iPod e radio: Touch no, Nano sì. Ma il tagging?

No, ancora nessuna traccia di una radio FM sul nuovo Apple iPod Touch presentato poche ore fa a San Francisco, iPod peraltro identico a un iPhone 4 senza telefonia 3G. Se questa somiglianza include il famoso, presunto chip Broadcom che include un ricevitore FM - a questo punto mi chiedo se è vero, se questo benedetto chip è davvero inserito nell'iPhone - la sua funzione radio non è stata attivata, neppure questa volta.

In compenso, la radio FM rimane nella nuova versione di iPod Nano con display multitouch (si può cambiare la frequenza sfiorando lo schermo). Eppure c'è un fatto sorprendente: nelle specifiche si parla di funzione Live Pause, quella che permette di sospendere e riprendere l'ascolto, ma non si trova assolutamente menzione del tagging, che nel precedente iPod Nano consentiva di marcare una canzone ascoltata via radio e di acquistarla successivamente su iTunes. Questo mi fa pensare. Il tagging era stato implementato grazie al supporto di RDS e di alcune sue nuove estensioni (RDS-ODA). Ora, se il tagging non c'è più, significa forse che anche l'RDS è sparito? Non sembrerebbe, perché il sito Apple indica che sul nuovo Nano il display visualizza i nomi dei brani e dei programmi ascoltati (come, se l'RDS non ci fosse?). Possibile che il tagging sia stato silenziosamente messo da parte perché nessuna stazione lo utilizzava? In ogni caso la notizia merita un approfondimento.

La storia d'amore tra Apple (almeno per uno dei suoi prodotti) e la radio FM continua, mi pare positivo. Tra l'altro continua nel segno dell'analogico, visto che Apple continua a ignorare il DAB europeo/australiano, ma soprattutto l'americanissimo HD Radio di Ibiquity, per il quale probabilmente non sono disponibili chipset sufficientemente miniaturizzati e a basso consumo. Il nuovo iPod Nano è veramente minuscolo e la conferma della sezione FM, anche se un po' monca, dimostra che gli acquirenti apprezzano questa feature.

Prezzi a partire da 149 dollari. Certo, le radioline cinesi costano meno, ma credo che il display a sfioramento e tutto il resto possano valere la spesa.

Radio nano.

Ride the airwaves on iPod nano. The FM tuner shows the artist, song, or program you’re listening to. Just tap to see the radio controls, flick the radio dial to change stations, and tap to set your favorites.

Live Pause.

If you need to take a break from listening, don’t miss a minute of radio time with Live Pause. Tap to pause a song or show, then tap again to continue where you left off. You can rewind as far back as 15 minutes or fast-forward to catch up to the live broadcast.

Le nuove frontiere dell'EPG e del tagging per la radio

Trovo di grande interesse la seguente nota della National Association of broadcasters (NAB) sui lavori della commissione incaricata di studiare nuove applicazioni di EPG (guida elettronica dei programmi) per la radiofonia, in questo caso per la radiofonia numerica HD Radio.
Date un'occhiata - anche al sito del progetto FASTROAD, Flexible Advanced Services for Television and Radio - ché il discorso prosegue più avanti.

HD Radio EPG at the NAB Radio Show

Next week's NAB Radio Show (Philadelphia, PA, September 23-25, 2009, www.nabradioshow.com) provides a perfect opportunity to showcase some of the results from the NAB FASTROAD HD Radio electronic program guide (EPG) project. Through the FASTROAD (that's Flexible Advanced Services for Television and Radio On All Devices, www.nabfastroad.org) technology advocacy program, NAB has been funding the development of business requirements, system architecture and specifications of an HD Radio-based EPG for local radio broadcasters (see the August 3, 2009 issue of Radio TechCheck for additional information on this project).
In the Radio Show exhibit hall (booth 310), the project team of BIA Advisory Services (Chantilly, Va. www.bia.com), Broadcast Signal Lab (Cambridge, Mass., www.broadcastsignallab.com), and Unique Interactive (London, UK, www.uniqueinteractive.co.uk) will be demonstrating various aspects of the HD Radio EPG system which they have developed. Four specific demonstrations will be available (see diagram below):

* EPG service bureau demo - a number of the EPG system "models" developed by the FASTROAD project team involve use of a "service bureau" which collects EPG data from stations on a market-wide (or broader) basis, then organizes this data and sends it back to the stations in a format suitable for transmission over the HD Radio advanced data services channel. In the booth at the show, a demonstration of the EPG service bureau interface located at the radio station will be given, highlighting how the station uses/edits the EPG database, then uploads this data and other necessary parameters to the service bureau;

