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COMMAND AUDIO GRANTED ANOTHER U.S. PATENT COVERING ON-DEMAND MEDIA
LATEST ADDITION TO STRONG PATENT PORTFOLIO CONFIRMS COMMAND AUDIO'S IMPORTANCE TO FAST GROWING PRODUCT CATEGORIES SUCH AS PVRS
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - December 14, 2001 - Command Audio, a pioneer in the field of on-demand interactive media, announced today that it has been issued a fifth patent (USPTO number 6,330,334) covering the audio aspects of consumer devices and services that store broadcast media for playback at the consumer's convenience. Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) and the "on-demand" services they enable are the best-known embodiments of this technology.
As a pioneer in on-demand media technology, Command Audio has developed a strong portfolio of intellectual property. Dating back to 1993, Command Audio has been granted nine U.S. patents for various inventions and technologies that make possible the advances that are revolutionizing the way people consume media.These patents predate the development of the PVR market and cover a wide range of broadcast transmission technologies, devices and systems that incorporate on-demand functionality, an essential component of PVRs. In addition to its U.S. patents, the Company has been issued foreign counterpart patents from the European and Japanese patent offices.
Don Bogue, chairman and CEO of Command Audio commented: "Command Audio's intellectual property portfolio forms a fundamental underlying component of a number of rapidly growing consumer audio and video products and services. We are confident that companies participating in these categories will be attracted to our licensing program."
Below is one of several claims in Command Audio's patents:
USPTO PATENT NO. 6,330,334, CLAIM 44:
A receiver comprising:
a television tuner;
a controller coupled to the television tuner and which provides audio from a signal received at the television tuner, wherein the audio is carried in an audio or video portion of television signals received at the tuner;
a memory coupled to the controller and which stores the audio;
a user interface coupled to the controller and which provides a menu; and
an output device coupled to the controller and which outputs the stored audio in response to a selection from the menu, wherein the stored audio has a designation
ABOUT COMMAND AUDIO
Command Audio owns and licenses a portfolio of intellectual property critical to the transmission, navigation and presentation of stored media. Founded in 1995, Command Audio pioneered the development of on-demand interactive audio. Command Audio's intellectual property broadly covers the audio aspects of consumer devices and services that store broadcast media for playback at the consumer's convenience. Command Audio is a privately held company backed by strategic investors Macrovision, Motorola and Texas Instruments and leading financial investors, including Canaan Partners, Franklin Resources, Granite Ventures, J.P. Morgan Capital Partners, St. Paul Venture Capital and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures. For more information, please visit Command Audio's web site.
Contact Information:
Anna Moore
Tel: 650 631 6462
Fax: 650 631 6171
corpinfo@commandaudio.com
Radio's Smarter Future
Arik Hesseldahl, 08.06.02, 10:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - Probably one of the great oversights in the history of consumer electronics design is that it's not possible to program an audio tape deck to record a favorite radio program when you're not there.
Sure, it's the most derided and poorly executed feature on a VCR. But fans of Rush Limbaugh, Garrison Keillor or Howard Stern wouldn't mind an easy way to record their favorite radio show when they can't be there themselves to press the "record" button.
It seems that the next generation of radio will correct that. Today IBiquity Digital, the privately held outfit cooking up the next generation of conventional radio technology that makes AM sound like FM and FM sound like a CD, says it is acquiring all the radio-related intellectual property of a firm called Command Audio.
Robert Struble, IBiquity's president and chief executive, says the technology will be incorporated into digital AM and FM radio systems that should start showing up in six cities around the U.S.--including New York and Los Angeles by January.
By grabbing Command Audio's technology, broadcasters should be able to experiment with new ways to send programming. One scenario often discussed is to put buttons on the radio receivers that call up instant traffic and weather reports--meaning no more waiting for "traffic and weather every ten minutes." Chances are the latest information will be stored in a hard drive contained within the radio itself and will be constantly updated as needed, so it can play instantly. And like the TiVo, listeners should be able to pause live programming and save it for later, maybe meaning an end to "parking songs"-- those great songs that always seem to come on just as you're parking the car.
IBiquity's mission is to defend conventional broadcast radio against the up-and-coming threat of satellite radio services, particularly XM Satellite Radio (nasdaq: XMSR - news - people ) and Sirius Satellite Radio (nasdaq: SIRI - news - people ). Both satellite services are now available nationally in the U.S. The satellite services, which charge monthly subscription fees, are getting plenty of buzz among people wanting something better than the bland mediocrity that conventional radio broadcasters seem intent on serving up these days.
But as it happens, XM had already been working on ways to incorporate Command Audio's technology into its service, and will probably end up paying IBiquity for the rights to use it going forward. Already, XM pays IBiquity royalties for its audio compression technology.
IBiquity's list of investors reads like a who's who of the broadcast radio cabal: The Walt Disney Co.'s (nyse: DIS - news - people ) ABC, Clear Channel (nyse: CCU - news - people ), Beasley Broadcasting ( nasdaq BBGI) , Cox Radio (nyse: CXR - news - people ) and Radio One (nasdaq: ROIA - news - people ). But the list also includes chipmaker Texas Instruments (nyse: TXN - news - people ), Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ), automotive electronics maker Visteon (nyse: VC - news - people ) and newspaper giant Gannett (nyse: GCI - news - people ).
Its business plan calls for licensing its technology to radio manufacturers and to collect royalties from stations that convert their existing facilities to broadcast a digital signal. And best of all for listeners, there's no subscription fee as there is with satellite radio--though digital-ready radios will likely sell at a sizable premium.
If IBiquity's plans to roll out digital services by the start of 2003 are still on track, you can expect to start hearing a lot more about digital radio in the months to come. Stay tuned.
Creativity, reliability to drive telematics
By Paul Leroux
Special to ZDNet
August 20, 2002, 5:39 AM PT
COMMENTARY--Do you ever notice how car commercials stress style over substance? Brand X, we are assured, builds excitement. Brand Y makes you want to tear off your necktie and play hookey. And Brand Z is so sporty looking that young women love to run their hands along its, ahem, spoiler.
Of course, it often makes marketing sense to "sell the sizzle, not the steak." But as it turns out, automakers have little choice. Competing brands of automobiles can have so much in common that, in many cases, a car's styling really is the only differentiator worth flaunting.
Imagine, then, if a technology could help automakers add real--and distinctive--value to their products. Such is the promise of in-vehicle telematics. Daimler-Chrysler certainly sees the potential: they've recently unveiled a hands-free telematics system that allows drivers to operate a cellphone using natural voice commands. This one feature makes communicating from your car both safer and more convenient--not a bad differentiator.
The Chrysler system is only the beginning. The same push for product differentiation that engendered this product is driving other automakers to combine cellular technology, Internet access, GPS, and dynamic navigation into their own unique in-car systems. In fact, it's estimated that over 20 million telematics-enabled cars and light trucks will be on the road in the United States by 2006
This convergence of technologies could change driving dramatically. Lost your car key? Just dial a number on your cellphone, enter a password, and, presto, your door lock opens. Accident? An onboard computer could immediately dial 911 and provide the dispatcher with your exact GPS coordinates. Engine trouble? The same computer could automatically locate the nearest service center and, if you'd like, book a service appointment (after it has checked the scheduler on your PDA, of course). Are there multiple drivers in your family? Your virtual dashboard could change "skins" and reconfigure itself to each person's preferences.
All these features mean one thing: the software deployed in cars is going to get very complex. More sophisticated, in fact, than many of the applications on your desktop PC. Problem is, the software will also have to be a lot more reliable. Think about it: What do you do when your desktop OS crashes? You might curse a blue streak, but you'll probably still buy the next version of the OS. But if your dashboard crashes? I don't know about you, but my brand loyalty would take a dive. That's a huge issue in the auto industry, where it takes an average of 18 years to win a customer back.
Of course, automakers will be extremely careful about software testing; safety and regulatory issues give them no choice. Unfortunately, once software gets complex enough, no amount of testing can eliminate every bug--a problem when the software may be deployed in thousands of vehicles. More to the point, a car offers a relatively hostile environment. Desktop PCs are rarely exposed to excessive radio frequency or electromagnetic interference, but, within the car, stray interference near powerlines or transformers can affect hardware to the point that a software driver will fail.
Automakers must do two things: a) Assume such problems may occur; and b) design their systems to recover quickly and automatically -- without affecting the car's occupants in any way. A tall order! In effect, they need to deploy high availability (HA) systems. By this, I don't mean conventional HA designs, which typically recover from software failures by using redundant backup systems. That isn't an option in the car market, where the cost of every bolt counts. So, rather than use redundant hardware, HA for automobiles has to implemented where most problems can occur in the first place: the software.
What does this mean? Virtually any software process must be able to fail without affecting services provided by other processes. Moreover, the system should be able to restart any process automatically. For example, if a media player faults, the system would restart it instantly, without the driver even knowing there was a problem. Mind you, this fault-tolerance can't apply only to applications. It has go deeper, right down to the device drivers and protocol stacks at the heart of any telematics system.
Can automakers really do this? Definitely, provided they use the right operating system (OS) technology. They need to look closely at the OS they choose and ensure that it can provide memory protection not just for applications (the desktop approach), but for every software driver, file system, and protocol. The OS must also offer a high availability framework that can automate software recovery, without the need for a reboot. Otherwise, the phrase "car crash" may take on a whole new meaning.
It remains to be seen just how much consumers will embrace this brave new era of talking, thinking cars. But one thing is certain. Without high availability OS technology, it won't get past the starting line.
Paul Leroux is a technology analyst at QNX Software Systems Ltd.
Japan Firms To Market Car Navigation System In China
NEW YORK, NY, August 2, 2002 - (Reuters) Toyota-affiliated Aisin AW Co Ltd and Fujitsu Ten Ltd, a unit of Fujitsu Ltd, plan to set up a joint venture in China with local manufacturers to develop and market car navigation systems, a Japanese daily reported on Friday.
The move will mark the first for Japanese makers of car navigation systems to set up a sales channel in China, whose fast-growing auto market is expected to spark demand for navigating system, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
The new firm, to be established in Beijing, will market the car navigation system that employs Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and audio-visual equipment developed by Fujitsu Ten, the paper said.
The paper, quoting a Toyota Motor Corp official pointed out an expected boost in demand, said that if 20 to 30 percent of drivers equip themselves with the system as is the case in Japan, an annual 500,000 systems should be in fresh demand in China.
A spokesman for Toyota in North America declined to comment on the report.
The two firms will formerly announce the deal as early as Monday, the newspaper said.
Source: Reuters News Service
Introducing HD Radio;Coming Soon to an AM/FM Station Near You
Kenwood to Rollout HD Radio; Ready Receivers in 2003
Industries Bracing Themselves for HD Radio;--Yankee Group Cites Strong Consumer Demand
Columbia, MD and Warren, NJ, August 12, 2002 - iBiquity Digital Corporation, the sole developer of In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) digital AM and FM broadcast technology in the United States, announced today the unveiling of its new trademarked brand name for its IBOC digital AM/FM technology--HD Radio;. According to a recent Yankee Group study, half of all consumers shopping for a car or home receiver in the next year are interested in buying a digital AM/FM radio. Radio is poised for its digital migration to HD Radio;, having relied on analog transmissions for the past 80 years. Leading receiver manufacturer, Kenwood, plans to launch HD Radio-Ready; automotive receivers in 17 of its 23 radio models in 2003.
"We plan to launch product at CES 2003 and look forward to working with broadcasters to offer the new HD Radio; services," said Bob Law, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Kenwood USA Corporation. "We were the first receiver manufacturer to commit to build digital radios and will now be the first to launch receivers with HD Radio; technology."
Ryan Jones, analyst, Media and Entertainment Strategies for Yankee Group stated, "Of all possible features offered by HD Radio; technology, consumers are most interested in its improved sound quality. Yet Interactive digital features, like radio recording and on-screen information, will help fuel consumer demand."
iBiquity Digital's HD Radio; technology (formerly known as IBOC) transforms today's radio experience by allowing AM/FM broadcasters to seamlessly transmit digital quality audio alongside today's analog-based broadcasts. Consumers will receive these enhanced broadcasts with radically improved fidelity and future on-demand interactive audio and wireless data services, including traffic reports, weather alerts, breaking news, sports highlights, market updates, radio program information and much more.
Bob Struble, CEO, iBiquity Digital Corporation said, "The new trademarked brand name HD Radio; tested extremely well in focus groups with consumers, broadcasters, retailers and manufacturers. The name was chosen for the strong image we believe it will create with consumers. Over the next few years, HD Radio; will transform AM and FM into a high definition digital multimedia experience."
