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iBiquity's In-Store HD-Radio Demos

C

Carmine5

Interesting article on how iBiquity plans to get around the problem of some electronics stores not having outdoor antennas to pick up HD signals.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6561407.html

The concepts is as follows:

"...the company has placed “retail demonstration modules” (RDMs) that connect to up to 10 HD Radios at a time to walk consumers through a simulated demo delivered through the radio’s own speakers."

I'm assuming that the 'black box' consists of a little part-15 FM TX since the customer has to tune to 88.1 on the HD Radio to hear the demo. The demo itself is a recorded loop on flash memory.

Of course, hearing a real world HD broadcast is out of the question with this technique so I'm not sure how useful this idea is in the end.

C5
 
Carmine5 said:
Interesting article on how iBiquity plans to get around the problem of some electronics stores not having outdoor antennas to pick up HD signals.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6561407.html

The concepts is as follows:

"...the company has placed “retail demonstration modules” (RDMs) that connect to up to 10 HD Radios at a time to walk consumers through a simulated demo delivered through the radio’s own speakers."

I'm assuming that the 'black box' consists of a little part-15 FM TX since the customer has to tune to 88.1 on the HD Radio to hear the demo. The demo itself is a recorded loop on flash memory.

Of course, hearing a real world HD broadcast is out of the question with this technique so I'm not sure how useful this idea is in the end.

C5
Click to expand...

The best slapstick-comedy writer in the world could never in a million years make up such utter nonsense. Remember the scene in "The Sunshine Boys" where Matthau and Burns are trying create the set to rehearse the doctor sketch in Matthau's apartment? That's what this stuff reminds me of.

If they wanted to demonstrate to their customers how deaf most of these radios are ("sounded great in the store, why can't I pick up any stations at home? give me my money back!") they couldn't have chosen a better method.
 
dumber than a box of hair said:
If they wanted to demonstrate to their customers how deaf most of these radios are ("sounded great in the store, why can't I pick up any stations at home? give me my money back!") they couldn't have chosen a better method.
Click to expand...

Using an analog FM modulator tuned to 88.1 to demonstrate the superiority of DIGITAL transmission! Probably brought their seriously doctored deep fringe FM recording out of mothballs - the one that used to be on their website - that was the "before" example. Like the listener in that listening location would even have a prayer of getting HD lock - even after the power increase.

Here is an idea - pack the overpriced HD table radios with terabytes of flash memory to hold five years or so of music. Then fake station IDs for HD stations in each area in between the music.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
dumber than a box of hair said:
If they wanted to demonstrate to their customers how deaf most of these radios are ("sounded great in the store, why can't I pick up any stations at home? give me my money back!") they couldn't have chosen a better method.
Click to expand...

Using an analog FM modulator tuned to 88.1 to demonstrate the superiority of DIGITAL transmission!
Click to expand...

This was my thought. I've already heard HD-FM and came away thinking it didn't sound any better than analog. So what's a customer new to HD Radio to think when he/she hears an analog demo from an HD receiver?

And the A/B comparison seems really fishy. Take a sound file, roll off a little top end, mix in a tiny bit of background noise and, voila!, one analog FM demo file suitable for use in comparing against HD-FM.

This whole thing is just more poorly conceived foolishness from the good folks at iBiquity.

C5
 
Just more and more deception from the folks at iBiquity and the HD radio cartel.

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
- More quotations on: [Lies]
Click to expand...

http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Search=oh+what+a+tangled+web+we+weave&startsearch=Search&Author=&C=mgm&C=motivate&C=classic&C=coles&C=poorc&C=lindsly

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), radio address, October 26, 1939
Click to expand...
 
I like rbruce's idea.

The more things change.... Back in the dawn of our industry in the 1920s, the stone-age radio antecedents of iBiquity Digital were a bunch of snake-oil carney types who promoted "free music right out of thin air!" to unsuspecting dupes.