* Remote link to Boston field trial - since July of this year, a live EPG field trial has been underway in the Boston, Mass. radio market. Stations from the markets adjacent to Boston, including Worcester, Mass. and Providence, R.I. are also involved, showing how an HD Radio EPG can serve listeners as they travel. At the show, a live EPG monitor running on a computer in Boston will be mirrored to the Radio Show booth via remote desktop connection, showing EPG data received off-air from the field trial. This demo highlights what is called the "shared" EPG model, in which one or more "bearer" stations transmit EPG data for all other participating stations into the market;

* EPG transmitter/receiver demo - an HD-Radio Importer and transmitter will be in the booth, connected to a dummy load and feeding a signal (with EPG data) directly into two receivers an iBiquity EPG-enabled prototype receiver (a PC peripheral implemented on a printed circuit board) and a prototype EPG-enabled portable HD Radio receiver being developed by consumer electronics manufacturer Cydle Corp (www.cydle.com). Here, the "parochial" model of EPG service will be highlighted, in which each station transmits only its own EPG data, including all multicast services the station may carry;

* EPG Web browser demo - in addition to the over-the-air broadcast of EPG data using the HD Radio advanced data services channel, the Boston field trial also includes a demonstration of how local station EPG information can be made available over the Internet for display on a PC or a Web-connected mobile device (such as an iPhone). Shown in the booth will be PC and iPhone Web-browser displays of EPG data from an EPG service bureau Web server. This demonstration highlights one aspect of the "network" EPG model whereby a general EPG resource on the Internet is filtered by information about the listener's location, so that the device being used to obtain the EPG information (in this demo, the PC and iPhone) can obtain localized EPG data from a master database.

Disporre di una guida interattiva che riesca in ogni istante a indicare quali programmi si possono ascoltare alla radio, o alla tv, è una questione ormai fondamentale in un panorama mediatico complesso e multitematico come quello attuale. E' necessario implementare reti radiofoniche a standard numerico per avere a disposizione certe soluzioni? La risposta a mio parere è che sì, un sistema come il DAB o HD Radio aiuta, ma che anche per l'FM (e forse per le onde medie) analogica abbiamo la possibilità di trasmettere i metadati necessari attraverso l'RDS. Non conta insomma che le informazioni digitali siano inserite in un contesto di frame numerico su portanti modulate numericamente o se invece queste informazioni viaggiano su sottoportanti di una portante analogica opportunamente modulate a loro volta.
A questo proposito vi invito a leggere un recente post di Nick Piggot che fa un punto della situazione del sistema RadioTAG, proposto nell'ambito del più esteso progetto di "DNS aperto per la radio" chiamato appunto RadioDNS. Nick fa le sue considerazioni all'indomani dell'annuncio del nuovo Apple iPod nano con radio FM integrata e funzioni avanzate come l'iTunes Tagging per l'FM analogica (dove, spiega Nick, i metadati che servono al nano per contrassegnare i brani e allestire una lista della spesa su iTunes dopo la sincronizzazione nano-computer, viaggiano appunto su RDS). RadioDNS costituisce un formato per metadati universale e aperto la cui documentazione è disponibile sul sito ufficiale. E non perdetevi i link di Nick ai post di Mark Ramsey e James Cridland (che si dilunga sull'uso di RDS da parte di iTunes Tagging) sullo stesso argomento nano.

Apple iPod Nano – now with FM and Tagging. Is that good?
10/09/2009 Filed under: radio, technology — Nick Piggott