About iBiquity Digital (www.ibiquity.com)
iBiquity Digital is the sole developer and licenser of digital AM and FM broadcast technology in the U.S., which will transform today's analog radio to digital, enabling radically upgraded sound and new wireless data services. The company's investors include 15 of the nation's top radio broadcasters, including ABC, Clear Channel and Viacom; leading financial institutions, such as J.P. Morgan Partners, Pequot Capital and J&W Seligman; and strategic partners Ford Motor Company, Harris, Lucent, Texas Instruments and Visteon. iBiquity Digital is a privately held company with operations in Columbia, MD, Detroit, MI, Redwood City, CA, and Warren, NJ.
Digital radio - you've heard nothing yet!
By Bill Roberts, Secretary-General, North American Broadcasters Association (NABA)
Electronic Times Report, January 2000
While a host of new technologies have been stealing the media thunder, a quiet revolution is brewing in digital radio.
Imagine a portable digital radio, hand-held or installed in your vehicle, with none of the static and fade of analog radio. Imagine playing your chosen music with CD-quality sound from an enormous jukebox in the sky with limitless sampling possibilities.
Digital radio has been slow off the mark. It's not surprising, given the high cost of today's digital receivers. But that's about to change, driven by developments in Web-based technologies and advances in Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).
Internet radio
Streaming audio was one of the earliest forms of Web multimedia. Today, thousands of radio stations around the world stream live audio of their regular programming over the Internet and special recorded broadcasts not available elsewhere. The enabling technology is MPEG Audio Layer II digital compression. It allows a broadcaster to dramatically increase the number of signals per channel, and for those signals to arrive exactly as sent - sharp, clear, and undistorted.
Downloading near-CD quality music from the Web has been an underground phenomenon that's now going mainstream. In 1997, a group of college students, tired of paying for CDs with only one good cut, or wanting to hear their own kind of music, came up with their own Web-based music distribution system called MP3. It made it easy to create digital files of a song from a CD and share it with like-minded enthusiasts on the Web.
Today, the largest MP3 web site features licensed content produced by over 23,000 artists, with 200 more being added a day. The major record companies haven't participated, since MP3 today has no means to prevent redistribution. However, they quickly learned the power of the Web for distribution.
So the industry is working on a standard for MP3 music delivery called SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative), that promises security and rights management for music labels. It uses an embedded numbering system, like ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number).
Last year saw the first portable MP3 audio players on the market. These pager-sized music boxes store music from personal CDs or the Web in flash card memory. Impervious to vibration, they're ideal for personal sports. They can even be connected to a home stereo or car radio for amplified sound.
Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB)
Like Internet radio, DAB relies on the MPEG Audio Layer II system to achieve compression without perceptible loss of quality to the broadcast signal. The most obvious benefit to listeners is DAB's ability to deliver robust and reliable CD-quality stereo sound, especially to mobile receivers. Electromagnetic interference from power lines and thunderstorms, and multipath interference from hills and buildings, do not deteriorate DAB signals. Since a single DAB frequency can carry the same signal across an entire network, drivers can cross the country without changing the radio dial.
Text and image displays on DAB receivers complement the listening experience with information such as song title, lyrics and artist, as well as traffic, weather, sports, or stock market updates.
Regular DAB services currently cover at least 30% of the population in most European countries, using the L-Band transmission standard Eureka 147, a broadcasting spectrum adopted by most of the world. In the UK, 60% of listeners can receive BBC's digital radio broadcasts.
Canada remains at the forefront of Eureka 147 developments. The CRTC automatically grants DAB licenses to every existing station, on the premise that DAB is considered a replacement technology. Currently, 19 radio stations operate DAB services from Toronto's CN Tower. In Vancouver there are seven DAB radio stations and in Montreal, nine radio stations operate full time DAB service.
In the US, the broadcast industry has opted for a system called In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) digital radio, that uses the current radio spectrum to transmit existing FM and AM analog signals simultaneously with digital signals. This technology allows broadcasters and listeners to move from analog to digital without changing current dial positions.
Japan has not decided which digital radio system to adopt. While receiver manufacturers favour Eureka 147, the government is evaluating an NHK in-band alternative and continues to monitor developments in the US.
Convergence
Both PC-card and software-only DAB receivers have been developed, allowing DAB broadcasts to be played over computer speakers.
A portable DAB receiver with docking MP3 player could replace today's AM/FM radio with CD player/changer. Instead of CD's, there are flash memory cards the size of postage stamps.
Then there's the integration of the cell phone with DAB. There are already headphones playing DAB music on the market in Korea and under development in Sweden.
DAB can be used to provide TV in moving vehicles, with picture quality better than conventional TV. DAB can also help car navigation systems steer around traffic jams by continuously updating traffic conditions.
The possibilities and the potential of digital broadcasting are exhilarating.
- 30 -
While similar in appearance to Apple's iPod, the Odyssey 1000 goes beyond the feature set of the iPod. You can navigate the device via voice commands, record voice and sounds via a built-in microphone, and listen to radio with a built-in FM tuner.
collier's email address?
Combined MP3, DAB walkman products should hit the market in the second half of next year, Coppisetti said.
Digital Radio Comes Back to Earth
FCC to evaluate IBOC standard
By Steven Fyffe -- Electronic News, 10/15/2001
A digital radio circuit board from Texas Instruments Inc.
As the In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) standard for terrestrial digital radio moves into the approval phase in the United States and other digital radio efforts ramp up in the rest of the world, semiconductor companies are positioning themselves to grab a piece of what could be a massive market.
Texas Instruments Inc. is thinking big.
"Today we have AM and FM radio," said Naresh Coppisetti, business manager for digital radio at TI (nyse: TXN). "Just like cell phones and cameras--all that is going digital. The move from analog to digital transmission must happen. We know that. If you agree with that, then why not be involved early in the transition?
"More than 300 million radios are sold each year worldwide. It is the second or third largest volume market after cell phones," he said.
And the similarities to the cell phone market don't end there. Like the fragmented cell phone industry, proponents of digital radio have split into different standardization camps across the world.
Europe and Canada have adopted the Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcasting standard, and Asia looks set to climb on board as well.
As usual, the United States' spectrum squeeze has forced the country to take a different tack. Columbia, Md.-based intellectual property (IP) company iBiquity Digital Corp. is building its business on the hope that the U.S. market will rally around its proposed IBOC standard, which is set to be sent to the Federal Communications Commission for final approval early next year.
On top of these standards, XM Satellite Radio Inc. launched its proprietary service in select U.S. markets in late September, and rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. is expected to launch its own service soon.
iBiquity has recruited a strong roster of chipmakers to its cause, including TI, Philips, STMicroelectronics and Agere Systems.
Those four allies have split into two main factions based on their historical design strengths and customer needs. "There are two basic design approaches," said Ben Benjamin, co-chief operating officer of iBiquity. "There is the typical DSP approach that gives a shortend product realization time because you can upgrade the software. Then there is the ASIC approach that optimizes the chip size and gives you somewhat lower cost, but it is less flexible for changing feature sets."
Eindhoven, Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics and Geneva-based STMicroelectronics Inc. are both working on drop-in ASIC chipsets so car radio OEMs can take out the current chip and slot the new one in without having to drastically modify the whole radio design, Benjamin said.
"It takes a while to put a new design into a dashboard, and that is one way to get around it--fitting a new IC into an existing footprint."
Car radios are the first big target for chipmakers in the digital radio market, Benjamin said. Philips and STMicro are hoping their strength in auto electronics will translate into a first-mover advantage in terrestrial digital radio.
"Sixty percent of Americans spend 21 hours a week listening to the radio in their car," Benjamin said.
Allentown, Pa.-based Agere Systems Inc. and Dallas-based TI are attacking the market from a more purist DSP angle. While ASICs are traditionally cheaper in high volumes, TI believes its experience in the cell phone market will help make its DSPs cost competitive.
"We were able to do it in cell phones, why can't we cost reduce the thing and be a real player in the DAB market?" Coppisetti said. "Cost is everything if you want it to be a mass market. We are playing very well in the cell phone market, and it is very similar to digital radio."
In Europe, TI currently sells a baseband processor, based on its C5000 core, bundled with 12 other analog components for $15 to $17.50. Other components are needed to make a functioning digital radio, including an RF chip, memory and passive components. But TI claims OEMs can manufacture digital radio boom-boxes, using the licensable reference design it developed with London-based RadioScape Ltd., for less than $200.
According to market research firms, consumers should be willing to pay for the better-quality sound and limited data-casting capabilities of IBOC terrestrial digital radio when the price comes within $100 of conventional analog radio, Benjamin said.
In contrast to satellite digital radio, which will offer around 100 channels nationwide for a monthly subscription, terrestrial digital radio in the United States will be free, piggybacking on the current AM-FM system.
"We see terrestrial radio as largely a local phenomenon," Benjamin said. "Most people use it because they can get information, entertainment and local advertisement."
TI is also exploring the possibilities of combining a portable digital radio with an MP3 player, Coppisetti said.
"A digital walkman would be very easy," he said. "MP3 decoding can be done on the same chip as the baseband. We think that the convergence of MP3 and DAB is going to be a powerful proposition for consumers. You have MP3 instead of a cassette, and you can record DAB music onto a flash card.
"TI is very uniquely positioned in this convergence because of the programmable nature of our baseband processor," he said.
Power consumption is the major technical hurdle to creating the all-in-one digital walkman, Coppisetti said. "Our target is to run the walkman on two AA batteries," he said.
Combined MP3, DAB walkman products should hit the market in the second half of next year, Coppisetti said.
Posted by: murgirl
In reply to: murgirl who wrote msg# 9347 Date:1/21/2002 2:02:12 PM
Post #of 15050
Texas Instruments shows digital radio chip set
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
(01/09/02, 02:48:55 PM EDT)
LAS VEGAS -- Getting ready for the 2003 launch of in-band on-channel (IBOC) terrestrial digital radio, chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. and iBiquity Digital Corp., a developer of digital AM and FM broadcast technology, are demonstrating IBOC digital radio receivers at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here this week.
While recently introduced subscription services, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, are fiercely competing for attention on the CES show floor, TI and iBiquity believe that free over-the-air terrestrial digital radio will become more ubiquitous than those satellite-based alternatives.
Numerous IBOC receiver makers participated in the CES demonstration, including Alpine, Delphi, Kenwood, Visteon, Harman Kardon and others.
TI said it is the first and only chip maker to offer an IBOC digital radio receiver solution.
In contrast, receivers for the Sirius Satellite and XM Satellite radio services are enabled by chip sets from Agere Systems and STMicroelectronics respectively.
Under a license agreement between the two companies, TI may use iBiquity's IBOC-related intellectual property to develop current-generation and future-generation chip sets.
TI is no stranger to the world of digital radio, said Fred Cohen, manager of worldwide digital audio at TI. Some of the basic building blocks of a cell phone -- RF, power management, analog baseband and digital baseband -- are similar to those required for a digital radio, he said. TI, which designs and manufacturers chips for more than 60 percent of all cell phones, believes it can translate its cell phone expertise and success to digital radio.
TI's IBOC solution is based on TI's TMS320C6000 digital signal processor. On TI's current IBOC receiver board, one DSP has replaced the 12 DSPs iBiquity used in its first-generation test receiver, the companies said.
TI provides only the DSP-based baseband and power management in its current IBOC solution, but plans to develop all the key blocks of the digital radio, including the analog baseband and tuner RF, said Narersh Coppisetti, manager of DAB digital radio business at TI.
Though its rollout is taking place more than a year after satellite digital radio services were introduced, IBOC's proponents say there are good reasons to believe in IBOC's success. By using existing spectrum, broadcasters don't need to invest to upgrade the terrestrial infrastructure. Listeners can maintain dial positions and don't need to pay subscriptions. Radio station conversions in multiple major markets are planned for the second half of this year, while the rollout of nationwide station conversions are slated for the first half of 2003.
IBOC promises to deliver CD-like sound while allowing broadcasters to also use digital spectrum to send additional data, such as traffic information, sports, weather or stock prices, in the form of text or images.
Automotive digital radio appears to be a logical early target for the IBOC system. But the broadcast service could eventually be received in a variety of devices, including clock radios, portable radios or PCs, just as analog radios are installed in more than 800 million devices in the United States today, according to TI.
http://www.csdmag.com/story/OEG20020109S0063
TI ships first digital baseband IC for HD Radio
Posted : 30 Aug 2002
Texas Instruments has announced the availability of the DR1200 chip - claimed to be the industry's first digital baseband chip to support HD Radio Technology, formerly known as In-Band On-Channel (IBOC).