These guys would sweep into a city which had no radio station selling everything from overpriced crystal sets to REALLY pricey TRF radios. They'd set up tents with free demos and peddle the receivers using high-pressure deceptive sales pitches. Customers sucked in by the novelty of hearing free entertainment out of thin air plunked down the cash, blissfully unaware that the sales company's truck contained a high quality battery powered QRP transmitter.

Then the radio sales show would pack up and leave town, leaving would-be listeners without anything to listen to - except via skywave, at night. Many purchasers had no idea that they had to string up elaborate antennas to hear anything.

My grandfather, a steam riverboat and locomotive engineer, was thus duped by HD's forebears. But that prompted a lifelong fascination with radio. He became the defacto radio repairman in his small Ohio River town back when the basics of radio were all-but-unknown.
 
This is almost as absurd as "demonstrating" Digital TV by showing a server-fed or satellite-fed signal on the screens.....something I've always likened to demo'ing a fancy sound system by just using the speakers, without the rest of the equipment.

If they can't "put up an antenna", then how are they getting those DBS (and, sat radio) satellite signals? It's just an excuse to not demonstrate a "free" technology. Might cut in on those monthly-subscription commissions.

I won't buy a new TV until I can see it work. And, I mean, "see it work" with the signals I'm going to watch at home, on an antenna. Not some demo disc. I did that with the HD Radio I have.
 
BTW, I wonder if they are using something like the Sencore units that Mitsubishi supplied to dealers during the early days of Digital TV. They were stream servers, that actually played back the data of a pre-recorded ATSC DTV signal.

That might be a way of doing "real" HD-Radio, but it still ain't live broadcasting.
 
Carmine5 said:
Interesting article on how iBiquity plans to get around the problem of some electronics stores not having outdoor antennas to pick up HD signals.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6561407.html

The concepts is as follows:

"...the company has placed “retail demonstration modules” (RDMs) that connect to up to 10 HD Radios at a time to walk consumers through a simulated demo delivered through the radio’s own speakers."
Click to expand...

I wonder if they ever considered supplying a display and an outdoor antenna? I doubt it would cost much more, although actual installation might be a problem. At least, it would be honest and consumers could hear the real thing for themselves.
 
According to the TWICE article, RDMs "now appear in several hundred outlets, including Circuit City outlets in its top 20 markets...", so while I was out shopping today (here in the number 5 market), I stopped by my local CC on a fact-finding mission. If a store ever needed help pulling in FM signals, this would be the one -- it's about 25 miles from the antenna farm and at the bottom of a valley where no station has line-of-sight coverage.

Here's what I found:

- The entrance to the car audio department was flanked by two big racks of satellite receivers, one for XM and one for Sirius

- Back in the dashboard receiver rack, I only saw two "HD ready" receivers, but nothing about tuning to 88.1 for a demonstration, nor any HD promotional materials

- About 30 seconds later, a sales rep approached, so I asked about the HD Radios. His response:

"We only only have this one" and he pointed to the JVC -- which was only "HD ready", not the KD-HDR1 with internal decoder. "The commercials are telling people we carry a whole lot more radios than we actually do. Sony really screwed up -- their radio didn't work well so we no longer carry it."

So, I have nothing new to report. If anyone actually finds a store with the "simulated HD" demo, please let us know more.
 
I checked out our regional "big" retailer last night. They are down to 2-3 "HD Ready" and one (the Dual) "HD Radio" car stereos. The JVC seems to have disappeared.

No table-model HD receivers at all (never have had those). And, only some stations seem to lock on the car stereo demo's HD anyway. (Wonder what they have for an antenna?)
 
"Just being "Digital" is no longer enough of a gimmick to get the public's attention."

But Corporate America broadcasters still think it does. That's why they've sunk MILLIONS into a technology that no one has been calling for or cares about. They still haven't and are unwilling to admit that the sheer lack of quality of the content and the lack of good TALENT is why radio is overlooked as a useful media these days in so many cases. Kids have already got it figured out. Radio sucks and they know it, so they avoid it like a bad disease. Too bad radio chain owners can't figure out they can't BUY themselves out of the slump by putting some "digital" technology on the air.