Just when you think there’s nothing interesting you can blog about, Apple come and chuck fresh meat to the wolves.
Of course, everyone’s excited about Apple including radio in one of their devices for the first time. That’s clearly good news. It would be amazing news if it was a DAB Radio in Europe, and an HD Radio in the States, but let’s work on that one. Baby steps.
Let’s assume that Apple don’t incorporate functionality into their devices unless they think users are going to go “wow – cool”. As Mark Ramsay says, Apple didn’t just throw an FM tuner in there; they “enhanced radio”, so it includes pause/rewind and tagging. Adding this kind of functionality costs real money (in material and engineering time), so we should be pleased that Apple see that as a worthwhile investment. Yes, Radio is still cool, and still valued even by the cool kids who buy Apple iPod Nanos. This is a “radio” that 15-24s will love to have.
James explains a bit about how the existing Apple iTunes Tagging works. It’s a system designed to do one very specific job, for one specific group of stations and listeners. It transmits Apple iTunes Catalogue IDs in spare RDS ODA (Data) groups, using a form of encryption (discuss…). The radio station incorporates the iTunes IDs into their FM RDS transmission, the iPod Nano receives/decodes this, and when you hit “Tag” it stores the ID/Artist/Title in memory. When you sync up your Nano with iTunes, iTunes converts that into proper store links, and offers you the downloads. It works. Listeners can tag songs on the radio, and buy them in iTunes. A similar service is also available on HD Radio, and was launched earlier, IIRC.
So what’s not to like. Isn’t this the perfect demonstration of innovative revenue generation in a digital media world?
Maybe, but I don’t think it was initially designed with the listener in mind. It looks like a system designed to turn radio listeners into Apple iTunes customers. There’s nothing wrong with that, incidentally. The rather depressed radio business got a big kick out of being able to announce a tie-up with Apple, who are highly regarded. There’s significant kudos is being allowed to play with the smartest boys on the block.
James has pointed out the weaknesses in the existing system. It doesn’t scale terribly well (although I believe either FM or HD have also started parallel transmission of Amazon IDs for their MP3 store?), and it only works for iTunes and material that’s in iTunes.
There another weakness in the system, in my opinion.
If you look at how the meta-data moves around, it goes in one direction only. From the radio station, via FM, the Nano, iTunes and to Apple. After the radio station has splurged the meta-data out on the broadcast platform, it has no control or visibility of it from that point onwards. There has to be a contractual relationship between Apple and each Radio Station for Apple to pass information about the songs sold back to the radio station. I have no idea how detailed that information is. Does it list every transaction, by every device, by time of day? Does it report transactions, or tagging events, or both? Or do they just get a $ total each month and a check for the affiliate fees?
Excluding the broadcaster from the process, and obfuscating the outcome, diminishes the value for radio. It turns us into an customer acquisition vehicle, without getting rich information on listener behaviour.
There’s also the small problem of ne’er do wells “stealing” the meta-data. Let’s assume that someone nefarious decides to strip that meta-data, and amend the affiliate ID to be their own. You might use an apparently legitimate streaming portal, or attractive device, and that money would go to the middle-man, not the radio station. The value of meta-data is increasing, and we should be more careful about whom we exchange it with. In my opinion, broadcasting meta-data risks destroying value. I do agree that meta-data should be open, but I generally think that you should know who you’re providing it to. (I’m going to blog about the side-effects of this shortly).
As you’d expect, I think the RadioTAG model is fairer. It keeps our meta-data relatively secure, whilst still allowing legitimate users (like listeners and Apple) to have access to all the information they need. It scales well, because it’s not transmitting vendor specific information over the air. The broadcaster can see who is requesting what meta-data when, and use that to track listener behaviour in real-time. And very importantly, it lets people tag *anything* interesting they hear on the radio, not just the songs.
I’m excited that Apple are into radio. I’m excited that the Nano is such a great little device. I’m excited for the prospects of Tagging on the Nano. I just want to make sure we make it great for listeners, as well as for radio stations and for Apple.

Sempre più radio per iPhone

Macworld UK segnala una nuova ondata di applicazioni radio per iPhone, il supertelefonino Apple che ora viene addirittura scelto come target di una nuova offerta da parte di ClearChannel, il colosso delle radio terrestri in AM e FM: "CC" ha appena rilasciato un player iPhone per l'accesso alle sue stazioni attraverso il Web. L'applicazione si chiama iHeart Radio.
Un'altra applicazione viene da BreakThru Radio, che offre show radiofonici da scaricare su iPhone/iTouch via browser Safari. E infine lasciatemi segnalare Radio TAGr, che ha trovato una interessante soluione per il "tagging" dei brani musicali da ascoltare via radio e acquistare direttamente online. In questo caso l'obiettivo è aggirare l'analogo sistema integrato in Apple iTunes. TAGr si mette d'accordo con le stazioni radio americane per "intercettare" il loro stream su Web e visualizzarlo in un player su Internet che pubblica in contemporanea le informazioni sui brani trasmessi e mette a disposizione dei pulsanti per contrassegnare i brani preferiti e acquistarli sul sito. Oltre che su iPhone dovrebbe essere disponibile per Blackberry.

iPhone and radio is a busy frequency
Apps makers and radio stations don't need an FM receiver for the iPhone
Jonny Evans

