Technology360

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

Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition

My favorite toy is Nokia's N810, a diminutive WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled Linux-based touchscreen tablet computer.  It connects super-easily to hotspots, has a decent if unremarkable pair of speakers, and runs a wide variety of open source Maemo applications.

Of late, I've used it a few times with my Verizon EVDO USB card, a Cradlepoint Technology battery-operated wireless router, and my Jeep's sound system to create a mobile Internet radio (together, they're smaller than most portable radios).  I've driven from downtown Washington, DC to both Dulles and BWI airports listening to my former station in Washington State without a dropout.

Now I see that Nokia has introduced in the U.S. a WiMAX edition of the N810, and better yet it supports the 802.16e, the mobile flavor of WiMAX.  It's intended for use on Sprint's Xohm network (Washington, DC will be, or perhaps already is, a test market).  So since its range should be similar to EVDO when it's rolled out, one might be able to omit the mobile router.  According to the Xohm article in Wikipedia, the intent is to merge it with Clearwire.  I was a Clearwire customer back in the Northwest and loved it.  It uses an early flavor of WiMAX and I was able to get good WISP service five miles from the transmitter using only a small indoor antenna perched in a window.

Lastly, my Jeep's sound system already has a USB port on the front panel, and Cradlepoint's technology makes connecting 3G or 4G cards very easy, so adding EVDO or WiMAX capability to car radios is just a matter of software and should be a no-brainer.  I've written here previously that I think a great path to that is marrying it with HD Radios using SMIL and listeners can be their own programmers.  --Dennis

We're all dead

The death of broadcasting is a popular theme in web posts.  For example, Doc Searls asks, What happens after TV's mainframe era ends next February? in Linux Journal (you should read it, but that's not my purpose here).  Jeff Jarvis says in BuzzMachine they should Tear down the broadcast towers because Pandora is available on the iPhone.  Those are the A-list bloggers, but it's popular with us  Z to ZZZ-list bloggers as well.  So I decided to do phrase searches to see how the media stacked up in the death department.  Surprisingly, it wasn't old media:

Dead
"death of television", 13,000 results
"death of TV", 28,200 results
Deader
"death of radio", 227,000 results
"death of newspapers", 331,000 results
Deadest
"death of blogs", "death of the blogs", "death of the blog", 81,400 results
"death of the web", 215,000 results
"death of the net", 746,000 results
"death of the internet", 1,910,000 results

--Dennis

A moving experience

A week ago tonight I was in a Spokane, Washington hotel awaiting a morning one-way flight to Washington, DC.  It had been exhausting and emotional week-plus organizing the move of my household goods and that day marked the last one I would spend in the house on a northern Idaho mountain ridge where I'd lived with my family for the past 21 years.  My two youngest children are now grown and gone and my wife and her parents, who'd lived there with us, are deceased, so I was planning to sell the place even before this new job came up rather quickly at the end of February.  What I'd thought might be a two or three month process turned into a two or three week process -- absolutely insane.

But my last day there also had some magic moments.  When the atmosphere is absolutely pristine, I can see to the southeast some mountains on the other side of Elk City, Idaho, about 110-120 miles away.  I've seen them only 3-4 times in the 21 years I lived there, but there they were at breakfast.  And while bald eagles gather in great numbers, usually in January, on Lake Coeur d'Alene some 75 miles to the north-northeast, their appearance around my property is only slightly more common than the distant mountain view.  Yet after lunch, there was one mature one circling my property.  Wow!

Returning to the theme of this blog with a "department of personal experiences" report:

My March commuting to Washington is now over and I'm awaiting my car and household goods in a small 14th-floor apartment in the city.  My new broadcast reception is so far all-digital.  I sent an HDTV monitor and Samsung DTV decoder (5th-gen chip) on by UPS and purchased a Sangean HD Radio component tuner which I'm currently using with the HDTV monitor's RGB input.  I have floor to ceiling door to the balcony and have tried the DTV tuner with two antennas -- a small Phillips model in a weather-proof wing-like enclosure that's meant to be mounted on an outside pole, and a Terk UHF log periodic with a built-in set of standard rabbit ears.  The FM antenna is a standard twin-lead folded dipole laying on the floor in a sort of drooping T configuration.  I don't know where the transmitters are located, but my antennas are looking toward the east.

