Last week came the announcement that the CRA and would be joining the BBC and NAB to put radio front and centre in car audio with DTS Connected Radio.
All in Media (AIM), part of the Xperi family, will assist in the development and radioinfo was able to ask AIM’s Senior Digital Producer, Richard Phelps, for his views on the development and on where the current state of play sits.
Richard says that hybrid radio is the answer to the ultimate question of the in-car radio experience and the industry is now looking at how the user will see radio on platforms that, even now, are hard to imagine.
He says “…with our relationships with the car companies we have an insight into what they are thinking.
“They are also asking radio, what do you want to do?
“It’s not a matter of should we include radios, but …we’d love radio to be in there and what do you want?
“And so part of the problem is how do we make the existing platform work really well on these new hybrid devices and connected car platforms and then how do we supplement that with richer experiences and engagement?
“The idea behind the connected radio platform is to make sure that when we have a platform that it allows radio broadcasters to be able to be in control of those experiences and gain a lot more insight on in-car experience.
“There’s so many things that are involved with it, it’s a lot of work, a lot of heavy lifting and you know the testing has just gotten under way so we’ll see how that goes.”
In the full interview below, Richard talks about the new RadioApp, Hybrid Radio and the next move the CBAA and Community Radio should be thinking about
For more information about the DTS automotive business, visit www.xperi.com/futureofauto or www.dts.com
In a similar article on RadioPlayer's hybrid radio, source article, RadioInfo November 7, 2018, all RadioPlayer needs to do is to incorporate AM radio stations just as the DTS Connected Radio, source article "https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/xperi-will-showcase-dts-connected-radio-platform-at-ces, Jan 5, 2018.
The BBC are have been running the latest in-car version of RadioPlayer, source http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/blog/radioplayer-car-launch since 2017 and will be trialing DTS Connected Radio, sources, RadioInfo, 26 September 2018, and https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180925005483/en/Xperi-BBC-Collaborate-Enhance-In-Car-Radio-Listening .
At the moment a "seamless" connection between AM, FM, DAB and IP streams are based on the assumption of terrestrial transmission of signals. If one signal from say the AM (MW frequency) is not available, then either the DAB and/or IP streams should substitute. If one is in the middle of the nowhere, there would not be any reception.
Perhaps whatever form of hybrid radio, it could be extended to the reception of satellite radio. By the way some DAB radios have the capability of receiving L-Band satellite reception such as the 2009 model Pure Siesta bedside clock radio.
But why limit digital radio to DAB and incorporate Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) into the hybrid radio mix?
Anyway If we said aside the business model (subscription) and non-DAB but digital technology of the US's XMSirius satellite radio, they too are developing IP stream-based apps with their service.
It could well that the future hybrid radio could be a competition between RadioPlayer, DTS connected radio and XMSirius. Will it be like the competing technologies of SQ vs Discrete quadraphonic of the 1970s with no winners, VHS vs Beta of the 1980s with VHS winning but now redundant, or like Blu-ray vs HD discs with blu-ray the winner?
Time will tell,
Regards
Anthony of exciting Belfield