New Radio Platforms and Applications Trends March 2011
1. New Radio Platforms
and Applications Topics
François Lefebvre
Communications Research Centre Canada
DRCG / NRPA Meeting, CRC, Ottawa, March 22, 2011
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2. NRPA Topics
1. Broadcast radio wants to get better
2. Many enablers
3. Digital radio status quo
4. Internet can't do it all
5. New life for FM / RDS
6. Hybrid: connected radio
7. The conversation is in the ”Cloud”
8. New receivers
9. New systems
10. New standards
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4. Broadcaster
Offer better service
New business opportunities
Keep the radio media relevant
Consumer
New expectations due to new media landscape
Multimedia
Interactivity
Integration into new devices and platforms
Integration into social applications
...
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8. Why Digitize ?
Replacement technologies for AM, FM
Spectral efficiency
Freeing spectrum for more services
Energy efficiency (green)
Better quality of service
Multimedia added value
New services and applications
Participate / take advantage of new technologies
Maintain competitiveness to Internet services
...
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9. DAB in Canada
Status quo
US goes HD radio
Industry Canada consultation on L-Band
Possible reasons
Business models ?
Quality vs quantity
Receiver availability
Simulcast
No cutoff date
New context: Internet, …
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11. Broadcasting = one-to-many distribution
Cost of distribution is
Independant of audience
Internet = many-to-many
Distribution costs increase with audience
(paradox of popularity)
(one solution: peer-to-peer)
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12. Internet properties
Thousands of radio stations
Global access an reach
QoS: ”best effort”
Paradox of popularity
Non regulated
Measurable audiences
Various contexts: home, car, portable, ...
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17. Mobile (3G) Internet streaming does not scale
infastructure can't support
thousands of simultaneous
constant high bitrate streams (yet)
Expensive proposition for consumer
2 hours per day of radio = 1Gb / month
> 30$ / month (in Canada)
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19. Radio Data System (RDS)
RDS Forum (http://www.rds.org.uk)
RDS = RBDS
Capacity: 1.2 kbps
Mature technologie (25 years)
Full deployment in Europe (cars, …)
Low penetration in America
Typical usage: infrastructure
New usage: new applications
Low cost: easy add-on to current infrastructure
200 million circuits sold per year (100m Silicon Labs)
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20. RDS: Typical Uses
Program Id code (PI, 4 hex characters)
Station Id (PS): 8 characters
Call sign, others...
Program type (PTY)
Alternate frequency (network)
Travel info (TA, TP)
Clock (CT)
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21. RDS: new uses
Open Data Applications (ODA)
Radiotext Plus (RT+)
iTunes tagging
Traffic Message Channel (RDS-TMC)
Messages: alerts / emergencies
Smartgrid
RadioDNS
Hybrid service (RDS + Internet devices)
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27. iTunes Tagging
How it works: broadcaster ?
iTunes Tagging
Agreement with Apple
Add iTunes Tags to playout system
Revenue sharing with Apple (5% broadcaster)
Non-affiliated tagging (without Apple)
RT+ tagging
User can buy on Apple
Research based on Artist + Title
Research success rate: 80%
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32. iTtunes Tagging:
th th
iPod Nano 5 and 6 Generation
Good
- FM Receiver with RDS
- FM Radio is ”cool”
- Younger generations exposed to FM
- Infrastructure in place (RDS?)
- New revenues : iTunes Tagging
Bad
- No general tagging: only iTunes
- Apple controls the ecosystem
- ”iTuneization” / ”Mainstreamization” of music
- Canadians will now see poor RDS offerings...
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33. Other tagging types
- Music sales on other online stores
- Other revenue sharing models
- Niche content (not on iTunes)
- Spoken content tagging
- Ads tagging
- Web sites tagging
- Phone numbers tagging
- .....
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38. Hybrid FM / Internet Broadcaster
Broadcast Network Internet
FM RDS
PI
Slides Interaction
Audio PS
EPG Buy
RT
Targetted Tag
ODA
content Tell me
RT+
... more
TMC
...
....
Radio “Listener”38
40. Hybrid ?
Hybrid service
Robust FM audio service
Optional complementary enhancements on Internet
Pictures, text, interaction, EPG, station logo,
name, ...
Out of band, non regulated
Progressive transition towards all-digital system
When does all-digital arrive ?
FM is there to stay ?
FM/RDS comes in devices anyway !
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46. WANTED:
More smarthpones with accessible FM/RDS
- Samsung Galaxy S: YES (but not all models)
- Samsung Galaxy TAB: NO
- Google Nexus One: NO
- Google Nexus S: NO
- Samsung Galaxy S II: ?
-…
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50. New Systems
Advanced RDS encoders
Automation : new applications insertion: RT+, ...
Voice recognition (transcripts)
Internet servers
Virtualization: Amazon,...
Over the top TV platforms ...
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52. Standardisation pour l'hybride
Ponts entre services FM et Internet (RadioDNS)
Alignement des services (IMDA)
Texte, titres, formats images, guide de
programmation, …
Répertoires de stations
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53. RadioDNS
Automatic linking of tuned radio station with
complementary Internet enhancements
Station unique Id
FM / RDS: Extended Country Code + PI
DAB: SCIDs + SID + EID + ECC
HD Radio: FCC facility code
Receiver requests to radiodns.org
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54. IMDA
Internet Media Device Alliance
Players: manufacturers, aggregators,
broadcasters.
Standardization of formats
Streaming codecs AV
Metadata
Multimedia
Service discovery
Profiles: limited display and multimedia screens
54 Alignement with DR standards
55. Aggregators
- New tuning paradigm
- Lists of radio stations
- detailed information
- Embedded in many types of receivers
- Managed or unmanaged
- Free or licensed
Internet Radio,
mamaged
Internet radio
unmanaged, free
Internet radio + DAB
+ FM + ...
managed, licenses
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