager to continue to work with iBiquity on the developments that will make this power increase work to everyone’s advantage – stations, listeners, and receiver makers.” 

"I am thrilled that a workable and efficacious compromise has been agreed to on this extremely important and controversial issue," said Milford Smith, Vice President of Radio Engineering at Greater Media, Inc. "Replication of analogue coverage by the new, digital service is absolutely critical to the continued successful roll out of HD Radio technology."

iBiquity and NPR encouraged the Commission to act on unresolved complaints in cases in which interference is shown to cause a problem. 

The agreement also proposes a series of steps drawn from the current AM rules for interference to be applied to qualifying and limiting harmful interference with analog at the 6 dB increase level (-14 dBc). These steps would remediate harmful interference from any stations increasing power above the existing -20 dBc power level. 

[paragraphs describing NPR and iBiquity omitted]

The story has been picked up by Inside Radio and Radio World's The Leslie Report. 

Updated 11/11/09:
Here's a link to a story from Radio Ink, and another from Radio Business Report.  --Dennis

Why is HD Radio™ important for public radio?

... Asks Caryn Mathes, GM of WAMU in Washington, in an essay reprinted from Current (can't find it there) for Radio Business Report.  WAMU is a public radio station that recently won a well-deserved industry award for its leadership in HD Radio™.  She concludes:

... However, I think that to truly “get” the importance of HD Radio, you must abandon the old metrics, and stop trying to layer those measurements on the new landscape.  ¶  The days of double-digit share are gone; 1-2% may become a good share in the brave new world. The landscape has irreversibly changed, with so many platforms available to tempt the listener. Podcasts, mobile, Internet radio – the competition for ears is everywhere, as we all well know. I believe that, comparisons to Betamax and 8-tracks aside, very rarely does a format completely disappear – the pieces of the audience pie simply get smaller, and you need to be accessible on every possible platform in order to get the same aggregate AMOUNT of the pie. ...

Link:  RBR.com.  --Dennis

WAMU's Bluegrass Country wins NAB HD Radio Multicast Award

Congratulations to Caryn Mathes and team at WAMU for winning this year's National Association of Broadcasters HD Radio Multicast Award (link: RadioWorld) for the station's Bluegrass Country channel.  HD Radio's receivers are still in toddlerhood with many interesting developments ahead, but in the end it will be programming that makes or breaks this technology.  WAMU's innovative use of its HD-2 channel, web streaming, and a Reston, VA translator have shown how it can be done.

Update, 12 August 2009:
Read some more about what WAMU is doing with its multicast channels in Radio World's Leslie Report.  --Dennis

Field Trials Begin for HD Radio® EPG Project

It's amusing but understandable to read the many early pessimistic assessments of HD Radio's future -- like watching a toddler and concluding that he'll never amount to anything in business.  HD Radio's architecture is flexible and features are developing.  One to keep an eye on is the Electronic Program Guide capability now being tested in Boston (Link: Radioworld).  This is part of a National Ass'n of Broadcaster's program called FastRoad.  Here's a link describing the EPG project. 

Oh, by the way, iBiquity, the HD Radio developer, just announced that it raised $42mm.  Link:  Radio Ink.  --Dennis

HD Radio® without the "wall wart"

I read this morning Darren Murph's post on engadget, Insignia NS-HD01: first-ever portable HD Radio on sale at Best Buy -- today, it said.  Insignia is a house brand at Best Buy.  I almost never buy a gizmo without reading reviews first, but at $50, I thought it would be a small risk, so I stopped in to the Best Buy in Leesburg, VA on my way back to Washington and bought one of the three that they had (the electronics dept. guy had to look it up on the computer to confirm they really had them, then he led me on a hunt through that section until we ran across it).   Insignia is beating Microsoft's Zune HD to market by several months.

I've used a number of HD Radio products over the past couple of years ranging from Radiosophy's inexpensive unit to the Sangean component tuner I have at home.  All of these used chips drew a lot of power out of the wall.  Given public radio's large investment in the technology, I've been rooting for HD Radio's success.  Rooting and achieving aren't always the same thing, of course, but  I think that the low-power chip that makes possible devices like the NS-HD01 is a real advancement in the success of this technology.

Here's a very brief and very partial review.  The unit is FM only.  It's just the right size -- not too big and not too small.  It doesn't come with a wall wart (wall charger), rather its internal Li-Ion battery charges (quickly) from a computer USB port.  I'll be interested to see if it charges from the USB port on my Jeep's sound/nav system.  As I write this, the radio has been running for 3½ hours and the battery indicator is still showing 3 of its 4 bars.

There's a small color display which provides PAD (either from HD Radio® or analog RBDS modes) and frequency.  There's even a kinda sorta analog display that shows how far you've progressed across the FM band, in case you can't remember that at 90.9 MHz, you still have a long way to go to 107.9 MHz.  The radio can remember 10 station presets.