The HD Radio performs quite well on the FM band.  I can pick up several HDR stations, including WAMU and WETA-FM, the local NPR stations.  The Phillips TV antenna worked well back in Idaho, but here it enables only a handful of channels to be accessed via scanning.  The Terk does much better with the rabbit ears extended, though I've not found any configuration that permits me to pick up the Washington PBS stations, WETA and WHUT.  I can, however, get a Maryland Public Television station as well as the "MHz" public station from Virginia (which is broadcasting five SD channels, all of which look pretty good).

The HD Radio experience is pretty seamless, thank goodness, but the repeated scan/adjust antenna/rescan/adjust antenna/rescan thing on the TV side is a real pain and I doubt many consumers will go through it.  Who invented this turkey?!?  Oh, it does look nice when it locks in on a channel. 

Updated 7 April 2008:
Stephen Hill writes privately (highly paraphrased here), Get cable!.  Yes, I'm going to do that as soon as my large screen shows up, and my unstated point is that so will most other over-the-air viewers.  To traditional broadcasters -- and especially to public television stations -- these viewers will then become economically much less important (see many earlier posts on this topic).  --Dennis

HD Radio's critics

Kurt Hanson and Mark Ramsey -- others, too -- continue to take shots at HD Radio (see Black Friday for HD Radio in hear2.0).  At its present state of deployment by iBiquity, the CE world and us broadcasters, those shots are probably deserved.  Multicasting was an improvement and there are some neat enhancements in development.  But the HD Radio vision needs revitalizing even before it's reached a single digit percentage of market share.

Revitalizing means rethinking radio along lines that are making its non-transmitter competitors so attractive to so many (or maybe I should say too attractive to too many).  We need to retool HD Radio as an open platform, something that its SMIL mark-up language encourages.  I've written here in the past about one way to do it (apparently to zero effect) that I was calling a many-to-many radio, but I'm sure there are others.  Give each radio station program channels limited only by how much of both kinds of IP they can buy.  Then give each listener the ability to customize channels to his or her preferences and listening habits.  This isn't brain surgery, folks.

Great minds think alike update.  I'd just posted the above when I ran across John Proffitt's very good post, iBiquity: How a closed-source model is killing HD Radio.  Covers much of the same ground as mine, but more thoughtfully.  Link:  Gravity Medium.  --Dennis

The end for digital radio - or the start of a listening revolution?

And we thought that the Brits were doing digital radio right.

Owen Gibson and Katie Allen write:

Millions of people who have invested in new digital radios were yesterday wondering whether they would be left with little more than expensive ornaments after Britain's biggest commercial radio group all but abandoned the medium.  ¶  The owner of Capital Radio, Classic FM and Xfm was an enthusiastic champion of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) under its previous management, spending an estimated £80m on new transmitters and stations. ...

... Claiming the medium was "not economically viable", GCap will concentrate instead on its existing FM services and innovations in online listening such as technology allowing iPhone users to hear its stations. It hopes the moves will save £8.8m a year and help fend off a takeover approach from a rival group, Global Radio. ...

... With commercial players coming under pressure from the internet and the dominance of the BBC, some also claim they have failed to invest in creative new formats. The provision of digital radio in cars has been undermined by a lack of support for the medium in other European countries. And a vocal minority of listeners has complained about sound quality, claiming an early decision to compress the signal to allow for more stations has left it worse than FM. Coverage outside the main cities can also be patchy. The technology reaches 80% of the population but only covers 65% of the UK. ...

Link:  The Guardian.  --Dennis