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Grabbing At Straws ? 3D Radio...LOL !

The trademark is perhaps "chessy", but the concept is serious. We have 5,1 and 7.1 surround sound on TV, movies and Blu-Ray. We had 5.1 surround on DVDs for 10 years. Had 4.0 Dolby Surround on Laser Disc and VHS tapes for over 20years.
Ibquity missed the boat, when they did not pursue this with HD Radio.
 
from 3.5 years ago, they were broadcasting it correct, but it was being received by prototype receivers. Now I don't know about you but I have heard ZERO about any manufacturer making radios that are decoding that HD MPEG

"According to Sanders, Boston area receiver manufacturers Bose, Boston Acoustics and Tivoli Audio are monitoring and evaluating the WZLX broadcasts on prototype receivers provided by the Fraunhofer-Institut. "
 
3D Radio?

Unless Daniel Anstandig is involved, I just don't trust it.
 
Surround sound on the radio has proven to be a real steep mountain to climb. So much so that I think a lot of broadcasters would like to do it in the abstract, but the ROI just isn't there because it takes so much work. A huge (and expensive in both time and money) issue is the lack of suitable material. Very little commercial programming (AFAIK, no pubradio programming, either) is recorded in true 5.1 (much less 7.1) surround. You can convert old stuff into surround, but it's sort of like converting a 2D movie into 3D; the effects never quite feel right.

But the biggest problem was the equipment:

  • It takes some serious gear in the studio and STL to make surround work. I heard that it took endless fiddling with their Axia board to keep the surround sound working at WZLX.
  • I don't think any commercially-available HD Radio receivers decode surround sound. Although, perhaps ironically, I'll bet all of them COULD do it if you had the firmware update. The decoder chip being used in most HD receivers is quite versatile. For example, it'll decode FMeXtra's digital signals just fine if you have the right firmware for the UI.
  • And very few stations transmit it (WZLX was the prototype station and there were a handful of others, but I think they all shut it off) so you've got a chicken/egg problem that's very expensive to overcome.

And the end result is...well, it is kinda cool to hear stuff in surround, I admit. I've heard the demos at NAB a few years ago. But in the car, where most radio listening still is, the surround is just lost in car noise (and irregular listening positions) at least 80% of the time. So the listeners just aren't going to see much benefit. (shrug)

Considering how awful many 3D movies are (either poorly-converted 2D films or simply using 3D as a crutch for weak writing/acting) I suppose I'm not sorry that surround sound never really took off for radio.
 
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