It's alll about what comes out the two speakers and right now what's coming out of the sucks royaly. Adding a digital verison proves nothing.

The thing that makes me laugh about the whole HD thing is the VERY band that needed the most help is the one that was a total afterthought and concequently is a total joke. They should have invested time, effort, money, and political effort into making it work, even if they had to somehow get spectrum to do it via auction. Instead they accepted an iferior product that is a total joke. FM was good enough. AM was the one that needed help and was ignored. Early on I heard the typical corporate crap about how important it was to make sure bigger stations got bigger digital coverage areas and the little guys got very little as usual. Instead of parity and a good local coverage outside of the band we got a bastardization that is useless to anyone. Ever try to listen to "HD" AM during a lighting storm? What happened to all the promises of getting rid of noise? If I can get an AM station with enough strength to get the "HD" signal it's good enough to listen to anyway with very little noise. What's the point?

What's the point in investing in HD on the consumer side or on the broadcaster side? What's the hope of EVER recovering the money it costs? Is this whole "investment" just to entertain the stock market enough so they will hopefully think radio is cool enough again to be useful because it's DIGITAL?
 
Speaking of AM interference, I just re-lamped our office with the new-fangled CFL or Compact Fluorescent Lamps, which will eventually become the Federally dictated mandatory replacement for good old incandescent lamps. The noise these things produce is unbelievable. It has completely destroyed any AM listening inside the building. Using a GE Super Radio as a test device, I have to get about 10 feet outside of the building to receive any AM signals, at which point several come in very well. Step inside and it is nothing but a digital shrieking noise, all across the band.

I wonder how HD will stand up to this? (I can guess....)
 
Chuck said:
Speaking of AM interference, I just re-lamped our office with the new-fangled CFL or Compact Fluorescent Lamps, which will eventually become the Federally dictated mandatory replacement for good old incandescent lamps. The noise these things produce is unbelievable. It has completely destroyed any AM
Click to expand...

CFLs are a temporary kludge - LED lighting is a tenth of the power and makes CFLs look like power hogs same as incandescant. Given the life span of the LED's, they are the least cost alternative over the lifespan of the "bulb" right now. That advantage will only improve. We may have to install noise suppression caps because people just half wave rectify with the LED itself - that is until somebody figures out full wave will double the brightness and you can halve the power again.

Don't worry - I think the unbelievably cold winter has hopefully proven good old Al Gore's junk science for what it is. No lawmaker in their right mind will mandate anything that costs people more money, until the gas crunch is past and prices go down.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
Don't worry - I think the unbelievably cold winter has hopefully proven good old Al Gore's junk science for what it is. No lawmaker in their right mind will mandate anything that costs people more money, until the gas crunch is past and prices go down.
Click to expand...

I think it is a "done deal" brought to you by Philips Electric and the folks we all elected.

http://www.eurekareporter.com/article/080110-congress-hasn’t-seen-the-light

I agree, LED technology makes a lot more sense, but they can be noise generators too. Every time I drive under a LED stop light, my radio fritzes....
 
My dream radio shack will use nothing but gas lamp lighting. ;D
 
SUPERCASTER said:
Just more and more deception from the folks at iBiquity and the HD radio cartel.

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
- More quotations on: [Lies]
Click to expand...

http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Search=oh+what+a+tangled+web+we+weave&startsearch=Search&Author=&C=mgm&C=motivate&C=classic&C=coles&C=poorc&C=lindsly

[quote]Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), radio address, October 26, 1939
Click to expand...
[/quote]

Take that to heart,,and add it to your files. Better yet, print it out on your 1993 inkjet and tape it to your monitor, it might temper your impulses to be so creative with truth.

Lino
 
My BestBuy has the decent SONY HD Tabletop radio on clearance already! Hasn't even been there a year yet, so buy now, or forever hold your peace (piece).
 
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