iBiquity sent out a notice that there are (several) car radios that will not get an HD lock UNLESS you have all 3 text fields populated with at least something. Pretty goofy if you ask me. It looks like if you have the latest HD software update of the week you're good to go, but if you don't want to change it and risk what you have working, simply put your call letters in 3 times over and you'll be all set. Imagine that, no HD lock! I'm surprised that more stations didn't go with the -10dB digital signal level to try to get their HD to match their analog coverage area.
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iBiquity issues notice about car radios not locking into HD
- Thread starter JohnnyElectron
- Start date
In other words...
Dear iBiquity Customers:
We're not sorry that our product is pure crap. In fact, we're laughing all the way to the bank on your dime! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Sincerely,
iBiquity
Dear iBiquity Customers:
We're not sorry that our product is pure crap. In fact, we're laughing all the way to the bank on your dime! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Sincerely,
iBiquity
There was another little known notice ibiquity sent out:
Dear iBlock customer:
We have gotten a couple of complaints over the past several weeks that many of you are not able to lock onto an HD signal driving around in your car while listening to our scintillating audio experience called HD, now some people think that means high definition, haha! (Man we sure fooled 'em didn't we?) Now what it really stands for is Hardly Discernible, yes, that's right, HD is Hardly Discernible on your new HD radio unless you are driving within a mile of the radio transmitter.
So dear loyal customer, we have found a fix for that:
To ensure you get a lock and keep that lock simply make sure you stay within 1 mile of the transmitter towers at all times. Now you think that means that you can not drive very far at all to listen to our super excellent system, no, that is NOT the case, you can drive in a two mile circle all around the tower, one mile this way, and one mile that way! Now we're not any better in math than we are at designing digital radio systems so we can't really tell you how many square miles that is (although we do think it has something to do with a hippopotamus of a circle or something like that) but anyway you get the idea, now happy driving! Y'all come back ya hear! We'll find some other way to soak you next year!
Dear iBlock customer:
We have gotten a couple of complaints over the past several weeks that many of you are not able to lock onto an HD signal driving around in your car while listening to our scintillating audio experience called HD, now some people think that means high definition, haha! (Man we sure fooled 'em didn't we?) Now what it really stands for is Hardly Discernible, yes, that's right, HD is Hardly Discernible on your new HD radio unless you are driving within a mile of the radio transmitter.
So dear loyal customer, we have found a fix for that:
To ensure you get a lock and keep that lock simply make sure you stay within 1 mile of the transmitter towers at all times. Now you think that means that you can not drive very far at all to listen to our super excellent system, no, that is NOT the case, you can drive in a two mile circle all around the tower, one mile this way, and one mile that way! Now we're not any better in math than we are at designing digital radio systems so we can't really tell you how many square miles that is (although we do think it has something to do with a hippopotamus of a circle or something like that) but anyway you get the idea, now happy driving! Y'all come back ya hear! We'll find some other way to soak you next year!
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Do I have to factor in tower height into that one mile distance? Because most of the stations here that transmit in HD are on 1,500-1,900 foot sticks, and that's darn near half a mile right there.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
Does anybody have the real text of the notice? This is fascinating!
Hi RBruce, here's part of it from BE:
"...It has been determined that certain HD Radios can have a problem locking onto HD signals if all 3 SIS message fields are not populated
(Station Slogan Standard, Station Slogan Universal, Station Message).
These three fields need to be populated with a minimum of 1 character.
A blank space will suffice if you do not want any of these fields populated with actual data..."
"...It has been determined that certain HD Radios can have a problem locking onto HD signals if all 3 SIS message fields are not populated
(Station Slogan Standard, Station Slogan Universal, Station Message).
These three fields need to be populated with a minimum of 1 character.
A blank space will suffice if you do not want any of these fields populated with actual data..."
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FredLeonard
Guest
Through a venture capital firm it controls, the main holder of iBiquity voting stock is Apple. iBiquity (notice is starts with "i") exists to make dire-hard radiophiles fed up with radio, with buzzsaw noises on AM and constant lock-out on FM. So fed up they will buy iStuff to listen to instead.
