The document discusses new platforms and applications for radio broadcasting. It covers several topics: the desire of broadcasters to improve their service by offering more interactivity and integration with other platforms and devices; the many technological enablers now available to support this; the status of digital radio deployment; limitations of internet streaming; opportunities for FM radio through technologies like RDS; hybrid broadcast-internet models; hosting content in cloud-based platforms; and new types of radio receivers.

1. New Radio Platforms
and Applications Topics
François Lefebvre
Communications Research Centre Canada
DRCG / NRPA Meeting, CRC, Ottawa, March 22, 2011
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2. NRPA Topics
 1. Broadcast radio wants to get better
 2. Many enablers
 3. Digital radio status quo
 4. Internet can't do it all
 5. New life for FM / RDS
 6. Hybrid: connected radio
 7. The conversation is in the ”Cloud”
 8. New receivers
 9. New systems
 10. New standards
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3. 1.
Broadcast Radio
Wants to Get Better
3

4. Broadcaster
 Offer better service
 New business opportunities
 Keep the radio media relevant
Consumer
 New expectations due to new media landscape
 Multimedia
 Interactivity
 Integration into new devices and platforms
 Integration into social applications
 ...
4

5. 2.
Many Enablers
5

6. Devices
Digital Delivery
Internet
Connectivity
Internet
6

7. 3.
Digital Radio Status Quo
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8. Why Digitize ?
 Replacement technologies for AM, FM
 Spectral efficiency
 Freeing spectrum for more services
 Energy efficiency (green)
 Better quality of service
 Multimedia added value
 New services and applications
 Participate / take advantage of new technologies
 Maintain competitiveness to Internet services
 ...
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9. DAB in Canada
 Status quo
 US goes HD radio
 Industry Canada consultation on L-Band
 Possible reasons
 Business models ?
 Quality vs quantity
 Receiver availability
 Simulcast
 No cutoff date
 New context: Internet, …
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10. 4.
Internet can't do it all
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11. Broadcasting = one-to-many distribution
Cost of distribution is
Independant of audience
Internet = many-to-many
Distribution costs increase with audience
(paradox of popularity)
(one solution: peer-to-peer)
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12. Internet properties
 Thousands of radio stations
 Global access an reach
 QoS: ”best effort”
 Paradox of popularity
 Non regulated
 Measurable audiences
 Various contexts: home, car, portable, ...
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13. OK for the Home

Broadband
works
© Yamaha

Costs OK for © vTech
user and
broadcaster

Many connected © Apple
devices already © Terratec
© PURE
© ROKU 13

14. Online Complementary Services
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15. Many Mobile Options BUT ...
© Novatel
© Autonet
© Livio
© Blaupunkt
© Microsoft
© ROKU 15
© BMW Mini Cooper

16. Internet streaming
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17. Mobile (3G) Internet streaming does not scale
infastructure can't support
thousands of simultaneous
constant high bitrate streams (yet)
Expensive proposition for consumer
2 hours per day of radio = 1Gb / month
> 30$ / month (in Canada)
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18. 5.
New Life for FM / RDS
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19. Radio Data System (RDS)
 RDS Forum (http://www.rds.org.uk)
 RDS = RBDS
 Capacity: 1.2 kbps
 Mature technologie (25 years)
 Full deployment in Europe (cars, …)
 Low penetration in America
 Typical usage: infrastructure
 New usage: new applications
 Low cost: easy add-on to current infrastructure
 200 million circuits sold per year (100m Silicon Labs)
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20. RDS: Typical Uses
 Program Id code (PI, 4 hex characters)
 Station Id (PS): 8 characters
 Call sign, others...
 Program type (PTY)
 Alternate frequency (network)
 Travel info (TA, TP)
 Clock (CT)
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21. RDS: new uses
 Open Data Applications (ODA)
 Radiotext Plus (RT+)
 iTunes tagging
 Traffic Message Channel (RDS-TMC)
 Messages: alerts / emergencies
 Smartgrid
 RadioDNS
 Hybrid service (RDS + Internet devices)
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22. Open Data Applications
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23. RadioText Plus (RT+)
 Backwards compatible to RadioText
 Categorize RT: 64 ”tags”
 Artist, title, phone numbers, http links, ...
 Easy to implement on computer platforms
 Sophistacated tagging
 Specialized app automatic launch
 Nokia partner in development (mobile!)
 Deployment in US, UK, Germany, ...
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24. Exemples RT+
 RT: ”Vous entendez Lindberg avec Robert Charlebois”
RT+: title: 15, 8
RT+: artist: 29, 17
 RT: ”Contactez-nous au 1 800 888-6468”
 RT+ , no. Tel. : 19, 16
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25. RT
RT+ Title
RT+ Artist
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26. iTunes Tagging
iPod Nano 5th generation
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27. iTunes Tagging
How it works: broadcaster ?
iTunes Tagging
 Agreement with Apple
 Add iTunes Tags to playout system
 Revenue sharing with Apple (5% broadcaster)
Non-affiliated tagging (without Apple)
 RT+ tagging
 User can buy on Apple
 Research based on Artist + Title
 Research success rate: 80%
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28. iTunes Tagging
How it works: user ?
- On HD Radio AND FM / RDS
- HD: docking stations for iPods / iPhones
- Only iPod Nano 5th & 6th generation.
- User clicks special button
- iPod / iPhone tags transfered on iTunes
- New category in iTunes
- Click, buy...
Microsoft: Zune Tagging on FM / HD Radio
And Zune Marketplace
© Microsoft
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29. iTunes ”Tagged” ...
29

