Discussion
I think the big thing that bothers me about streaming music from an internet connection, apart from the arguments about reception, etc, is that it's basically not 'free'. With a radio (digital or analogue), once you have the receiver you don't need contracts or anything else to receive the services. I know most people have internet access / smartphones, etc, but I don't think that should be taken for granted.
I think the big thing that bothers me about streaming music from an internet connection, apart from the arguments about reception, etc, is that it's basically not 'free'. With a radio (digital or analogue), once you have the receiver you don't need contracts or anything else to receive the services. I know most people have internet access / smartphones, etc, but I don't think that should be taken for granted.
Working for a mobile operator I will tell you the networks will not deal with every car on the road streaming radio over 3G/4G/LTE, regardless of flavour, to your car.
They struggle now as it is.
Internet Radio is fine over your home WiFi Broadband connection where your data limits and latency on the network are good.
Data connectity in an my audi with its 3G SIM is poor. Its fine for getting data, bringing it local and then displaying maps for example, but constant streaming is a non starter.
Just keep an eye on your phone as you drive down the motorway as it drops in and out of GPRS/EDGE/3G etc....it will be constantly buffering and the audio will be interrupted all the time. You can try this already with any smartphone and an AUX in on your car.
Its not just masts on roads thats required, its upgrading the entire back haul on the networks. Money that mobile operators do not have at the moment. Mobile operators make no profit on any voice or sms message sent and have not done for years, they lose money by giving you your £600 iphone up front, getting that money back slowly over 2 year by which time you want a new phone. They have no money!
They struggle now as it is.
Internet Radio is fine over your home WiFi Broadband connection where your data limits and latency on the network are good.
Data connectity in an my audi with its 3G SIM is poor. Its fine for getting data, bringing it local and then displaying maps for example, but constant streaming is a non starter.
Just keep an eye on your phone as you drive down the motorway as it drops in and out of GPRS/EDGE/3G etc....it will be constantly buffering and the audio will be interrupted all the time. You can try this already with any smartphone and an AUX in on your car.
Its not just masts on roads thats required, its upgrading the entire back haul on the networks. Money that mobile operators do not have at the moment. Mobile operators make no profit on any voice or sms message sent and have not done for years, they lose money by giving you your £600 iphone up front, getting that money back slowly over 2 year by which time you want a new phone. They have no money!
Edited by oldaudi on Thursday 19th December 12:46
Edited by oldaudi on Thursday 19th December 12:51
And for those that don't have smart phones?.....Oh yeah you'll end up as a relic of society Seeing as a 'Must have' product now seems to mean an Ipad rather than something truly pivotal to living like heating or cooking food. The want's and needs of modern society seem to be getting blurred. Even the car is regarded as a 'Need' now Not a luxury which it actually is. So this development is trying to turn a 'want' into a 'need' by requiring a 'want' item for something to function.
Edited by Madkat on Thursday 19th December 12:50
oldaudi said:
Working for a mobile operator I will tell you the networks will not deal with every car on the road streaming radio over 3G/4G/LTE, regardless of flavour, to your car.
They struggle now as it is.
Internet Radio is fine over your home WiFi Broadband connection where your data limits and latency on the network are good.
Data connectity in an my audi with its 3G SIM is poor. Its fine for getting data, bringing it local and then displaying maps for example, but constant streaming is a non starter.
Just keep an eye on your phone as you drive down the motorway as it drops in and out of GPRS/EDGE/3G etc....it will be constantly buffering and the audio will be interrupted all the time. You can try this already with any smartphone and an AUX in on your car.
Its not just masts on roads thats required, its upgrading the entire back haul on the networks. Money that mobile operators do not have at the moment
Dont agree. I have streamed music via Soundcloud, Mixcload and various internet radio stations via bluetooth to my head unit for over a year now, I have travelled all over the southwest and have done journeys from Plymouth up to the NEC in birmingham and back and without interuption, personally i dont see an issue.They struggle now as it is.
Internet Radio is fine over your home WiFi Broadband connection where your data limits and latency on the network are good.
Data connectity in an my audi with its 3G SIM is poor. Its fine for getting data, bringing it local and then displaying maps for example, but constant streaming is a non starter.
Just keep an eye on your phone as you drive down the motorway as it drops in and out of GPRS/EDGE/3G etc....it will be constantly buffering and the audio will be interrupted all the time. You can try this already with any smartphone and an AUX in on your car.
Its not just masts on roads thats required, its upgrading the entire back haul on the networks. Money that mobile operators do not have at the moment
Edited by oldaudi on Thursday 19th December 12:46
Can we suppliment the requirements specification for the replacement technology? If so, I'd like to add the following:
- Ability to fine commercial radio station operators for playing the same fecking irritating advert in between every single song.
