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IBIQUITY TROLLS FOR VOLUNTEER POLICE FORCE

S

Savage

Kempeitai and Stasi, meet...iBiquity! The Digital Radio Geniuses have launched - via their May HD Radio Tech Bulletin No. 5 - a convenient form with which you can rat out any fellow HD users in your market who aren't properly maintaining their HD broadcasts.

The "Broadcast Engineers' Station Issues Report" includes fields for callsign, AM or FM, frequency and listening location. You can type in the time of each "offense" and the nature thereof - with iBiquity shining the 100-watt bulb in your eyes while they shove "hiss" under your fingernails to determine:

"Is the station time aligned?"
"Is the station sending Title and Artists information and if so, is it correct?"
"Is there audio present on the multicast channels(s)?"
"Are the HD2 and HD3 channels the same audio level as the main HD1 and FM analog?"

(MY money on most of the fields checked, from personal experience would be, "don't make me laugh," no, no and no.....)

Big Brother Bob is watching you, HD broadcasters! As if you needed another reason to toss this junk engineering in the dumpster! Presumably the information gleaned from little weasel snitcher-competitors would fuel warning letters from iBiquity to ITS CUSTOMERS (!) warning that continued "offenses" could constitute grounds for legal claims for breach of licensing contract. Check it out for yourself:

http://www.ibiquity.com/broadcasters/quality_implementation/report_station_issues

The FUN NEVER STOPS at iBiquity: you can also whine publicly about pervasive nonavailability of HD receivers.

http://www.ibiquity.com/broadcasters/quality_implementation/report_retail_experience
 
Savage said:
The FUN NEVER STOPS at iBiquity: you can also whine publicly about pervasive nonavailability of HD receivers.

http://www.ibiquity.com/broadcasters/quality_implementation/report_retail_experience
Click to expand...

Which I just delighted in doing after my six weeks trying to find a Sony XDR-F1HD (I finally got a return from Amazon.com). It was my pleasure to fry Frys:

- for inaccurately reporting in store inventory leading me to make long drives to find the inventory was wrong
- for promising me a shipment was coming in on a particular date, only to find out it didn't - again prompting long drives
- for absolutely refusing to sell me the display unit, even after I offered to buy "as is no warranty"

It may be a long time before I shop there again. I will take a lot from retailers, but lies and nonsensically inflexible rules are things I DON'T take. The Sony, by the way, is the real deal when it comes to FM / AM reception. I've already logged HD reception over 40 miles away with an improperly installed dipole draped over a headboard. And occasional HD reception from Austin 130 miles away with modest skip conditions. Power increase for FM? Not needed with tuners like this! Analog reception is over 200 miles with the dipole - Dallas FM in NW Houston with just a dipole. Amazing tuner! Even minimizes HD hash on adjacent channels AM and FM.
 
It would be better if they had a way to send the form directly to the stations themselves. You could, maybe, save the info and send it to iBiquity a week later, if nothing got fixed.
Then, it would be much like the SMPTE "Theater Quality Evaluation Program" of several years ago, where qualified tech folks would evaluate a movie theater. The report went to the theater management, and they often would comp your ticket price as a "Thank You".

It kept them on their toes, not looking over their shoulders ;) .
 
Yes. There is a gigantic difference in motivation and demeanor in the case of "qualified tech folks" reporting performance shortfalls to the persons who are responsible in local theater management. Compare that with the iBiquity model, which is authoritarian in nature and which invites your competitors to make your life miserable with potentially unreasonable or petty complaints.

As you suggest, with the film exhibitors the upshot was a win-win for everyone involved. As opposed to another avenue via which iBiquity gets a fulcrum to shove its failing system down the throat of a potentially overburdened operator.

I think that most of the time-alignment problems and dead-air-on-HD subs are equally the fault of a poorly conceived high-maintenance system (read: cooked up by computer nerds, not real-world broadcasters) and impossibly stressed engineering people.

When all conditions are adverse, the timeline to breakdown and/or disaster is shortened.
 