A series of iPhone-focused radio plays have been made in recent days, with Clear Channel, RadioTAGr and BreakThru Radio turning a dial on future broadcasting.
ClearChannel has made ten of its AM/FM and Internet radio streams available to iPhone and iPod touch owners through its newly released iHeartRadio application, which offers album art and even song lyrics for a playing track.
RadioTAGr has introduced a new music service that allows radio listeners to tag music they hear for later purchase from iTunes using a computer or enabled mobile phone.
Completing the triple bill, indie-focused online music radio broadcaster, BreakThru Radio is offering on-demand radio shows to iPhone and iPod touch users via Safari on these devices.
Access is easy; iPhone and iTouch users simply need to navigate to iphone.breakthruradio.com in Safari on their device. Once there they will be presented with a series of drop-down menus which allow them to choose the on-demand show they want to hear.
These aren't unique manifestations. There's a bevy of services and channels eager to embrace the new digital mobile broadcasting paradigm: FlyTunes, iRadio, AOL Radio, even the BBC with iPlayer all offer radio to iPhone/iPod touch users.

iTunes Tagging, ascolto (su HD Radio) e compro

No, i nuovi iPod di Apple non integrano ancora la ricezione HD Radio. In compenso oggi Ibiquity Digital, Apple e alcuni gruppi radiofonici americani annunciano iTunes Tagging, una nuova tecnologia che consente di contrassegnare con un apposito pulsante i brani musicali ascoltati attraverso un ricevitore HD Radio compatibile. Il ricevitore crea una lista di brani che potrà poi essere direttamente acquistata sullo shop online iTunes. Secondo il comunicato stampa Ibiquity i primi prodotti che disporranno di questa tecnologia verranno da JBL, con iHD e da PolkAudio con Polk I-Sonic (un ricevitore analogico-digitale-satellitare piuttosto interessante).

Se il mercato si muove per davvero (non si sa bene quando saranno disponibili i ricevitori con il tagging) e i consumatori cominciano ad accorgersi di certe opportunità mostrando di gradire gli sforzi di chi trasmette e la qualità dei programmi, comincio a pensare che la radio digitale possa guadagnarsi rapidamente le sue chance di successo. Ma che fatica, almeno finora.

iTunes Tagging for HD Radio Broadcasting Announced

Columbia, Maryland, September 6, 2007 – Responding to the desire of millions of people who discover music via their favorite local radio broadcasts, Apple, iBiquity Digital, and major radio broadcasting groups unveiled today the result of an industry-wide initiative to create a new, free service called “iTunes Tagging.”
iTunes Tagging is designed to make music discovery, purchase and listening even more fun and simple for all. iTunes Tagging enables consumers using HD Radio receivers that have been equipped with a special Tag button, to “tag” songs that they hear on the FM dial for subsequent purchase via iTunes.
"iTunes tagging takes music discovery on the radio to the next level," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPod Product Marketing. "When a song plays on your HD Radio that you like, a simple push of a button will tag it and later give you the chance to preview, purchase, and enjoy it with iTunes and your iPod."
Bob Struble, CEO of iBiquity Digital, the developer of HD Radio technology, said, “Research consistently shows that radio is the predominant source of music discovery. Now, with iTunes Tagging, HD Radio technology provides a cool new way to capture the songs listeners discover, buy them on iTunes and then enjoy them. We are especially pleased that so many broadcasters came together so quickly for the initial launch.” Several major broadcasters will implement iTunes Tagging, initially across hundreds of stations. Additional stations and broadcast groups are expected to join soon, with a formal announcement of participating groups planned for later this year at the NAB Radio convention, September 26 – 28.
Struble continued, “We are delighted that JBL and Polk will have the first available products that enable iTunes Tagging. The new Polk I-Sonic Entertainment System 2 and the JBL iHD will both include the Tag button. These products will go on sale during the holiday shopping season and we anticipate several additional products that include the Tag button for both the home and the car to follow in early 2008.”
Peter Ferrara, CEO of the HD Digital Radio Alliance, the coalition of radio broadcasters formed to promote HD Radio technology commented on the broadcasters’ promotional plan for iTunes Tagging, saying “the HD Digital Radio Alliance is tremendously excited about this great new HD Radio feature and will broadly promote iTunes Tagging. We plan a multi-million dollar advertising campaign focusing on the JBL and Polk products, as well as participating retailers.”
Mark Mays, CEO of Clear Channel Communications, Inc. commented, "Clear Channel Radio remains committed to being the leader in HD Digital Radio content on both primary and multicast channels, and our embrace of iTunes tagging is just the latest step in that leadership. We believe that HD Digital Radio innovations such as this will continue to open up additional and new services for consumers and revenue opportunities for broadcasters."