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Traffic Info

P

Play Freebird

Big Announcement today on a "Groundbreaking Broadcaster Traffic Consortium to Redefine Radio":

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080409/clw051.html?.v=101

The timing is obviously intended to create "buzz" at the NAB show.

This isn't a bad concept, although I have my doubts about how successfully it will be implemented.

First, the Europeans have been offering a traffic service for years using "open source" RDS. Clear Channel has adapted this for the US market; google TMC for more info. The "high" bandwidth of IBOC isn't needed to broadcast traffic data because the map graphics are stored on the display device (the car's navigation system). All that needs to be transmitted are periodic reports with latitude/longitude, type of incident, etc. The efficient APRS protocol used in ham radio (on a 1200 bps shared channel) would lend itself well to this data.

I expect BTC will require a monthly subscription for the new service, unlike the European public broadcasters who give it away for free as an incentive to leave the radio turned on. When mobile WiMax appears in dashboards, there will be plenty of free Internet traffic report alternatives available to drivers, so BTC needs to be realistic with the pricing and licensing structure.

Another issue: How do owners of existing HD receivers access this traffic data? I guess they're now expected to rip out their existing radio (which set them back $200 or more) and buy another one? iBiquity certainly hopes so because this means more receiver royalties, but with so much electronic junk going to waste in landfills, I hate to see another yet another case of "planned obsolescence". Why can't all HD receivers include a data port (wired or Bluetooth), so third-party developers can market compatible add-on adapters?
 
Play Freebird said:
Big Announcement today on a "Groundbreaking Broadcaster Traffic Consortium to Redefine Radio":

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080409/clw051.html?.v=101

The timing is obviously intended to create "buzz" at the NAB show.
Click to expand...

Otherwise known as playing catch-up with XM, which has had this tech for a few years already. Given how XM "partners" with about half of the major auto manufacturers and spiffs them to get their radios into new cars (something that iBiquity, the HD Alliance or whoever refuses to do, and then wonders why they don't sell any radios), HD is already way behind on this.
 
Old concept. I bought a Blaupunkt AM/FM Richmond model with a traffic-data ready port in 1983. In europe, the system would tune to
defined frequencies for traffic info when triggered. If a tape were playing, it would mute the tape and play the traffic info.
The digitally tuned models had this built-in, the analog-tuned models like mine had a port for the adapter.
The analog-tuning adapters were never marketed here.
No stations in the US that I am aware of made any attempt to implement this system. This was not RDS,
but regular analog audio reception. This feature just "auto-tuned" when selected and triggered.

I think it was set up for 5 possible channels of info/preset select in any one area.
 
Tom Wells said:
Old concept. I bought a Blaupunkt AM/FM Richmond model with a traffic-data ready port in 1983. In europe, the system would tune to
defined frequencies for traffic info when triggered. If a tape were playing, it would mute the tape and play the traffic info.
The digitally tuned models had this built-in, the analog-tuned models like mine had a port for the adapter.
Click to expand...

You're probably thinking of ARI (Autofahrer-Rundfunk-Informationssystem), which Blaupunkt marketed here in the US as "Automatic Road Information". Like RDS, it used a 57 kHz subcarrier, phased-locked to the stereo pilot, but lacked the ~1200 bps data capacity of RDS. WIOQ in Philadelphia was one of the stations offering the service. As far as I know, it is now considered obsolete and has been phased out worldwide.

I had a chance to use TMC (Traffic Message Channel) when I rented a car in Germany last October and found it very reliable, thanks to the robust performance of the RDS modulation scheme. On the other hand, the proposed IBOC-based system will suffer from the same coverage limitations as HD-2 and -3 channels. This will impair the performance of portable or dash-top devices that don't have a "real" antenna.
 
ARI, yep, that's it. I knew when I bought the radio it was probably never going to be implemented here.
There were many other fine features on that radio, so I never missed that.
I never heard of any stations in Chicago trying this.
What other manufacturers supported the ARI thingy?
 
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