To quote the fine print at the bottom of the form:

When you fill out and submit a Comment Form, you are not required to submit personally identifiable information such as your name, address, email or phone number.
Click to expand...

So, anyone can say anything?
 
How about their system is hashing up my listening of adjacent channels?

Oh wait!! That a feature!

Silly me.
 
Olney said:
Talk about creating distrust between HD Radio Alliance members, with this HD Radio station reporting form. First, iBiquity pitted HD broadcasters against non-HD broadcasters with cases of interference, and now this new development. iBiquity has alienated itself from some manufacturers, such as Pioneer, and with some automakers, when they tried to force HD Radio into Satellite Radio receivers, which failed. This looks like another last-ditch effort to save HD Radio. I wonder, if retailers and manufacturers had to agree on specific time-frames? Also, hints of broadcasters non-disclosure agreements banned them from saying anything negative to the Press. Of course, broadcast engineers have been muzzled by iBiquity and HD Radio broadcast management. Maybe, iBiquity will start legal actions against HD Radio Alliance members, retailers, manufacturers, and automakers, just like with forced Satrad inclusion. Disgraceful behavior indicative of a disreputable company. It has also been hinted that iBiquity might be using International Trade Agreements for force HD Radio into foreign countries.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't be um.. ah.. no... it couldn't be... trying to insinuate that iniquity has been less than 100% candid and forthright in any of their dealings with the public or the broadcasting industry would you?
 
Thanks, Olney - another telling sign of how well thought-out HD Radio is.

Consider this scenario.

You're thinking about buying a new car - let's call it the Studebaker X-U-V, highly touted in its class (by its few fans.) You take it for a test drive and have a few questions. So you go to studebaker.com and are confronted with a consumer survey that looks something like:

TELL US ABOUT YOUR STUDEBAKER X-U-V TEST DRIVE! Check your concerns in the box provided.

(a) Vehicle won't start
(b) Vehicle won't stop (brakes ineffective)
(c) Headlights abruptly go out while driving at night
(d) Heating/AC sticks either on full heat or full air, can't regulate
(e) No power climbing hills
(f) Gas mileage of 7 mpg
(g) Roof leaks rain water
(h) Barfs oil all over my driveway and garage floor

Please be sure to fill out the field labelled CRIMINAL LOSER DEALERSHIP WHO SOLD YOU THIS HUNK OF JUNK.

So....when would you like to take delivery?
 
They want feedback, lets give them honest feedback. I ratted out every local HD station that doesn't lock in my listening location, especially AM at night. I really don't want to fuel the drive for a power increase on the FM sidebands, though.
 
It's a safe bet that iBiquity isn't going to "junk" HD Radio. It's what they do for a living. As far as writing HD off for tax purposes, writeoffs only work if you've got actual income to offset. AFAIK iBiquity's never made a dime, and has no prospects to do so any time soon, so a "carry-forward" is not likely to be useful either.

As far as the FM digital power increase is concerned: I happen to believe that whatever happens, it's going to be too little, too late. NPR's latest study on the increase won't even be completed until fall. Meanwhile, the clock ticks louder and louder. HD loses what little relevance it has with each passing day.

Receivers get scarcer, station support of HD gets wobblier as overstressed management and engineering weary of the constant technical difficulties and listener complaints. Economic thumbscrews tighten, making half-mil rebuilds of transmitter sites for increased HD power even less likely.

Adding to HD's gathering storm clouds is the abrupt departure of the NAB's David "Bringing Up The Rear" Rehr, one of IBOC's more stubborn supporters - which turned out to be unfortunate for HD Radio, given his disastrous record of infallibly picking the wrong horses. If I'm not mistaken he picked the idiot ad agency that created the famously ineffective and offensive HD on-air promos.

"As the days do lengthen, thy enemies do strengthen," goes the old saying.
 
So what's the iBiquity "Gestapo" going to do if you rat-out your local engineer? Mine will know it's me that 'told' on him, even though it isn't his fault the the stations keep dropping out of HD, it's iBiquity's new programs.
 
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