It seems reasonably sensitive.  I could pick up WAMU, the C-SPAN station, and WETA on the noncommercial band from inside my apartment near NPR as well as a bunch of commercial stations.  I've not done testing for distant stations yet from my balcony, but I did put WAMU on and rode my bike to to the Washington Monument and back and got solid reception.  I've done the same trip listening to IP radio streams on my Nokia N95 and iPhone.  While they have acceptable reliability (and, as a bonus, I can listen to my former stations in Washington State), the HD Radio reception was more solid.  The earphones provided aren't top of the line, but they did provide acceptable performance.  Sorry, but those music stations putting all of their bits into one channel don't sound any better than stations that are doing multicasting to my non-golden ears.  Maybe there is someone out there listening in a quiet room with full-cover earphones who can tell the difference.

Lots of people are ready to bury HD Radio as a failure (another meaning, perhaps, for the term, "shovel ready"), but this nice little radio, the upcoming Zune HD, and more significantly, the potential of this technology to do much, much more lead me to counsel patience.  Remember that FM took about 40 years from its 1938 introduction to eclipse AM as the dominant radio medium.  HD Radio won't have that much time to prove itself in today's fast-paced environment, of course, but if those who control this technology are smart, they won't need it. 

Update 13 July 2009:

Dave Zatz also has a look at this radio here.  Good set of pictures. 

Walking around NPR's three office locations in Washington with it.  Loses WAMU's HD-2 bluegrass channel if you're more than 15-20 feet from a window. 

Update 15 July 2009:

So I had a doctor appointment this morning in Alexandria, VA not too far off King St. for those of you who know the area.  I used the occasion to test this receiver in my car in the same fashion as I do listening to streaming on my iPhone and, before that Nokia N95.  I plugged it into the audio input jack of my Jeep's sound system with the 6-foot cord serving as an antenna and hung the receiver (weighs only a few ounces) on my rearview mirror. 

My bike ride on Sunday was using WAMU's HD1 channel.  While I checked the display each time I stopped for a light and it was showing the HD logo, I've since discovered that it always displays it for at least awhile when it's blending in and out of analog.  So that was a poor test.  This time, I used HD3.  I drove from my apartment at 4th and Massachusetts NW to I395 and took it south a few miles to the King St. exit.  Performance in the city was quite spotty.  The signal was interrupted frequently -- more so than listening to 3G IP streaming -- but it healed more quickly than 3G IP.  Once I got across the bridge into Virginia, though, I had no other audio interruptions all the way to the doctor's office.  From there, I drove to a bank in downtown Alexandria, and had mostly good service until I got into the business district.  Coming back to Washington, I switched to HD2, and it was better once I got to the city, however that may have been due to the antenna, such as it was, showing different directionality because the car was in the opposite direction.

My conclusion so far is that this unit is very usable for HD1, but for HD2 and HD3 I'm better off listening to the station's IP streams when in the city.  I'll do some more tests as I have the opportunity.

Update 22 July 2009:
Matt Burns reviewed it for CrunchGear and had trouble tuning stations in, even outdoors.  I had good results in that respect (above) using both the included earphones and the 6-foot audio cable I used to couple it to my car's sound system.  So, as the saying goes, your experience may vary.  --Dennis

Internet to the dashboard

Broadcasting consultant Mark Ramsey comments on a report from Harve Alan that Volkswagen and Intel are partnering to bring internet services to the dashboard of the former's vehicles, saying:

The thing you need to understand about this (inevitable) technology is this: Anything that occupies space with a radio and consumes the same attention and time as a radio competes with a radio and substitutes for a radio.

Link:  hear2.o.  Amen.

Along these same lines, NPR's Mike Starling provided me with a link to Azentek's entry into this space.  Azentek describes itself as "an automotive OEM specializing in onboard computer technology tailored for safe use in your vehicle.  Link:  Azentek.

And Consumer Reports has a report on Blaupunkt's entry.  Link:  Consumer Reports.

Of course, if you have an iPhone, or one of Nokia's media-enabled phones, or any of dozens of others that support audio and IP access, you already have this in your car.  I've written in this space a number of times about my mobile IP listening.  With the iPhone and any of a number of radio apps available for it such as the Public Radio Tuner (later post), it couldn't be easier.

And I continued to be tantalized by the USB connector on my Jeep's nav/sound system.  There's no reason why we couldn't have one of those 3G wireless sticks with a hybrid HD Radio and IP radio tuner on board that would plug into the dashboard unit.  I'm tempted to say, if it can be done, it will be done.  But the CES and broadcasting industries need to think out of the box for that to happen.

--Dennis

The Infinite Dial 2009: Radio's Digital Platforms (video info, too)

I'm beginning to think of my iPhone with its free Public Radio Tuner app as my "infinite dial," having just had the experience yesterday morning of an early drive from Baltimore to Washington listening to WSIU in Carbondale, IL by simply plugging my iPhone into my car's sound system.  [Hint to pubcasters:  WSIU's signal that morning was very reliable and sounded great, but the higher bitrates some stations are using contribute no fidelity that you can detect in a car and have many, many more dropouts.]