30. iTunes ”Tagged” ...
30

31. iTunes Tagging HD Radio
© iBiquity
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32. iTtunes Tagging:
th th
iPod Nano 5 and 6 Generation
Good
- FM Receiver with RDS
- FM Radio is ”cool”
- Younger generations exposed to FM
- Infrastructure in place (RDS?)
- New revenues : iTunes Tagging
Bad
- No general tagging: only iTunes
- Apple controls the ecosystem
- ”iTuneization” / ”Mainstreamization” of music
- Canadians will now see poor RDS offerings...
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33. Other tagging types
- Music sales on other online stores
- Other revenue sharing models
- Niche content (not on iTunes)
- Spoken content tagging
- Ads tagging
- Web sites tagging
- Phone numbers tagging
- .....
33

34. RDS-TMC
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35. Alerts & Emergencies
VS
35

36. 6.
Hybrid:
Connected Radio
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37. Broadcast Audio
(FM, DAB, …)
+
+
Optional Internet
“add ons”
37

38. Hybrid FM / Internet Broadcaster
Broadcast Network Internet
FM RDS
PI
Slides Interaction
Audio PS
EPG Buy
RT
Targetted Tag
ODA
content Tell me
RT+
... more
TMC
...
....
Radio “Listener”38

39. Pure Sensia
Internet Radio
Wifi
DAB (Bande III)
FM + RDS
Touch screen
Apps
RadioDNS, ....
39 © Pure

40. Hybrid ?
 Hybrid service
 Robust FM audio service
 Optional complementary enhancements on Internet
 Pictures, text, interaction, EPG, station logo,
name, ...
 Out of band, non regulated
 Progressive transition towards all-digital system
 When does all-digital arrive ?
 FM is there to stay ?
 FM/RDS comes in devices anyway !
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41. 7.
The Conversation is
In the ”Cloud”
41

42. Put everything on the cloud
- catalize conversation -
 Audio content (talk, ...)
 Associated content
 .... and more
 Complete transcripts (for search engines)
 Web 2.0 access mechanisms (API)
 Podcasts
 New services (new revenues...)
42

43. Model for ”everything on the cloud”
National Public Radio (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/api/index
© NPR
© NPR
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44. ”Conversational” Internet
Music Platforms
 Last FM
 Pandora
 Spotify
 Dabbl, Jelli: listener managed playlists
 Stitcher
 Podcasting
 ...
44

45. 8.
New Receivers
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46. WANTED:
More smarthpones with accessible FM/RDS
- Samsung Galaxy S: YES (but not all models)
- Samsung Galaxy TAB: NO
- Google Nexus One: NO
- Google Nexus S: NO
- Samsung Galaxy S II: ?
-…
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47. Chumby One ?
Radio Internet
Wifi
© Chumby
FM + RDS
Écran tactile
Applications
Open source, ....
47

48. FM by defauld, not by design
© Broadcom
48

49. 9.
New Systems
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50. New Systems
 Advanced RDS encoders
 Automation : new applications insertion: RT+, ...
 Voice recognition (transcripts)
 Internet servers
 Virtualization: Amazon,...
 Over the top TV platforms ...
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51. 10.
New Standards
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52. Standardisation pour l'hybride
 Ponts entre services FM et Internet (RadioDNS)
 Alignement des services (IMDA)
 Texte, titres, formats images, guide de
programmation, …
 Répertoires de stations
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53. RadioDNS
 Automatic linking of tuned radio station with
complementary Internet enhancements
 Station unique Id
 FM / RDS: Extended Country Code + PI
 DAB: SCIDs + SID + EID + ECC
 HD Radio: FCC facility code
 Receiver requests to radiodns.org
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54. IMDA
 Internet Media Device Alliance
 Players: manufacturers, aggregators,
broadcasters.
 Standardization of formats
 Streaming codecs AV
 Metadata
 Multimedia
 Service discovery
 Profiles: limited display and multimedia screens
54  Alignement with DR standards

55. Aggregators
- New tuning paradigm
- Lists of radio stations
- detailed information
- Embedded in many types of receivers
- Managed or unmanaged
- Free or licensed
Internet Radio,
mamaged
Internet radio
unmanaged, free
Internet radio + DAB
+ FM + ...
managed, licenses
55

56. PRESENTATIONS
www.slideshare.net/tag/crcmmb
www.youtube.com/crcmmb
PROJETS
www.crc.ca/mmb
mmbTools.crc.ca
openmokast.org
BLOG
Broadcasting20.org
Twitter: @fralef
francois.lefebvre@crc.ca
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