HD Radio technology enhances AM and FM broadcasts with digital signals that improve listening quality and can provide additional information, such as station information, song and artist identification, stock and news reports, local traffic, weather alerts, and more.
The DR1200, based on TI's TMS320C6000 DSP architecture incorporates digital channel, source, and data decoding and demodulation functions. It also features iBiquity Digital Co.'s IBOC digital module (IDM) that simplifies the design of an HD Radio receiver and reduce the development and deployment time for radio manufacturers.
The credit card sized IDM is designed to easily plug into existing AM/FM radio architectures.
The DRI200 is supported by TI's Code Composer Studio IDE, providing designers the ability to add new software functions on the same piece of silicon.
Samples of the DRI200 are available now for $50 each.
Samsung joins Nokia's smart-phone bandwagon
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
August 30, 2002 (10:45 a.m. EST)
PARIS -- Nokia has signed consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics as the latest licensee of its homegrown smart phone software platform, Series 60, which is essentially becoming the de facto standard for smart phones.
The four companies with Series 60 licenses -- Nokia, Siemens, Matsushita and Samsung -- control 60 percent of the global handset market.
Licensees to the Series 60, a Symbian OS-based platform for next-generation mobile handsets for GSM, GPRS and 3G wireless networks, have access to such basic building blocks as Texas Instruments' OMAP processor architecture and smart phone source code developed internally by Nokia. In addition to TI, STMicroelectronics also offers a reference platform that's compliant with Nokia's Series 60, according to Timo Poikolainen, vice president of marketing at Nokia Mobile Software. "It is not limited to those two chip companies, but so far, those are the two companies we've worked with."
Nokia's objectives in opening up its source code and signing competitive handset vendors as Series 60 platform licensees is to maximize and accelerate "interoperability between applications and mobile handsets based on a common architecture," Poikolainen said.
As a number of mobile phone operators in Europe -- KPN of the Netherlands, Sonera of Finland, Telefonica of Spain and MobilCom -- take huge write-downs on the value of their 3G investments, Europe's once ambitious hopes for 3G networks and services are fading quickly. Operators are tasked with fixing a number of technical glitches to insure interoperability among different handsets and different networks.
Nevertheless, Nokia's Poikolainen said, a common software platform like Series 60 "will most certainly help boost the overall take-off of next-generation mobile applications and networks."
Sharing innovation
Companies that license Nokia's Series 60 platform are free to develop their own value-added features using Nokia's source code. But "if they develop something that may impact the interoperability, they are asked to share it with other licensees, by returning their innovation or improvement back to the master code," Poikolainen said.
The Series 60 licensees appear eager to work with Nokia on its interoperability goal.
"Series 60 is an ideal software platform for the advanced smart phones," Byung-Duck Cho, senior vice president of the mobile communications R&D team at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. "The licensing model with access to the source code will give us the opportunity to contribute to and influence the platform development. The platform's flexibility will enable us to maintain in our product portfolio a high competitive edge associated with the Samsung brand."
So far, Nokia is the only company to launch a smart phone based on the Series 60 platform, specifically its 7650 model. Poikolainen said Nokia is confident that licensees will follow suit as they launch the new generation of advanced handsets for GSM and GPRS.
Smart phones, according to Poikolainen, feature a high-quality color screen; the ability to capture, send and receive multimedia-rich messages; built-in support for Java-based content; a state-of-the-art Web browser; support for data communications; USB and Bluetooth connectivity; and possibly an integrated digital camera. The Series 60 platform supports open and common key technologies, and consists of key telephony and personal information management applications, browser and messaging clients, and a complete and modifiable user interface, he said.
This MP3 player is really plugged in
WALTER S. MOSSBERG, The Wall Street Journal Wednesday, August 28, 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(08-28) 06:43 PDT (AP) --
The big problem with portable digital devices, like MP3 music players and digital cameras, is getting the data into and out of them. You either have to juggle clumsy cables that link the devices to a PC or Mac, or you have to buy some sort of add-on gizmo for your computer that can read the particular type of flash memory card your music player or camera uses to store its stuff.
A few laptops have slots for one of the four common but incompatible types of memory cards, though no popular desktop PCs have them. In most cases you need to buy an adapter. It's a mess.
But what if someone designed a portable device with an easily removable memory module that could be plugged into a port found on every modern computer, and instantly used to move files back and forth, without the aid of any cables, adapters or special gadgets?
Well, somebody has. Creative Technology, the Singapore-based audio hardware company that makes Sound Blaster sound cards and Nomad music players, has just brought out a revolutionary MP3 player, the Nomad MuVo. It's the first music or photo device I've seen that makes it a piece of cake to exchange data with a computer.
The $129.99 MuVo is the size of a cigarette lighter but has remarkable sound quality for its size. It holds 64 megabytes of music, or 15 to 20 songs recorded at decent quality, and runs for about 12 hours on a single AAA battery. But what makes the MuVo (which stands for Musical Voyage) special is the way its memory works.
The bottom half of the MuVo, which simply slides out of the unit, is in reality a so-called keychain or thumb drive -- a new kind of solid-state memory that has a convenient, universal USB connector on the end. These small storage devices are taking off in the marketplace.
You just slide this memory module out of the MuVo, plug it into any USB port on any modern PC, and it shows up on the computer as a small disk drive. You can then use your mouse to drag music files into the memory unit, then unplug it, pop it back into the player's housing, and listen to the music.
No music-transfer program or jukebox software is needed, and you don't even need to install any drivers if you're using the latest operating systems, Windows XP or Mac OS X. It also works without drivers on Windows 2000 and Windows Me, but for Windows 98 you need a driver, which is included with the MuVo. We tested it on several computers, both Windows and Macs, and the file transfers worked perfectly with no software installation at all, no cables and no card readers.
Not only that, but like stand-alone keychain drives, the memory unit built into the MuVo can also be used to store nonmusic files of any type, for backup or transfer among PCs. All in all, this is a great idea that could be applied to other music players, and even digital cameras.
Other 64MB keychain drives are sold for around $60 or $70. But Creative's drive is much more elaborate than those. The company built in all the MP3 decoding hardware, audio circuitry, and volume and play buttons the MuVo uses. The rest of the little player, the housing, is designed to contain just the battery. You can't slip a plain thumb drive into the housing and expect it to play.
We did discover one annoying flaw in the MuVo, which has nothing to do with its unique memory design. If the MP3s you transfer to MuVo contain much embedded data, like album art, the player chokes and can't seek backward through the files. We're presuming this happens because MuVo can't figure out where the musical data begin. Creative is looking into the issue. Most people don't embed lots of "metadata" in their MP3 files, but it's a standard capability of MP3 files, and MuVo should know how to handle it.
The MuVo doesn't have a shuffle button, but it does have the ability to repeat entire songs or portions of them. There are only six tiny buttons, and you can scroll ahead or back to select songs, though MuVo lacks an LCD screen to tell you what track you're on.
The player is small enough to wear around your neck, and Creative even supplies a lanyard for that. It doesn't yet have a clip for runners, who could use the MuVo since its solid-state memory doesn't skip, but Creative will introduce an arm band and belt clip together for $29.99 in September. A 128MB version will be on the shelves in September, and will cost $169.99.
I hope the MuVo's refreshingly simple and smart memory design is the start of a trend that banishes the jungle of incompatible memory cards and clumsy cables from the lives of consumers.
8/29/2002 Liberate Technologies stunned Wall Street analysts late Wednesday when it said it expects to generate one-half the amount of revenue this quarter than it had previously projected.
The interactive-TV-software vendor blamed the shortfall on capital-expenditure cuts by U.S. MSOs and debt restructuring at its key European customers -- NTL Inc., Telewest Communications plc and United Pan-European Communications N.V.
Liberate said it now expects to generate $12 million to $14 million in pro forma revenue for its fiscal first quarter, a huge drop from the $20 million to $22 million it had projected earlier. It also expects its net loss to be in the range of 12 cents to 19 cents per share, doubling previous guidance.
Liberate added that it will take a $2 million to $3 million restructuring charge. But the company maintained that it will reach 'pro forma profitability' during the second half of next year
Microsoft pulls a fast one
Microsoft is after a coup with their Stinger operating system. Symbian, the market leader in the cell phone IS business introduced their newest version and announced a licensing agreement with Siemens. Meanwhile, Microsoft is hard at work tying up the next generation phone/PDA. To that end, the Microsoft triumphantly announced that HTC the company which makes Compaq's immensely popular iPAQ Pocket PC, has announced plans to build phones using Microsoft's smart phone platform, Stinger. In addition to HTC, Sendo, Samsung, and Mitsubishi have also announced plans to build Stinger-based phones.
Microsoft as you'll remember is hoping to build an infrastructure for products using variations of the operating system through their .NET strategy. Microsoft claims that an end-to-end strategy is required to ensure that the operators, the real power in the telecom business, will opt for Stinger based phones.
We've got no beef with the theory. Sun likewise, is building an infrastructure to support their plans for selling servers and software to the telecom industry. What we don't believe is that Microsoft can actually pull it off. It's not like the company hasn't had these grand schemes before. The grand visions of many a company has ground to a halt as Microsoft promises a scalable operating system and fails to deliver. It seems more likely to us that no one can really do this and the answer instead is an open system built along the lines of the Internet that will allow a variety of operating systems designed for their specific devices to find the points of communication. Forgive us if this sounds obvious.
Posted by: murgirl
In reply to: None Date:6/25/2001 11:02:44 AM
Post #of 15023
HTC Collaborates With TI to Adopt Texas Instruments OMAP(TM) Technology In HTC's Next Generation Wireless Devices
DALLAS and TAIWAN, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated's (NYSE: TXN - news; TI) family of high performance, low power OMAP(TM) processors will serve as the engines for High Tech Computer Corporation's (HTC) 2.5 and 3G smart phones and advanced mobile Internet appliances. The collaboration leverages HTC's design and manufacturing expertise in mobile devices, and TI's high performance, low power OMAP processors, to deliver 2.5 and 3G mobile devices with sleek form factors and wireless functionality including broadband Internet access, mobile commerce, personal digital assistant (PDA) functionality and e-mail access. This further extends TI's position as the de facto standard processing platform for the next generation of broadband-enabled wireless devices. See http://www.ti.com/sc/omap.
``Wireless consumers have spoken loud and clear on their requirements for next generation smart phones -- high performance for new wireless applications; long battery life for extended use; and flexibility to personalize these devices. TI's OMAP platform makes this a reality today,'' said Peter Chou, vice president, Wireless Mobile Division, HTC. ``We have been working closely with TI's OMAP development team through design reviews and architecture discussion. Undoubtedly, we believe that the TI family of high performance, low power OMAP processors solutions offer HTC the best capabilities for delivering leading-edge products to the market. We plan to further this collaboration well into 3G and other future wireless solutions.''
HTC (http://www.htc.com.tw), based in Taiwan and founded in 1997, specializes in designing and manufacturing world-class mobile computing and communication solutions for customers including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs). Since its establishment, HTC has become one of the most respected manufacturers of devices based on the Microsoft Windows CE(TM) operating system, including the Compaq iPAQ(TM) Pocket PC.
``TI has worked closely with HTC for several years to deliver a complete family of solutions that take advantage of TI's OMAP platform,'' said Alain Mutricy, general manager of TI's OMAP platform. ``HTC is considered one of the most respected manufacturers of mobile Internet devices based on Microsoft Windows CE operating system. We look forward to collaborating with HTC in the rapidly growing mobile Internet appliance market, and we're excited to assist HTC in providing 2.5 and 3G wireless solutions to its customer base.''
Unveiled in May 1999, TI's programmable DSP-based OMAP architecture delivers advanced wireless Internet and multimedia functionality, without compromising battery life essential to wireless communications devices. TI's OMAP platform is not only architected to support all 2G, 2.5G and 3G wireless standards, but also delivers an open software environment that enables wireless software developers to provide new applications for wired and wireless downloading.
TI began shipping OMAP processor prototypes in 4Q2000, and is shipping samples of its OMAP1510 product today. The OMAP1510 is scheduled to be available in volume production quantities in 3Q2001.
Texas Instruments Incorporated is the world leader in digital signal processing and analog technologies, the semiconductor engines of the Internet age. The company's businesses also include sensors and controls, and educational and productivity solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ti.com.
Trademarks:
OMAP is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated.
Microsoft Windows CE is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
iPAQ is a trademark of Compaq Computer Corporation.