The ones benefiting from that would be Google and Android, not Apple. The only people who buy iPhones anymore are current iPhone owners. IPhone sales and iTunes Store use are horribly stagnant.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
That would explain why Apple refuses to turn on the FM chips (actually just functions in much larger chips that are already there and crucial to the function of the phone). If HD doesn't work, iTunes tagging won't work, they won't make money and their technical reputation would be shot.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
Not really - my wife has an Android, my sister in law Windows phone. A girl living with us something else. Every time I turn around they are asking for help and some function that is easy to access and do on an iPhone is impossible because its not in the OS of the other phones. The only thing they have going for them is bigger displays and Apple is about to fix that. Also - I find iPhones are very easy to work on - replacing parts is easy once you have the tools and replacement parts. I don't know about the others. Of course most people don't repair phones. iTunes is horrible and clunky, so I have third party software that treats the phone like an external drive with full read / write capability. Being a radio guy I do care about copyright, but I also own those songs so being able to read and write them as I please on every computer I own is legitimate use as far as I am concerned as long as I don't give songs away. Of course the song library is not suitable for broadcast, the compression process strips the handles that the optimod uses. It would be nice - if I could have my entire library on my phone! I remember lugging multiple heavy totes full of CD's in and out of WAPN - not fun!
Which firm? I was unaware that Apple controlled any VC firm, except for iFund, which provides early financial support for development of iOS related products.
Then how come there are no apps for a jailbroken iPhone to use the FM radio feature?
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FredLeonard
Guest
(1) There's not a huge market for apps that work only on jail-broken iPhones. Not that many people go to the trouble. (2) People who do go to the trouble aren't that interested in using an iPhone to listen to local FM radio. It's really not the kind of thing that appeals to techno-geeks who jailbreak their iPhones.
Above also applies to rooted Android phones (although Google does allow apps for rooted phones in the Google Playstore, unlike Apple's app store).
FM in phones sucks. It only works with headphones. No Bluetooth. No listening on the speaker like one of those old "transistor radios" that fit in your pocket. Reception is poor. Stations you get with a car radio or on your audio system at home you can't get at all on the phone - or you can only get it by holding the phone a certain way and not moving.
Besides, why listen to OTA FM on a smartphone when you can listen to streaming audio FM?
Above also applies to rooted Android phones (although Google does allow apps for rooted phones in the Google Playstore, unlike Apple's app store).
FM in phones sucks. It only works with headphones. No Bluetooth. No listening on the speaker like one of those old "transistor radios" that fit in your pocket. Reception is poor. Stations you get with a car radio or on your audio system at home you can't get at all on the phone - or you can only get it by holding the phone a certain way and not moving.
Besides, why listen to OTA FM on a smartphone when you can listen to streaming audio FM?
The vc / investment banking firms that presently have equity in iBiquity are Grotech Capital Group, J.P. Morgan Partners, New Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital and Columbia Partners. Among the founding venture capital firms are Riggs Capital, Grotech Capital Group, H&Q Venture Associates and Whitney. At the time of the merger of USA Digital and Lucent Digital, which resulted in the creation of iBiquity, the venture capital division of Lucent became the largest stakeholder.
None have been or are controlled by Apple.
iBiquity was formed, via a merger, in 2000, long before the iPhone... a year before the iPod and roughly at the same time that iTunes was introduced, amid a bunch of startups and products that tried to use the letter "i" or "I" to self-identify with the Internet. Serendipity, yes. Collusion, no.
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From a tech site: "It's that time again: Apple has just posted its Q2 2014 financials, and there are some interesting device sales numbers to peep at. Apple saw a big year-over-year jump in the number of iPhones sold (43.7 million this time vs. 37.4 million in the same quarter last year)."
iPhones have a smaller share of a rapidly expanding market. Most analysts view this as a positive as the iPhone is capturing much of the premium, higher profit segment while the other smartphones are bottom feeding by selling through carriers to the lower end of the price spectrum.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Do your own searc on "Apple cell phone sales 2014". It's all over the web.
I also verified the data in the Morningstar analyst report on Apple. Apple iPhone sales in Q1 and Q2 are up by double digit percentages over 2013 and they are capturing the more profitable sales.
Look for "Samung cell phone sales 2014" and you will see the revised 2014 sales downward by 10% for this year and they are concentrating on the low an middle segments of the smartphone sector.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Android sales exceed iOS sales. Look it up. Several brands use the open-source Android operating system. Only Apple uses iOS. You are comparing Apple (a brand) and Oranges (an operating system - Android).
We were talking about Apple sales, not the OS itself.
Apple invented the category, so any new entrants will take market share. However, as smartphone penetration approaches 100% there is room at the bottom for lower cost low profit manufacturers. Apple is growing its sales in double digit ranges, as it continues to dominate the high end... And high profits.
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