However, in this case, it refers to a study of this name from Edison Research and Arbitron:

We update the status of radio's new digital platforms (online radio, satellite radio, HD Radio, and podcasting among others), social networks, online video, iPhones, and implications for broadcasters, advertisers, and media planners.

They say, for example, that an estimated 69 million Americans listened to online radio in the last month and that weekly online listening (42 million) is up by one-third year over year.  The same number of people who listen to internet radio in a month watch internet video in a week (69MM).  For satellite and HD Radio, there are awareness data only.  Finally, in spite of the rapid growth in internet radio listening, 80% of people say yes to, "In the future, you will continue to listen to AM/FM radio as much as you do now, despite increasing advancements in technology?"

A rich study.  Link:  Edison Research.  --Dennis

HD Radio Crying Out to Be Heard

Tech columnist David Pogue has a mostly favorable article about HD Radio in today's New York Times.  Can you pick out the errors?  --Dennis

HD Radio power increase?

There has been an email conversation within the public radio community about whether or not to increase the power of the digital ("HD Radio") service of those radio stations which provide both analog and digital services.  Unlike digital television, which completely replaces analog television next February and for which digital operates on a completely different channel, digital radio operates on the same channel, magically intertwining with the analog signal.  It's not likely that analog radio will go away any time soon, or perhaps ever. 

So the fact that these two technologies have to co-exist has led those who set conditions for such things to provide for a very low power level for the digital component.  But that has caused HD Radio coverage to be, in many cases, less than for the analog part of the signal.  In public radio, some stations, such as the ones I managed out in the Northwest, take advantage of nearby mountaintops for transmitter sites, but that often means they're not as closely located to the metropolitan population center as is desirable in a low-power digital situation. 

The FCC has been looking into this and is considering permitting stations to increase the digital power level.  NPR has conducted tests on this and it has revealed some concerns.  The Executive Director of NPR Labs, Mike Starling, takes over from here in a note he posted yesterday to the public radio system:

Regarding the recent messages about HD Radio coverage and the proposed power increases, our studies show we need to balance the need for digital coverage improvement against potential interference to your analog signals.

While improving HD Radio indoor coverage is essential, NPR supports a managed power increase, on a voluntary basis, where needed. We do not support iBiquity’s unconditional, proposed 10 dB power increase at the minority of stations where our studies predict interference can occur to more than 20% of the listeners INSIDE of the protected 60 dBu contour of neighboring first-adjacent stations.

Please join us next week for an interconnect to go over this issue and why we feel so strongly that a managed increase is necessary. We’ll be providing audio samples of the interference we found in our study -- so you can actually hear the interference effects for yourself.

[Here, I take out the interconnect info, but if you're in public radio, please check for the details with your A-Rep and join the discussion. --Dennis]

The FCC has put both the NPR Labs DRCIA report and the “Joint Parties” filings out for public comment, with a comment deadline of November 28 (yes, the day after Thanksgiving). We are eager to hear from you so that your views will inform our comments in this proceeding - and to hopefully achieve a common public radio position on this filing.

Helpful resources:

• DRCIA Report - Executive Summary http://www.nprlabs.org/publications/reports/200807151044-DRCIAFullReport-ExecSummary.pdf

• HD Interference Maps showing expected FM interference coverage for 49 stations: http://www.nprlabs.org/research/drcia_maps_index.php

While adjacent channel IBOC interference does not obliterate the signal or fundamentally alter basic intelligibility, it increases the noise level of reception, which is most noticeable on voice programs such as news and public affairs. In our report, a consumer listener panel determined our protection criteria for the FM signal at not less than “good” audio quality. While it is still a listenable signal for committed listeners, it is audibly noisier than interference at the present 1% IBOC power. And outside your protected coverage area (which the FCC has recently reminded us they do not protect against such effects) it would be worse. We are especially concerned in situations where adjacent channel spacing is insufficient in our view to support a full 10dB power increase among spectrum neighbors (which could include your station!).

Even in close-spaced instances, we believe alternative solutions such as unequal sideband power, directional IBOC antennas, and single frequency network boosters can provide the needed improvement in indoor signals without generating the interference levels that listeners judge as degraded signals. To our favor, iBiquity announced at the September NAB Radio conference that they will fully support the development and deployment of these recommended alternative strategies.

Just as our DTV colleagues faced significant challenges a few years back with the need for increased power, we hope this chapter in HD’s rollout will be chronicled under “early lessons learned” about the robustness and indoor penetration limits of digital signals.

Hopefully, this too will turn out to have been an important, but ultimately successful turn of events to optimize the digital deployment for the future. We look forward to hearing from you during the interconnect.

Some very interesting trade-off decisions to be made.

Update 14 November 2008:
Recommend you also read the comment from PocketRadio below, from which this link to Cost considerations for increasing HD Radio another 10 dB comes.   --Dennis