SOURCE: Texas Instruments Incorporated
rs--FWIW-my understanding which is exclusively based on the posts of others is that edig only involved in the MTV DP DAP -
http://www.htccorporation.com/company/index.html
these people will be coming out with a Dataplay version--
To ensure the most rapid time to market for customers, HTC has built close strategic relationships with leading software and hardware component suppliers, such as Microsoft, Intel, Texas Instruments, QUALCOMM, Sony, Citizen, among others. These close relationships enable early access to key technologies and guarantee that supplies arrive on time.
e.Digital Provides Reference Design for New Classic DP200 DigitalPlayer/Recorder Now Available At Circuit City
SAN DIEGO, Aug 29, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- e.Digital Corp. (OTCBB:EDIG), a global provider of comprehensive digital product development and designs, and Musical Electronics, Ltd., a major Asian OEM manufacturer with annual sales totaling $160 million, today announced that the Classic DP200 personal digital player and recorder is now available at Circuit City.
The Classic DP200 uses e.Digital's reference design technology and was created under e.Digital's strategic alliance with DataPlay(TM) and licensed to Musical Electronics under e.Digital's multi-year licensing agreement with Musical.
The e.Digital MicroOS(TM)-powered DataPlay personal digital player and recorder by Classic comes with 500 MB of memory and plays up to eight hours of digital quality music. Users can load their favorite songs onto their computer and record them onto blank DataPlay digital media. The micro-thin, removable DataPlay digital media -- about the size of a quarter -- makes it easy for music enthusiasts to carry their music files with them.
The Classic DP200 features superior sound quality, large storage capacity, a USB 1.1 connection, and support for both MP3 and Windows Media(TM) file formats. The unit is field upgradeable to support other popular formats as they become available. The Classic DP200 ships with software, one 500 MB DataPlay blank digital media, headphones, carrying case, rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and power adapter.
Fred Falk, CEO of e.Digital, said, "The Classic DP200 represents the culmination of a combined effort among e.Digital, DataPlay and Musical to develop a revolutionary new personal data player and recorder design that can be adapted to a number of OEM industrial designs. The Classic DP200 is the second digital audio product Musical Electronics has brought to the market using e.Digital technology."
"DataPlay is very excited to see the Classic DP200 at Circuit City. e.Digital and Musical have worked hard to help bring one of the first DataPlay-enabled products to the market and consumers," said Todd Oseth, senior vice president of marketing and business development for DataPlay.
About DataPlay
DataPlay Inc. was incorporated in November 1998 to develop a Web-enabled digital content recording and distribution media for portable Internet appliances and hand-held consumer entertainment devices. Visit DataPlay on the Internet at www.dataplay.com.
About Musical Electronics Ltd.
Established in 1976, Musical Electronics Ltd. is a Hong Kong-based ISO 9002 certified company with 650,000 square feet of vertically integrated manufacturing facilities in China. Musical manufactures and distributes a full line of ODM/OEM digital audio, digital imaging, car navigation and telecommunication consumer electronics products. Musical's export markets are North America and Europe.
About e.Digital
e.Digital Corp. designs, licenses, brands, manufactures, and sells digital audio products and technologies. The company's trademarked digital audio players include the MXP(TM) 100, Treo(TM) portable digital jukebox line, Silhouette(TM) ultra-slim MP3-CD player, and Odyssey(TM) line of flash- and hard disk drive-based players. The company also offers an engineering partnership for the world's leading electronics companies to link portable digital devices to PCs and the Internet. e.Digital develops and markets to consumer electronics manufacturers complete end-to-end solutions for delivery and management of open and secure digital media with a focus on music, voice and video players/recorders, and automotive infotainment and telematics systems. Other applications for e.Digital's technology include portable digital music players and voice recorders; desktop, laptop, and handheld computers; PC peripherals; cellular phone peripherals; e-books; video games; digital cameras; and digital video recorders. Engineering services range from the licensing of e.Digital's patented MicroOS(TM) file management system to custom software and hardware development, industrial design, and manufacturing services. For more information on the company, please visit www.edig.com. To shop at the e.Digital online store, please visit www.edigital-store.com.
Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform of 1995: All statements made in this document, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the businesses of the Company and the industries and markets in which the company operates. Those statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that will be difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Factors that may affect the Company's businesses, financial condition and operating results include future products and results, technological shifts, potential technical difficulties that could delay new products and services, competition, pricing pressures, the uncertainty of market acceptance of new products and services by OEM's and end-user customers, effects of changes in the economy, consumer spending, the ability of the Company to maintain relationships with strategic partners and suppliers, the ability of the Company to timely and successfully develop, maintain and protect its technology and product and service offerings and execute operationally, the ability of the company to attract corporate financing and the ability of the Company to attract and retain qualified personnel. These factors may also include, but are not limited to, general market conditions, the Company's ability to develop new products to meet market demand, the Company's ability to maintain cost controls, the mix of products and services the Company's customers require and the effects of natural disasters, international conflicts and other events beyond the Company's control. More information about potential factors that could affect the Company can be found in its most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and other reports and statements filed by e.Digital with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). e.Digital disclaims any intent or obligation to update those forward-looking statements, except as otherwise specifically stated by it.
Note: e.Digital and MicroOS are trademarks of e.Digital Corp. All other company, product, and service names are the property of their respective owners.
Honda Unveils New Voice-Operated Navigation System
Thu Aug 29, 2:12 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co unveiled on Thursday a new voice-operated car navigation system to be offered on its Accord sedan this autumn, but it lacked the bells and whistles of Toyota Motor Corp's rival system.
Japan's second-largest automaker said its new navigation system, called InterNavi Premium Club, offers regularly updated traffic reports, news, maintenance and other information as well as the ability to e-mail.
It will be available as an option and updates of the DVD map software will be free for three years.
Honda said it envisaged that by 2004, the on-board navigation system would be factory-installed on 30 percent of all models sold domestically, excluding cheaper 660cc minivehicles.
The InterNavi, however, contrasted sharply with Toyota's G-Book car Internet network unveiled a day earlier, which provides a wide range of interactive ( news - external web site) services from downloading music and karaoke to playing games and customized news reports.
Toyota will also offer its navigation system on a new model to be released in autumn. Drivers will then able to choose if they want to subscribe to various interactive services.
Japan's largest automaker has not yet disclosed the price of its new services.
It said, however, that half of Toyota passenger car owners have some kind of navigation system and it hopes around 30 to 40 percent will eventually become subscribers of G-Book.
The G-Book uses a data communication module, allowing Toyota to charge a flat fee while Honda's system requires the use of a cell phone, with customers paying for transmission time.
But Honda argued that it has worked to drastically cut the amount of time needed to download information and that the lack of a special connection device saves costs.
Despite its technical advancements and greater range of features, Toyota may have a tough time convincing Japanese consumers they need the network since many of the services are already available on cell phones.
Both automakers have said they see in-vehicle navigation and Internet services as part and parcel of future models and have declined to comment on the profitability of their systems.
Liberty Closes OpenTV Deal
Karen Brown
Multichannel News
8/28/2002 2:57:00 PM
Liberty Media Corp. has closed a with MIH Ltd. worth about $177 million to gain a controlling stake in OpenTV Corp.
Pooled with its existing interests, Liberty now controls between 37 percent and 40 percent of the economic interest and about 85 percent of the voting interest in the Mountain View, Calif.-based interactive-TV-technology provider.
Liberty paid $46.2 million cash and bought 15.2 million shares to acquire the stake.
Liberty's subsidiary, Liberty Broadband Interactive Television Inc., will own and manage its stake in OpenTV. LBIT president and CEO Peter Boylan III has been named chairman of OpenTV's board of directors, while OpenTV CEO James Ackerman will retain his post.
'Liberty Media's investment should enable us to take interactive television to another level while creating significant long-term value for our shareholders,' Ackerman said in a release.
OpenTV's interactive-TV software is deployed in more than 50 countries and 50 cable and satellite networks, reaching more than 27 million households worldwide.
In the United States, its largest customer is EchoStar Communications Corp., which has deployed more than 4 million OpenTV-ready digital-satellite receivers.
Although OpenTV has provided a middleware platform up to now, Boylan indicated when the deal was announced in May that the company will shift its focus toward applications for interactive TV.
Apple douses DVD burning fire
By Declan McCullagh
Special to ZDNet News
August 29, 2002, 5:04 AM PT
WASHINGTON--Apple Computer has invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent its customers from burning DVDs on external drives.
Earlier this month, the company's lawyers sent a stiff warning to an Apple dealer, warning that a patch to Apple's iDVD burning software ran afoul of the controversial 1998 copyright law.
"They alleged it violated Apple's intellectual property and the DMCA act," said Larry O'Connor, president of Other World Computing, a Macintosh dealer.
O'Connor said his company values its close relationship with Apple--it's been a dealer since 1988--and backed down immediately. "No. 1, we don't want to get into a fight with Apple," O'Connor said Wednesday. "No. 2, we're an Apple certified developer. We're not out there to offend Apple."
At issue in the legal threat is Apple's well-received iDVD application, which permits users to burn DVDs only on internal drives manufactured by Apple. In unmodified form, it does not permit writing to external drives manufactured by third parties.
That means Macintosh owners with older computers or laptop computers, or people who opted not to buy the "Superdrive"-equipped Macs, could not use iDVD to save movies.
In response, Other World Computing began bundling a product called DVD Enabler with its external Mercury Pro DVD-R/RW FireWire drive. DVD Enabler modified iDVD so the application would save completed DVDs to a FireWire-connected drive.
A press release from Other World Computing dated Aug. 12 said the company "will no longer market its DVD Enabler software, effective immediately."
The DMCA, which took effect two years ago, limits selling software that "is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner."
Matt Deatherage, a former Apple employee who edits a daily Macintosh newsletter, said Apple's legal threat reflects the company's underlying business strategy: If iDVD is useful only on internal drives, people may buy more computers.
"I think it's one of those areas where Apple has decided it's an advantage to have iDVD on new machines and they don't want it available as an upgrade kit," Deatherage said. "Apple's basic job is to sell new machines. Hardware is 85 percent to 90 percent of Apple's revenue each quarter."
Other World Computing's O'Connor said he believes Apple made a bad decision. But, he said, "there was no ill will. We thought we were doing something good and hoped they would agree."
Apple does sell an iDVD upgrade on its site for $20, but it lists as a requirement a Macintosh equipped with an internal DVD-RW drive.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hackers Rub MP3s in RIAA's Face
By Michelle Delio
10:20 a.m. Aug. 28, 2002 PDT
Looking to snag a free copy of your favorite tune? For a few hours Wednesday morning, you might have been able to download a copy directly from the Recording Industry Association of America's website.
The association, a vocal opponent of music file trading, became an unwitting repository of music files when its site was altered by unknown attackers.
An RIAA spokeswoman would only confirm that the site was experiencing problems, was being fixed, and would be back up shortly.
According to reports from those who gained access before the site was taken offline mid-morning, the site briefly housed a dozen downloadable, pirated MP3 files.
Attackers replaced some of the site's home-page text with rhetoric promoting music and video file trading.
Those who saw the site say they visited after seeing a message posted on news blog site Fark inviting people to "visit the hacked RIAA site (while supplies last)."
The RIAA was also the victim of a hack in July, when a denial of service attack knocked the site offline for four days.
The earlier attack was reportedly in retaliation for the RIAA's endorsement a day before of a bill written by Representative Howard Berman from California. Berman's bill would allow the RIAA to launch denial of service attacks against file-trading servers.
The RIAA released a report on Monday, attributing a drop in CD sales to an increase in music downloads through file-trading services.
all quiet on the eastern front-
http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/2466193e3e3937be4825655300242a8d/164ccf9e7a67414248256c17001a0e2b...
berge--thanks--should have known since you are always three steps ahead of me ck
Digital Conversion Of Broadcast Band Priority For Cox
Speaking of iBiquity's planned launch later this year in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Seattle, which iBiquity restated yesterday, Cox Radio President/CEO Bob Neil said, "Converting AM and FM radio to digital broadcasting is a priority in our minds. We think IBOC offers the best method for conversion." The technology last month won the backing of the national Radio Systems Committee and was forwarded to the FCC for final approval, which is expected shortly. Speaking yesterday at the Salomon Smith Barney conference, Neil added that the ad market is "starting to look quite a bit better than it was" and is finally starting to recover.
iBiquity Closes $45 Million Equity Financing, Its Largest Ever
Tuesday, April 30, 2002 by Rob Granger
iBiquity Digital Corporation, the sole developer of digital AM and FM broadcast technology in the United States, announced the closing of its Series C Financing, indicating it had raised $45 million. Susquehanna Radio, the country's eleventh largest broadcaster, joins 14 of the 20 largest U.S. radio broadcasters, strategic equipment and automobile manufacturers and leading financial institutions that have previously invested in iBiquity. Most of iBiquity's existing investors contributed additional funds, with Grotech, JP Morgan Partners, New Venture Partners and Pequot Capital leading the round.
"The proceeds raised through this financing round will fully fund iBiquity's operations through commercialization to profitability," states Robert Struble, president and CEO, iBiquity Digital. "The success of this private equity financing, which is the largest completed in our history, is a clear indication of our investor's confidence in our technology and business prospects. Additionally, with the investment by Susquehanna, the nation's top 11 broadcasters are now owners of iBiquity."
"Through Susquehanna's involvement with the National Radio Systems Committee, we've seen and heard first-hand the benefits of iBiquity's IBOC technology for broadcasters and consumers," adds David Kennedy, president and chief operating officer, Susquehanna Radio Corp. "IBOC is the digital future of AM and FM radio. We are pleased to become an investor in iBiquity and join the broad coalition of leading broadcasters and manufacturers that iBiquity has formed to successfully rollout IBOC to consumers in early 2003."
iBiquity's IBOC (In-Band On-Channel) AM and FM digital broadcast technology will transform today's radio experience by allowing broadcasters to transmit digital quality audio alongside existing analog-based broadcasts, and simultaneously deliver wireless data for a wide variety of consumer applications, including traffic, weather and artist information and more. iBiquity is licensing its IBOC technology to transmission equipment manufacturers, radio broadcasters and radio manufacturers. Transmission equipment containing iBiquity's technology was launched to broadcasters by leading manufacturers at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in early April.. IBOC-equipped receivers will be commercially launched at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2003.
http://www.ibiquity.com
iBiquity Appoints Parrella VP of IC Design
Columbia, MD, and Warren, NJ, - Jan 31, 2001 - Ibiquity has appointed Gene Parrella as vice president, Integrated Circuit Design. Parrella will lead the engineering teams finalizing the design of DSP and ASIC solutions that will enable consumers to receive IBOC digital AM and FM broadcasts in car, home and portable radios. Parrella's teams also are responsible for the successful transfer of Ibiquity's IBOC technology onto its semiconductor partners' chips and supporting the receiver manufacturers that are using these DSP-based and dedicated ASIC solutions.
Immediately prior to joining Ibiquity, Parrella served as director of engineering for the TranSwitch Corporation's successful CellBus line of ATM switch chips used in xDSL access multiplexers. He holds five patents in the areas of telecommunications chip and system design.
Digital Radio Takes to the Road
David H. Layer, National Association of Broadcasters
While the transition of television to a digital technology with its improved picture and sound quality has been a much publicized and controversial process, television's venerable ancestor, radio, has stayed in the background. But this year, in the United States, radio broadcasting is making its own digital leap. Two start-ups are introducing a new type of radio broadcast--subscription-based digital audio sent from satellites. With satellite digital audio radio services (SDARS), as they're called, listeners will be able to tune in to the same radio stations anywhere in the United States.
SDARS differs from so-called digital music services, in which direct broadcast satellite or cable system operators provide digitized and compressed audio over their networks, both because of its programming and because SDARS can be received in a moving car, where much of today's radio listening takes place; existing digital audio services cannot. (A different form of satellite digital radio, from WorldSpace Corp., Washington, D.C., is currently serving parts of Africa and Asia. It started service in 1999, and is less optimized for mobile use.)
Meanwhile, the free, over-the-air terrestrial broadcasters are expected to choose digital audio broadcasting technologies for both the AM and FM bands by year-end.
Why go digital
Just as was true for other media, the conversion to digital offers radio a wealth of benefits not available from current AM or FM analog systems. Radio is an audio service, so consumers naturally compare it to the most pervasive high-quality audio technology, the compact disk (CD). A good FM signal played by a high-quality, stationary receiver compares favorably to a CD's sound. But put the FM receiver in a moving vehicle (typical for radio listening), and channel imperfections experienced by FM quickly lower the sound quality. The problems include environmental noise and RF signal reflections that give rise to multipath fading--variations in RF signal level due to signal reflections. The improved robustness of digital radio promises to remedy this, delivering near-CD sound for most listening conditions.
With AM radio, the transition will be even more marked. The new digital service will offer two-channel stereo sound and greatly increased frequency response, resulting in audio quality comparable to today's analog FM.
In addition, digital will greatly enhance terrestrial radio robustness, which is the ability to withstand factors such as multipath fading, environmental noise, and impulse noise interference due to automobile ignitions or home appliances. Digital's robustness also holds up well against interference from nearby radio broadcast signals and terrain blockage for FM, as well as signal attenuation due to grounded conductive structures like reinforced-concrete highway overpasses for AM.
With most radio listening done in a moving car, the signal degradation varies constantly with time, further complicating matters. To reduce or eliminate these problems, a variety of signal-processing techniques (described below) have been incorporated into digital radio systems.
While enhanced quality and robustness and new services entice broadcasters, and should bode well for a smooth transition to digital, another, less tangible reason for making this transition involves consumer perception. Terrestrial radio is one of the few remaining analog communications services in an ever more digital world. With the advent of SDARS, radio in the United States faces a direct digital competitor, and even though SDARS will not provide a locally oriented service like traditional radio, the inevitable comparison of technologies will have "old-fashioned analog radio" coming up on the short end of the stick.
It's taken 10 long years, but finally, later this year, two U.S. SDARS systems will begin commercial operation. These two digital radio systems [see table], operated by Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., based in New York City, and XM Satellite Radio Inc., in Washington, D.C., share a number of similarities--like approximately the same number of separate radio channels--as well as some interesting differences--for example, completely different orbital configurations for their satellites. But whether the for-pay SDARS offerings will lure listeners away from the free terrestrial service is an open question.
On an advertiser-supported local station, many program formats with a limited audience could never be economically viable. SDARS' operators maintain that even narrowly specialized programming will be feasible over a service that reaches the entire nation and is supported almost entirely by subscriptions. (Sirius plans to be commercial-free; XM plans to include advertisements in its news/talk programs.)
Reach is clearly the main strength of the satellite delivery medium. Radio markets (primarily rural), now under-served by radio services with only a handful of stations, will no doubt welcome the choices offered to them by satellite radio.
The service providers themselves are optimistic. They are projecting they'll break even financially if they can each attract on the order of four million subscribers--not beyond reason in a country with a population nearing 300 million. Still, there's never been a successful subscription-based mobile broadcast service, so it's not entirely clear that the success of the cable and satellite TV industries in serving a stationary market can be repeated for radio.
Technically, the Sirius Satellite and XM Satellite systems are unique in a number of ways. This is so not just with respect to existing broadcasting systems and the many types of satellite systems (broadcast and otherwise) currently in use, but also with respect to one another. Because these systems are designed to serve primarily mobile users and are targeting a consumer market, the individual receivers need to cost less than any satellite receiver ever built. They cannot rely, for example, on high-gain antennas with costly antenna-tracking devices to keep the antenna pointed at the satellite, the setup used for other mobile satellite systems like Inmarsat, which serves maritime and other commercial markets.
Another consequence of mobile reception, for automobiles in particular, is that the satellite signal will be intermittently blocked from view by buildings or trees as the vehicle moves. The magnitude of this problem is a function of the latitude of the receiver because this establishes the elevation angle of the satellite with respect to the horizon. The farther north one proceeds, the lower in the sky the satellite appears and the more susceptible it is to being blocked from view. For both systems, the antenna on the receiver is of the low-gain, nearly omnidirectional variety, its pattern shaped like a hemisphere. So obstructions notwithstanding, the satellite will be in view of the antenna regardless of the vehicle's position.
In the XM system, two satellites in a conventional geostationary orbit, one at 85º W longitude and the other at 115º W longitude, are used. These locations afford optimum coverage of the United States. According to XM, these are the "most powerful satellites in the entertainment industry," helping to compensate for the relatively low gain of the vehicle's antenna.
Three specific techniques, each representing a different kind of redundancy known as diversity, are used by the SDARS services to enhance performance. With its two satellites transmitting essentially identical signals from two, widely spaced locations (though in different frequency bands, so they won't interfere with one another), XM has implemented spatial diversity. This arrangement reduces the probability that the satellite signal will be completely blocked from the receiver. (Sirius uses spatial diversity as well, but in a different manner.)
Under ideal circumstances, an XM receiver in a moving vehicle will "see" both satellites and be continuously receiving and processing the signals from both. Because the receiver is in motion, from time to time at least one of the satellites will be blocked by an obstacle; in this circumstance, the receiver will have to rely upon the signal from just the one (unblocked) satellite. Because the probability of signal blockage to a receiver in motion served by just a single satellite is so great, spatial diversity is a key attribute of this system. Without it, during these times of blockage the audio output of the receiver would simply disappear, a situation listeners would hardly tolerate.
The two other forms of diversity used by both systems are frequency diversity and time diversity. As mentioned for XM, each of its two satellites is transmitting the same signal but in different frequency bands. This is a form of frequency diversity and can help to combat problems associated with multipath fading, since sometimes multipath fades are frequency selective and limited to one band or the other. Finally, time diversity is implemented by introducing a time delay between the otherwise identical signals broadcast from each satellite and between the satellite and terrestrial repeater signals.
With time diversity, when a short signal blockage occurs, it will affect the two signals at different times (relative to the underlying modulation), allowing the receiver to eliminate the effect of the blockage by making use of the unblocked portions of each signal. One consequence of a time diversity system is the introduced delay. Typically on the order of 4-5 seconds, the delay makes it difficult, but not impossible, for broadcasters to use the broadcast signal as an in-studio monitor (a common practice in which the on-the-air and the control room staffs listen to the received broadcast signal to monitor its quality), or for sports fans at a sporting event to listen to a broadcast (since the audio will be lagging the action).
A three-satellite approach
Sirius has taken a more novel approach to spatial diversity by using three satellites in a highly elliptical orbit [see figure]. In contrast, other existing broadcasting and most communications satellites are in geostationary orbits--that is, they always appear to be above the same spot on the earth. As the Sirius satellites orbit the earth, they move about a specific longitude (100º) while moving across latitudes and, with respect to the northern hemisphere, rise and set approximately every 16 hours; thus two of the three satellites are visible to receivers in the United States at any given time (hence providing spatial diversity). Consequently, these satellites have an elevation angle of about 60º on average, higher than the typical 45º or so angle of the geostationary satellites used by XM, but are constantly in motion with respect to earth stations.
With this higher elevation angle, the Sirius satellites are less likely to be blocked. The constant motion of the satellites is not a problem because the receiver antennas are nearly omnidirectional and, in fact, the motion of a vehicle speeding at 100 km/hour will have a much greater impact on reception than will the apparent motion of the satellites. In the case of XM, each of the satellites will be broadcasting the same signals, but in different frequency bands [see figure].
There are some operational consequences of the moving Sirius satellites. Because only two frequency bands are set aside for the satellite signals, only two of the three satellites can transmit at any given time; otherwise, two of the satellites would have to transmit in the same frequency band and would interfere with each other.
To avoid this problem, as the satellites rise and set, a "hand-off" must occur between their rising and setting--one satellite ceases transmission and the other initiates transmission. This is likely to cause a brief interruption (on the order of milliseconds) in signal reception at the receiver for the signal being handed off. As long as the signal from the third satellite is not blocked during this hand-off time, the listener will be unaware of the switch; this is likely the case since the third satellite, at the hand-off time, will be at its highest elevation angle and will therefore have its lowest probability of blockage.
Repeaters for those really hard-to-reach spots
Also affected by the motion of the Sirius satellites is the system's use of terrestrial repeaters. Both XM and Sirius will use a network of ground-based transmitters to rebroadcast the satellite signal into hard-to-reach areas such as tunnels or urban canyons, adding yet another leg to the spatial diversity of the system. These terrestrial repeaters use a modulation technique different from the one used by the satellites, being optimized for use by terrestrial transmitters--namely, coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, or COFDM, versus the satellites' QPSK, or quadrature phase shift keying.
For XM, since the satellites are geostationary, a high-gain (that is, a directional) antenna can be used at the repeater site to receive the incoming satellite signal. This is necessary since the rebroadcast repeater signal, which is very close in frequency to the incoming satellite signal, yet at a much greater power level, could otherwise overload the input side of the repeater.
If the Sirius repeaters were to operate in this fashion--that is, were to make use of the signal being broadcast from the satellite--then their receive antennas would have to track the satellites along their highly elliptical orbit in order to maintain isolation between transmit and receive circuits. This would be an expensive proposition. So instead, Sirius has elected to feed its repeater sites using commercially available capacity of geostationary communications satellites, which operate in a different frequency band (Ku-band), thus alleviating this problem.
Receivers for use with the SDARS service were a big hit at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. XM and six leading manufacturers unveiled 24 models of XM-ready radios, including a complete line of retail radios from Pioneer and Alpine and an innovative unit from Sony that can "plug and play" in car and home. In addition, Blaupunkt, Clarion, and Delphi-Delco Electronics Systems each unveiled an XM model that will be available for factory installation in new cars this year. An XM-ready car stereo will cost about US $150 more than a standard AM-FM system.
Sirius also featured radios from its partners, including Kenwood, Clarion, Alpine, Jensen, Panasonic, and Visteon. Sirius has alliances to install three-band (AM/FM/SAT) radios in Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, Mazda, Jaguar, and Volvo vehicles, as well as in Freightliner and Sterling heavy trucks. No prices have yet been disclosed for fully capable SDARS radios, as opposed to satellite-ready radios, which are normal radios that will accommodate connections to an SDARS receiver box. But estimates are that they will start in the $300-$500 range. [For more on SDARS radios, see "Filling the Airwaves".]
Terrestrial broadcasters digitize
About the same time that satellite radio broadcasters were starting their long regulatory journey to implementation, terrestrial radio broadcasters were facing up to the fact that sooner or later, they, too, must chart a digital course. In 1991, a European telecommunications consortium was finalizing a digital audio broadcasting standard, Eureka-147, describing a radically new concept for terrestrial radio broadcasting. This system utilized a new multi-carrier modulation technique--COFDM--and a 1.5-MHz-wide, multipath fading-resistant radio channel containing a group of closely spaced, orthogonal carriers that would accommodate an average of five simultaneous audio programs, as well as auxiliary data services.
For Europe, with few radio stations in the broadcasting bands and numerous government-sponsored national radio networks, this was an ideal scheme. It facilitated a network of transmitters on the ground known as a single frequency network, all broadcasting the same material on the same channel, offering virtually limitless coverage over an extended geographical region (made possible by the use of the COFDM modulation technique). A worldwide radio telecommunications conference, WARC-92, held in 1992, saw the setting aside of frequency bands in which such a system could be deployed, most notably in the L-band, 1452-1492 MHz.
Since that time, a number of (non-U.S.) domestic allocations have also been made, primarily in the VHF band (concentrated around 200 MHz), for the deployment of Eureka-147-based radio channels. These allocations were necessary because the Eureka system is a "new-band" system--it cannot be implemented in existing radio broadcasting bands because its wideband nature makes it incompatible with the much narrower AM and FM channeling schemes. Typically an AM radio channel occupies 20 kHz, and an FM one, 200 kHz.
Eureka-147 was at this time considered by the U.S. radio broadcasting industry, but early on it became apparent that it was a poor fit for the congested, commercially based U.S. radio industry. This opinion was no doubt influenced by the fact that there was no readily identifiable spectrum in which the wideband Eureka-147 signals could be placed.
A new kind of digital signal
It was in this environment that the concept of in-band/on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcasting was born [see figure]. The idea was to create a terrestrial broadcasting system using a new digital signal that could be transmitted in-band alongside a broadcaster's existing analog signal. In theory, this would be ideal. It would require no extra allocation of spectrum, replicate the coverage of the existing services, and allow broadcasters to remain independent from one another--no need for combining audio programs as with Eureka.
Furthermore, IBOC would provide for an ideal transition from analog to digital technology, because existing radios would be able to receive the analog portion of the signal while new receivers would use the new digital portion. Since no system like this existed, a company called USA Digital Radio (USADR), a limited partnership between CBS, Gannett, and Westinghouse Electric, was formed in 1991 and began developing IBOC technology. A competing partnership, between AT&T and Amati Communications (pioneers in the area of the now popular digital subscriber line technology for high-speed access to the Internet), was also established with the same goal.
The investigation of whether IBOC technology could offer the digital solution for U.S. broadcasters goes back to 1994. Three groups were involved: the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the main trade association for the free over-the-air broadcast industry in the United States; the Electronic Industries Association (EIA), a trade association for consumer electronics manufacturers; and the National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC), a technical standards-setting organization that is jointly sponsored by NAB and EIA.
A variety of technologies were tested back then, but this first generation of systems performed poorly, especially in the series of tests of system impact on the analog portion of the signal. So, going back to the drawing board, the system developers made a number of changes, such as adding time diversity (discussed earlier for SDARS) and making the IBOC digital sidebands more independent so that, if one were interfered with, good digital audio could be extracted from the one that remained.
One of the most important design decisions was to implement what is now known as blend-to-analog. In this scheme, the same audio information is transmitted on both the existing analog and new digital portions of the IBOC signal, called simulcasting, but with a time delay between them to support time diversity. The delay is removed in the receiver so that the digital and analog signals are ultimately in time alignment.
When the digital signal begins to fail, the receiver seamlessly transitions the audio heard by the listener from digital to analog. This technique resolved the hard (often referred to as cliff effect) failure mechanism typical of digital broadcasting systems, whereby the signal is perfect one moment and unintelligible the next.
Mergers result in a single developer
While these technology changes were under way, the business structure of IBOC was changing, too. After the EIA/NRSC testing was concluded, USADR and Lucent Technologies (which had been spun-off from AT&T shortly before) entered into a partnership on IBOC development, with Lucent contributing its PAC perceptual audio source coding technology to the effort.
This partnership ended in May 1998 with the formation of Lucent Digital Radio (LDR), a subsidiary of Lucent based in Warren, N.J. For the next two years, USADR and LDR would be in a competition to develop the best IBOC radio technology. Things changed again in July 2000 with the merger of these two competitors, marking the birth of the current and sole developer of IBOC technology, iBiquity Digital Corp. in Columbia, Md.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two start-ups are introducing a new type of radio broadcast--subscription-based digital audio sent from satellites
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IBiquity Digital's FM and AM IBOC systems are currently undergoing a rigorous evaluation by the NRSC's DAB (for Digital Audio Broadcasting) subcommittee. Final reports are expected to be issued this fall establishing whether these IBOC systems are "substantially improved over today's existing analog services," and whether the interference to analog from the IBOC digital sidebands is acceptable.
Laboratory testing for this evaluation is being conducted at the Advanced Television Technology Center in Alexandria, Va.; field tests are also being done at various broadcast sites across the country. Subjective evaluation of the literally thousands of audio recordings being made both of the IBOC digital audio performance, as well as of recordings of the impact of IBOC signal energy on existing analog radios, will be conducted at Dynastat in Austin, Texas.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Washington, D.C., initiated a proceeding on digital audio broadcasting in November 1999, seeking to determine the best course for introduction of terrestrial DAB services in the United States. If the NRSC's report is favorable, the FCC is likely to move forward with IBOC in stages, first acknowledging it as the preferred method for instituting terrestrial DAB, followed by rule-makings on standard-setting and other issues related to the transition from analog to IBOC digital radio.
iBiquity, on the other hand, confident that its systems will be approved, has been moving rapidly forward, recently signing licensing agreements with broadcast equipment and receiver manufacturers. It has predicted that transmission equipment will be on display at the April 2002 NAB convention and that receivers will be in retail showrooms in early 2003. iBiquity plans to license its IBOC technology to manufacturers on both the transmission and reception sides of the business.
The future of radio
Clearly, the satellite SDARS and the terrestrial IBOC are poised for a battle for listener's ears in the not-too-distant future. The long-term future of radio is a bit more complicated, though.
For IBOC, iBiquity is already planning all-digital IBOC, which eliminates the analog signal altogether. This version represents the final phase in the transition from analog to digital services in the AM and FM radio broadcast bands. It would differ from the hybrid IBOC version by increasing the power in the IBOC digital sidebands and by replacing the analog signal with additional, lower-power digital sidebands. Among other things, these would support a lower-quality, but more robust, version of the main channel audio, which the system would blend to under adverse conditions (instead of to the analog signal).
The advantages of all-digital IBOC are its higher overall bit rate, better coverage, and reduced interference with adjacent channel signals. Since all-digital IBOC will produce additional interference in the analog portions of adjacent-channel hybrid IBOC signals, however, iBiquity is recommending that all-digital service not be initiated until the market penetration of IBOC receivers is at least 85 percent. Thus, a transition plan will be needed. iBiquity expects that every such receiver, starting from the first ones built, will be able to receive both hybrid and all-digital IBOC signals, so that consumers who upgrade during the hybrid service will not be left with obsolete equipment once all-digital service begins.
Both SDARS and IBOC can be expected to offer a mix of both audio and data services. Receiver manufacturers are already developing prototype receivers with color displays that support transmission of multimedia components, including images and perhaps streaming video, similar to those that have been developed for more mature digital radio services based on Eureka-147 in other countries.
Future radio services may also offer audio on demand. Digital radio receivers with memory allow for the downloading and storing of audio files that can be selected on demand, or for capturing specific news, traffic, and other programs that can be retrieved later, providing the audio equivalent of a VCR (or the newly popular hard-disk personal video recorders) for radio listeners. Command Audio, Redwood City, Calif., is pursuing this on-demand approach to digital radio, focusing on DAB systems, in particular Eureka-147 services in the UK.
Serious competition from wireless services, both terrestrial and satellite, also looms. As digital cellular phone systems expand their capabilities, and wireless Internet networks are deployed, listeners will have ever greater options in both audio entertainment and data-based services while on the go. Internet radio, however, is off to a rocky start with the recent pullback by broadcasters of their streaming signals owing to royalty disputes.
Terrestrial broadcasters will be the first to boast that their trump card in all of this maneuvering can be summed up in one word: localism. They are the service providers best positioned to offer consumers the local information and entertainment flavor they most desire, both now and in the future. If IBOC succeeds, they are confident they'll be able to meet--and beat--any digital challenge that awaits.
Tekla S. Perry, Editor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ILLUSTRATION: PIERRE-YVES GOAVEC
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jul01/dig.html.
yes--sdmi
speaking of nostalgia, can anyone guess what this is?
Participant List
Last Updated 18 October 2000
4C Entity, LLC
Adaptec
Aiwa Limited
Am. Federation of TV and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
Am. Soc. of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP)
America Online
American Federation of Musicians
Amplified.com
Analog Devices
ARM Limited
AT&T Labs
ATMEL (formerly MHS SA)
Audible, Inc.
Beatnik, Inc.
Blue Spike, Inc.
BMG Entertainment
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)
Broadcom HomeNetworking, Inc
Bureau International des Sociétés Gérant les Droit d'Enregistrement et de Reproduction Méchanique (BIEM)
Canal + Technologies
Casio Computer
Chaw Khong Technology Co. Ltd
Cirrus Logic
Compaq Corp.
Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Auteurs et Compositeurs (CISAC)
Creative Technology Ltd
Dataplay.com, Inc
Dentsu
Destiny Media Technologies
DigiMarc Corporation
Digital On-Demand / RedDotNet
Digital Theater Systems (DTS)
Digitalway Co. Ltd.
Digital World Services (Bertelsmann)
DiscoverMusic
DnC Tech, Inc.
Dolby Laboratories
Dx3 Europe AB
e.Digital Corp.
Earjam, Inc.
eInnovations, Inc
EMDES Systems Company LTD.
EMI Capitol Music
Federation of Music Producers Japan (FMPJ)
France Telecom
Fraunhofer Institute
Fujitsu Limited Japan (Yamagata Fujitsu Ltd)
Full Audio Corporation
Funai Corp.
Geidankyo (Japan Council of Performers Rights Admin.)
Gemplus
Gig.com
Gracenote (formerly CDDB)
Grundig Digital Systems
Harry Fox Agency
Hewlett-Packard
Hitachi
Invent Device Supplier (IDS) Corporation (formerly Telian Corporation)
IBM
Intel Corporation
International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI)
InterTrust Technologies Corp
InterVideo, Inc.
Iomega
J-Phone Communications
JASRAC
JVC Victor (Victor Company of Japan Ltd)
Kenwood Corp.
Liquid Audio
Lucent Technologies
M.Ken Co. Ltd
Macrovision
Magex Limited (formerly NatWest)
MarkAny
Massive Media Group, Inc.
Matsushita Electronics / Panasonic
MCOS (Music Copyright Operational Services)
MCY Music World Inc.
Media Tag Limited / CRL
MediaMatec AG
Mediamatics, Inc.(National Semiconductors Corp)
Mibrary.com, Inc.
Micronas Intermetall
Microsoft Corp
Midbar Tech Ltd.
MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA)
Mitsubishi Corp
Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
Motorola
Music Producers Guild (MPG)
Musicmaker.com, Inc.
MusicMatch
Musicrypt.com, Inc.
Napster
National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM)
National Music Publishers Association (NMPA)
Nielsen Media Research
Nokia
NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc.
NTT DoCoMo
Oak Technology, Inc.
Oberthur Card Systems
Parthus Technologies
Philips Electronics
Pioneer
PortalPlayer, Inc.
Preview Systems, Inc.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
QDesign Corp.
QPICT
Real Networks
Reciprocal, Inc.
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ)
RioPort.com, Inc.
Rowe International
RPK SecureMedia, Inc.
S3/Diamond Multimedia
Samsung Electronics
SanDisk Corp.
Sanyo North America Corp.
SealTronic Technology Inc.
Sharp Corporation
Siemens AG
Sonic Foundry
Sony Corporation
Sony Music
ST Microelectronics, Inc.
Sunhawk.com Corp.
Telecom System International Co. Ltd
Telefonica (Hilomusical)
Texas Instruments
The Tornado Group PLC
Thomson Consumer Electronics
Tokyo Electron Device
Toshiba
Touchtunes Digital Jukebox Inc.
Universal Music Group
Vedalabs
Verance Corporation
Vitaminic SpA
Voquette, Inc.
Warner Music Group
Wave Systems Corp.
Winbond Electronics Corporation
World Theater, Inc.
Yamaha Corporation
i saw this headline: "Samsung Expected to Exceed Sales Target in Second Half" and it gave me a nostalgic flashback to FF saying that magic word "Samsung" so long ago so far away
Ogg Vorbis means MP3 isn't the last word in digital music
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Columnist, 8/26/2002
It's a measure of our national geekification that the term MP3 has entered our common speech. Millions of us collect legal or illegal music files, encoded in the MP3 digital format and then burned onto compact disks or distributed over the Internet.
But MP3 isn't the last word in digital music, far from it. It's actually a fairly old technology, and more expensive than most people realize. That's why we may soon add a new and even geekier term to our technical vocabulary: Ogg Vorbis.
Emmett Plant, CEO of the nonprofit Xiph.Org Foundation (www.xiph.org), which created Ogg Vorbis, says it's a vastly better digital format than MP3. ''From a purely technical standpoint ... we simply outperform them.'' Plant says Ogg files sound better than MP3s, but that's a judgment call. There's no doubt, however, that Ogg files are smaller than their MP3 equivalents, so more of them will fit onto hard drives and digital music players.
If you hang out at science fiction conventions, you might know what the words Ogg Vorbis mean. If you don't, visit the www.vorbis.com Web site and find out. You'll also find instructions on how to get Ogg software. The latest WinAmp music player (available at www.winamp.com) will play back Ogg files. Creating your own Oggs is a bit harder, but a free program called OggDrop gives good results.
In one of our tests, an Ogg file came out 20 percent smaller than the same music encoded in MP3 and 17 percent smaller than WMA format, another MP3 rival developed by Microsoft Inc. And this journalist's untrained ear couldn't hear a difference in quality.
But the key difference between Ogg and MP3 is a matter of money. Ogg technology is free to all; MP3 isn't. This comes as news to many people, accustomed to downloading free MP3-compatible programs like WinAmp and RealNetworks Inc.'s RealOne. But behind the scenes, somebody's been paying for our pleasure.
MP3 is a global standard for digital sound. But MP3 is different from a lot of technical standards, like the HTML Web page language, or e-mail protocols like POP3. These Internet standards belong to the public. Anybody can write a POP3-compatible mail program, without having to pay a dime in royalties or licensing fees.
Not so with MP3, which is based on patented data-compression techniques owned by the Fraunhofer Institute, a German think tank, and by Thomson Multimedia of France. In 1998, just as MP3 was becoming popular with consumers, Fraunhofer and Thomson began enforcing their patent rights.
RealOne is free to you but not to Real Networks. The company had to pay a $60,000 flat fee for the right to distribute MP3 players - not bad, considering how many millions of RealOnes are out there. But RealOne also includes the software for ''ripping'' standard CDs into MP3 files, and the royalty here is much stiffer: between $2.50 and $5 per download.
And what if you run one of those Internet radio stations that stream MP3 music to listeners over the Net? Your station owes Fraunhofer and Thomson 2 percent of its revenues.
The Oggsters hold out an enticing alternative. They built their product under the kind of open-source rules used to create the popular BSD Unix operating system. There's not a trace of patented code inside. It's like the e-mail protocol - anybody can use it without paying a cent. That includes businesses, which can incorporate Ogg playback and ripping into their products on a royalty-free basis. And Internet broadcasters can stream out Ogg files to their heart's content; again, there's no charge.
The Ogg team, made up of programmers scattered around the world, spent seven years on developing this technology, without the slightest interest in profiting from it. ''We specialize in free lunches,'' says Plant.
But these days, most technology companies don't feel so generous. They want to lock down their control of key Internet technologies, and wring every penny of profit from them. Consider Forgent Networks Inc., the Austin, Texas, company that recently claimed control of JPEG, the most popular digital photo format. If its patent claim holds up, every image software company on earth will owe Forgent money.
In an even more extreme case, British Telecom went to court claiming to have invented the hyperlink, the point-and-click feature found on billions of Web pages. Fortunately, a US federal judge threw out the case last week.
''You should absolutely make money from your work,'' says Plant. But he adds: ''The Internet wouldn't be where it is today if it all started with a closed-up patented system.''
And the continued progress of the Net depends on networks of dedicated geeks, serving up powerful new technology free of charge, just because they can.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
This story ran on page E3 of the Boston Globe on 8/26/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
Payola City
In the wild world of urban radio, money buys hits -- and nobody asks
questions.
http://www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2001/07/24/urban_radio/index.html
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert
July 24, 2001 / "How many CDs you need?"
The question confused the young program director. He had just taken over a
small urban, or R&B, radio station down South; he was talking to a local
independent record promoter, or "indie."
It was confusing because, like programmers at music stations around the
country who decide what songs get spun, the P.D. certainly didn't need any
more copies of the new single the indie was pitching on behalf of a record
company.
"I said, 'We got CDs,'" the P.D. recalls. "I didn't know what he was talking
about. So he says, 'Oh, let me call you on your cellphone.'"
The programmer thought this was strange, too. Why would the promoter want to
discuss the song on a cellphone?
The conversation continued on a wireless. "Anything I can do for you?" asked
the indie. "Anything y'all need? How many CDs you need?"
The P.D. reiterated the station had plenty of CDs on hand.
That's when the indie took a moment to explain the ground rules to the
rookie P.D.. "He said, 'You don't understand the game, do you?'" the
programmer recalls. "I was still green. I didn't know how the system works.
He shed the light."
The programmer had always wondered how his previous boss, who made $35,000 a
year, could afford a Lexus. But now, thanks to the educating indie, he knew;
many urban programmers take illicit payments -- bribes -- on the side.
"There are code words they use," he says today. "'How many CDs you need?'
'CDs' are $100 bills. He explained there's a budget for this and a budget
for that, and how much money people get paid for each record added" to a
station's playlist.
The young P.D. had been working at the station for some time, but hadn't
seen any of that money yet, because unbeknownst to him a consultant working
for the station had convinced record companies that he alone controlled the
playlist, and was pocketing all the indie payments. When the P.D. confronted
him, the consultant generously offered to let the programmer cash in too, by
giving him control of two slots each week on the station's playlist.
The P.D. declined, having learned an object lesson in the forces that rule
in the world of urban radio: "It's payola, basically."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
As a recent series of articles in Salon has made clear, payola is alive and
well in the music business. But urban radio remains a world apart, the Wild
Wild West of the music industry. In the world of white pop and rock radio,
virtually everything on the air is bought and paid for, but in an
increasingly corporatized way, with the money going to the station's budget.
In urban radio, by contrast, the cash still goes into the personal bank
accounts of powerful programmers and consultants, sources say.
Crucial airplay "reports" to the industry's trade magazines, sources say,
are up for sale. Some stations are paid for songs that are never even played
on the air. And as for the money: These same sources say the business is
rife with overnighted packages stuffed with cash and shipped off to
recipients with phony names, or money orders made out to programmers and
sent to home addresses. The practice is widely known in the mainstream radio
industry, but almost never talked about, both because the white radio
industry has its own payola problems, and because of a fear of charges of
racism, industry members say. And thus far, this insular industry has
rebuffed attempts by the mainstream indies to penetrate it.
The result is a brazenly money-driven system that revolves around chronic
payoffs; it actually costs artists earnings; and it is often indifferent to
the songs it puts on the air. Says one source who left radio programming to
work promotion for an urban record company, "I didn't realize how dirty it
was until I went to the label side. Now I know."
From the days of wildcat DJs and fly-by-night promoters in the 1950s and
1960s, black radio has always been a unique and passionate American
institution. And while white mainstream radio has grown increasingly
corporatized and monochromatic in recent years, the country's nearly 300
urban outlets, whether spinning smooth crooners like Usher and Alicia Keys
or bad boy rappers like Jay-Z and Ja Rule, have resisted co-optation.
That's the good news. The bad news is that black radio's hit music stations
play by two rules: Everyone gets paid to play, and nobody ever talks about
the first rule.
Flashback to the '80s: Those rules used to hold sway in the world of pop
radio promotion as well. In 1988, for instance, pop indie promoter Ralph
Tashjian was charged with bribing programmers with cash and drugs, as well
as tax evasion and obstruction of justice. He pled guilty to one payola
charge and filing a false tax return, and admitted having sent a Fed-Ex
package of cocaine to an employee at a Fresno radio station.
More recently, Latin radio was rocked when the head of promotion for
Fonovisa, the largest record label in the genre, pled guilty to illegally
paying off DJs at Spanish-language stations to play its songs.
According to payola laws, it's a crime for a station employee to accept
payment for playing a song, if the station fails to notify listeners about
the financial arrangement.
Today, indie promotion for country, pop and rock remains influential but at
least makes an effort to stay within the letter of the law. Following the
government's late-'80s crackdown, it has simply become much more corporate,
with large indie operations -- the best-connected of which are Jeff McClusky
and Associates and Tri State Promotions and Marketing -- signing above-board
deals with individual stations.
In exchange for paying the stations an annual promotion budget ($100,000 for
a medium-size market), that indie becomes that station's exclusive indie and
gets paid by the record companies every time that station adds a new song.
(Critics say it's nothing more than a sanitized quid pro quo arrangement;
station adds song, indie gets paid.)
Admits one Top 40 indie: "You can't see it but you sense it's out there --
the kickback." But pop and rock indies have their lawyers periodically pore
over their books make sure the transactions, while ethically questionable,
remain technically legal.
Urban promotion on the other hand, remains largely unchanged, or
unchallenged, by any reform efforts.
As an industry practice, independent promotion is rarely discussed in public
and press coverage is frowned upon. Yet even against that backdrop, the
secrecy surrounding urban promotion has always been deafening. Salon
contacted scores of urban record-label executives and radio programmers for
comment; all declined to be interviewed on the record.
How hush-hush is it? Consider the straight-arrow urban P.D. who turned a
top-75 market station around. He got labels to pay for listener vacations
who won call-in contests; he lured big-name artists to make in-person visits
to the station; he even boosted employee morale by giving staffers custom
station jackets.
How did he afford it? "The [promotion] checks were made out to the station,
not Fed-Exed to a P.O. box number," he says today.
When the station owner expressed amazement about what the programmer had
done for the station, the P.D. simply explained the situation. "He didn't
know the previous P.D. was taking money," the P.D. recalls now. That's how
hush-hush it is.
Pick up any music-industry trade guide and you'll see dozens of independent
promotion companies for rock, pop, country, even jazz listed. Only the major
urban players are missing. They don't advertise.
Nonetheless, some inside the world of urban radio and record promotion
agreed to talk to Salon about how the business operates. All requested
anonymity.
They suggest the problem of payoffs is widespread. "I think every reporting
urban station is taking money," says one format programming veteran. He's
referring to the 100-plus stations that, because of their audience size or
influence, are asked to "report" their playlist each week to a trade
magazine, such as R&R or Billboard.
Is the practice that widespread? "What do you mean 'widespread'? It's all
the [urban] stations everywhere," says another urban industry vet.
If a station reports, the monetary value of that playlist increases since
the songs it chooses can affect the trade magazines' weekly charts. And from
a record-company perspective, radio is all about pushing singles up the
chart.
Translation: That's where the money is. According to an urban-radio
programmer, if a station reports just to R&R, a song added to its playlist
is worth roughly $500. If the station reports to both R&R and Billboard,
it's worth roughly $1,200. (In major markets that figure can go much
higher.)
So for an urban station reporting to both trades, and adding five new songs
a week, that's $6,000 a week, or $300,000 a year in tax-free income. Whoever
controls the playlist pockets that money. It could be the station program
director, a consultant, a vice president from corporate programming, or even
the station owner.
As Salon has reported, virtually all the songs played on a typical
commercial radio station -- known as "adds" in the trade -- are paid for.
And while some traditional payola undoubtedly exists in the pop, rock and
country world, more times than not that money goes toward the station's
bottom line to purchase promotional and marketing items (billboards, station
van, etc.), or to help pay bands for an annual all-star concert.
What's different in the urban world, according to format sources, is that
most or all of that money goes directly into somebody's pocket at the
station.
Not surprisingly, with that sort of personal incentive, it's tempting to
stretch the truth. One urban P.D., whose station owner bragged about
stashing away $10,000 each month in indie payments, recalls "adding" songs
that the station never even played on the air. "Sometimes we add eight songs
in one week. Half the songs would show up on the station, and the other half
did not."
But wouldn't record companies fume if they found out a station wasn't
actually spinning songs it reported as added? After all, radio airplay is
supposed to help sell records for artists. Yes, but radio promotion
executives at record companies, already earning healthy six-figure salaries,
often receive hefty bonuses based on how high singles climb the chart, or
simply based on the number of stations that add a particular single.
So if fictitious adds, or "paper adds" as they're called, help secure those
bonuses, the record-company exec won't object too strenuously to the
station's sleight of hand. After all, everyone is happy: The label executive
gets paid, the indie gets paid, and the P.D. gets paid.
Who pays? The artist, for one. Most record companies recoup their costs for
independent promotion from the artist's CD royalties -- which, of course,
would be depleted by the lack of airplay. And, ironically enough, the
stations pay as well, since money that might be used for promotions to build
audience is instead diverted into programmers' personal bank accounts.
Of course some urban acts have a more hands-on relationship with radio
stations. According to a year-old affidavit reviewed by Salon, an executive
at an urban outlet in New Orleans, WQUE, recently testified under oath that
rapper Master P wrote the station a check for $23,000 to help it cover costs
for a poorly attended concert it had sponsored. (The affidavit stemmed from
a non-payola-related wrongful-dismissal suit.)
Within days, the station was spinning Master P's rap songs throughout the
day, from morning to afternoon drive. That, despite the fact that the
station's policy was not to play any hardcore rap until after 6 p.m. (Many
urban stations maintain a similar no-rap policy during the day in an effort
to attract older-skewing advertisers.)
The show was not affiliated with Master P or his No Limit Records, and
Master P wouldn't comment about the check. An internal investigation by the
station owner, Clear Channel Communications, looked into possible payola
activity at the New Orleans station. It found none, although some employees
there complained to Salon that the inquiry was halfhearted at best. (The
company declined to discuss the matter.)
For instance, the affidavit recounted how a record rep from a small
independent label visited the station, hoping to get some airplay for a new
novelty single. The station's music director told him the song might get
played during the morning show, but not in regular rotation.
The record rep actually seemed relieved, exclaiming, "Rotation? I don't have
5,000 fucking dollars to get this in rotation." The implication is that the
label rep knew exactly how much it cost to get a song added at the station.
Earlier this month, WQUE program director Gerod Stevens was fired and
escorted out of the station. General manager Ed Turner, who took over WQUE
in April, says the move had nothing to do with the Clear Channel
investigation. He did add, though, that he wanted a programmer who had "a
little more compassion for our friends in the record industry."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The current system is able to flourish partly because the major labels,
reluctant to make waves inside the profitable format, have adopted a
hear-no-evil, see-no-evil mentality, turning a collective blind eye to the
corrupt transactions.
Even if the labels did want to alter it, the current system may simply be
too firmly entrenched. That's something McClusky and Tri State recently
found out after trying, unsuccessfully, to crack the lucrative urban market.
According to radio sources, both mainstream indie firms approached the
country's two most influential urban radio chains: Radio One, which owns 63
stations in 22 markets, and Blue Chip Broadcasting, which owns 19 stations
in six Midwestern markets.
The indies proposed forming exclusive relationships with their stations,
which would mean promotion money would go toward stations and not to
individuals. The companies, sources say, declined, preferring to stay with
the old system. (Executives for Radio One and Blue Chip Broadcasting did not
return calls for comment.)
"It seems to be working, and if the money is flowing pretty well, why mess
with it?" asks one source, noting that "Bill Scull [at Tri State] and
McClusky can't break in; they aren't socializing with black P.D.'s." Both
Scull and McClusky are white; most urban indies, label vice presidents and
programmers are black. "Black radio is different, it's like a brotherhood, a
clique," says the source.
Some inside the industry suggest that an element of racial unease has
stopped executives from curbing the corruption. "That's the reason that
white guys at labels aren't going to call them out on it. If you do, you're
called a racist," says one source who's spent the last 10 years in
programming at a major-market urban station.
The source also says, "There is this layer of intimidation that hangs around
[the format]," coming particularly from smaller, black-owned rap labels.
"They says things like, 'Add our product or there'll be problems.' They've
intimidated us into putting records on the air."
There are also stories of life in the urban promotion world that are
outrageous even by radio's fast-and-loose standards. The source recalls the
time a rep from a rap label showed up at the station accompanied by bow-tied
Fruit of Islam security guards. "He just parked them at the station and said
we're going to talk to the G.M." Despite the fact that label reps were not
usually allowed to meet with station management, the rep got in to see the
G.M. "He said, 'Your boys in the music department are not getting the job
done.'"
(In his book about Death Row Records, "Have Gun Will Travel," author Ronin
Ro recounts the time gangsta label chief Suge Knight dragged a radio
promotion executive out of a meeting and choked him in an adjacent office.)
In order for record companies to maintain deniability, to protect themselves
against any allegations of wrongdoing, an extra layer of isolation exists
which is unique to urban radio promotion. It's called the "quarterback."
"They're hired as a promotional or marketing company. That keeps the record
companies in the clear," says one source.
The quarterback receives a lump payment from the label to promote a specific
single at radio. This is a legitimate and legal transaction. The QB then
turns around and either contacts stations himself or more likely hires local
indies around the country who take the song to radio programmers they enjoy
close relationships with. ("Certain P.D.s you have to take out to dinner.
Others, you take them to strip clubs," says one person who's done the
schmoozing for a living.)
The indie, at this point clearly in violation of payola laws, negotiates
directly with whoever controls that station's playlist ("How many CDs you
need?") and arrives at an agreed-upon price for the add. The indie relays
that information, quoting from a sort of FM rate card, back to the
quarterback, who OKs the cash payment. The indie then pays off whoever
controls the playlist. And according to one record-company promotion
executive who personally has sent out the deliveries, that includes
overnight envelopes filled with checks or money orders.
So the money actually goes from the label to the quarterback to the indie to
the programmer. The more hands that touch the money, the harder it is to
trace.
Yet precisely because so many hands touch the money -- and pocket their
share -- during the transaction, the payment scheme for urban is more
freewheeling. Whereas pop and rock indies actually submit detailed invoices
to record labels for services rendered (i.e., specific songs added to
specific playlists), sources say on the urban side things are rarely put in
writing.
For instance, according to an urban source who's negotiated such deals, an
indie may tell the quarterback that a station needs $1,200 for an add when
the station only requested $800. That leftover $400 either goes in the
indie's pocket or is split with the quarterback. Or a station will ask for
$800 and that's what the indie tells the quarterback. But the indie also
lets him know that when the label comes back in a month and asks the station
to increase its spins on the new song, the indie's going to need $300 for
that "spin maintenance." Most likely the station will never know about that
$300 payment.
Three hundred dollars may seem like a small amount, but multiply that by the
hundreds of songs added each year to the hundreds of urban stations and it
all adds up to millions and millions.
Pockets are clearly being lined; some worry that radio is suffering in the
process. "Somebody needs to do something, because stations are not being
programmed to their fullest," says an urban industry insider. "They're just
playing records that [labels] are paying them to play. It's gotten so
corrupt it's ridiculous."
> Simple question...who are the entities...regional indie promo
> guys...insiders...focus groups.. that need to be paid off b4 a song
> gets into heavy rotation? I would like to know..
>
> How to get a song on the radio
>
>
> Do tell..
>
> Some body break it down..people to call...costs to consider...be
> honest..I can take it.. That's what it boils down to in the century 2g
> so bring it...Facts and figures people...names and lists....chicken
> and egg...payoffs..magazine articles...payoffs..mtv...itemized lists
> care of indie promo...break it down for us who know half the story not
> the whole....
>
According to a Salon.com article,
"Generally, the indies pay between $100,000 and $400,000 per station,
depending on the size of the market. Once that deal is signed, the indie
sends out weekly invoices to record companies for every song added to that
station's playlist. "
"Roughly $800 per song in middle-size markets and $1,000 and more in larger
markets, up to about $5,000 per song for the biggest stations in the biggest
markets. "
They also go on to say:
"Jeff McClusky & Associates, (is) the nation's largest independent promotion
firm"
It must be true, I saw it on the internet. Glad I could help
RIAA: Feeling Burn of Ripped CDs
By Brad King
2:00 a.m. Aug. 27, 2002 PDT
The recording industry blames the rapid decline of album sales on a new technology that allows people to easily copy and transport music. It's expected to cripple the major record labels.
The year was 1979. Audio cassettes and the Sony Walkman were the feared technologies. Twenty-two years later, the industry is making similar claims, but today's culprit is MP3 files and file-trading services.
The hit-driven recording industry has long been at the mercy of popular tastes, but executives still view emerging technology as dangerous.
Shipments of CDs dropped 7 percent in the first six months of this year, a fact attributed to an increase in music downloads through file-trading services, according to a report issued Monday by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
It's the same argument the organization made two years ago during its legal scrape with Napster. Back then, however, record sales were still climbing.
Today, the decline in sales appears to bolster the RIAA's case.
"There are numerous red flags and warning bells that illustrate conclusively the harmful impact of illegal downloading on today's music industry," said RIAA President Cary Sherman.
But the industry weathered similar downturns when the disco era came to an end -- portable music devices like the Sony Walkman were introduced, and video arcades were competing for teenagers' limited cash reserves.
Three year of tumbling sales hit bottom when CBS Records, then one of the largest labels, was forced to fire 300 employees and close nine distribution centers on one bloody Friday in 1982, an event chronicled in the book Hit Men, which follows the ups and downs of the music industry.
By the mid-1980s, the labels' economic fortunes had turned around. MTV had re-created the rock star. The video game market had disintegrated, and compact discs had supplanted tapes, forcing consumers to replace their antiquated tapes and LPs with digital music.
Congress, too, has repeatedly stepped in to ensure that new technologies wouldn't swallow old business models. In 1992, it created a tax that added a few dollars to the price of digital audio tapes and digital recorders. That money was then distributed among labels.
"Each of these gradations of change can be shocking at first, in the sense that you can digitally send a perfect duplication of a sound recording," said Jim Griffin, CEO of Cherry Lane Digital. "We respond with a fair, but not perfect, way of splitting it up. It's how we responded to webcasting and the audio tape."
While the RIAA works hard to protect its business model, consumers continue to adopt new forms of music media.
The RIAA's most recent study bears this out. People are downloading more files and burning more CDs, according to "Music and the Internet," a study by the Peter D. Hart Research Firm.
Internet users also say they are more likely to download a song -- not buy the album -- after they first hear it.
However, the study is delivered in broad terms and doesn't probe the reasons for consumers' actions. For example, it found that consumers have acquired more burned CDs -- 11.3 this year compared to 5.8 last year -- but there was no indication whether those CDs were personal compilations, which is considered fair use, or mixed CDs made by friends, which isn't.
The study also ignores the effects that online subscription services Pressplay and MusicNet, initiatives backed by the five major music labels, may have had on retail CD sales.
Some analysts believe this is because the labels have not made any effort to provide consumers with choices online, leaving them to fend for themselves.
"Consumers are beginning to understand what digital means," said P.J. McNealy, an analyst with technology research firm GartnerG2. "That goes hand and hand with the PC manufacturers and the ISPs wanting to become entertainment providers. Music is the first introduction of that (thinking), but it takes time to change consumer behaviors.
"The music industry is going through another disruptive technology period like it did 30 years ago, and it will take some time to reverse revenues back in the right direction."