- Adverts which have Christmas jingles to be restricted to the period between 01 December and 25 December. Apple Conservatories and Windows to be banned outright for being annoying t
ts. - Radio stations prevented from cocking about with the bass/treble settings to make their presenters sound more interesting. BBC Radio 2 to disconnect the "make presenter sound like Terry Wogan" button.
- Radio station operators who use the Traffic Announcement button and then neglect to press it again at the end of the traffic programme to be immediately fired. This may result in BBC Radio Solent having a shortage of presenters.
- Breakfast radio station operators to be informed that they are not the most interesting person on the planet and just sometimes they should shut the feck up and put another song on.
olly22n said:
big_boz said:
For music lovers (not Radio) Spotify streamed via Bluetooth is the future.
This.I love spotify.
The point of radio (to me) is that it is live, so can provide me with information (news, traffic, weather, etc) and also that the presenter chooses the tracks so I can be entertained, surprised, or disappointed, by the music on offer. I want to hear music that is new, artists I've never heard of, old favourites I'd forgotten.
And I don't want to have to sit in front of a computer for half an hour selecting the tracks for my playlist for any upcoming journey.
The other thing is that DAB itself is obsolete as a technology. The codec used is Mpeg-1 Layer 2 which is old and inefficient. There's a new standard, DAB+, which is three times better, but it isn't compatible with existing sets. Because the UK went big on DAB early, it's not feasible to tear it all down again.
I think the answer probably is Internet radio. It's going to need big investment though, and I think we should probably get on with it as a country early, rather than wait. The benefits that a proper national mobile broadband network would bring are many, wholly aside from being able to listen to the radio.
I think the answer probably is Internet radio. It's going to need big investment though, and I think we should probably get on with it as a country early, rather than wait. The benefits that a proper national mobile broadband network would bring are many, wholly aside from being able to listen to the radio.
Any manufacturer thinking the whole world is going to want to listen to interwebs radio through their phone through their car instead of DAB or FM is as guilty of techno-arrogance as the Silicon Valley tossers who think everyone has an always on, unlimited fibre optic broadband connection.
I for one don't have and am not interested in ever listening to intert00bz radio in the car because
a) no mobile network seems to be capable of offering wide enough coverage for phonecalls and texts when travelling without calls dropping every few minutes (or just in my house for that matter) nevermind frickin' data,
and b) I am not interested in upping my phone tariff - the costs are astronomical for data anywa and I don't want to have to haggle even more just to have music in the car.
The idea is absurd. MAYBE if the mobile networks can offer better/wider/more reliable reception and cheap unlimited data plans I'll consider it but for now I'll keep my DAB or go back to FM (or an ipod - 3G/4G can go stick itself.
I for one don't have and am not interested in ever listening to intert00bz radio in the car because
a) no mobile network seems to be capable of offering wide enough coverage for phonecalls and texts when travelling without calls dropping every few minutes (or just in my house for that matter) nevermind frickin' data,
and b) I am not interested in upping my phone tariff - the costs are astronomical for data anywa and I don't want to have to haggle even more just to have music in the car.
The idea is absurd. MAYBE if the mobile networks can offer better/wider/more reliable reception and cheap unlimited data plans I'll consider it but for now I'll keep my DAB or go back to FM (or an ipod - 3G/4G can go stick itself.
Edited by BS75 on Thursday 19th December 13:11
No wireless technology has the capability to deliver individual streams to the millions of current radio listeners in their cars. Some sort of multicast might do it, but why waste data bandwidth that could be used for something useful on an application much better suited to standard one way broadcasts?
Through a combination of DAB/FM and cellular you can cover the 98% of people who listen to half a dozen main stations and then provide for the other 2%. Broadcast radio is not going anywhere.
Through a combination of DAB/FM and cellular you can cover the 98% of people who listen to half a dozen main stations and then provide for the other 2%. Broadcast radio is not going anywhere.
thescamper said:
oldaudi said:
Working for a mobile operator I will tell you the networks will not deal with every car on the road streaming radio over 3G/4G/LTE, regardless of flavour, to your car.
They struggle now as it is.
Internet Radio is fine over your home WiFi Broadband connection where your data limits and latency on the network are good.
Data connectity in an my audi with its 3G SIM is poor. Its fine for getting data, bringing it local and then displaying maps for example, but constant streaming is a non starter.
Just keep an eye on your phone as you drive down the motorway as it drops in and out of GPRS/EDGE/3G etc....it will be constantly buffering and the audio will be interrupted all the time. You can try this already with any smartphone and an AUX in on your car.
Its not just masts on roads thats required, its upgrading the entire back haul on the networks. Money that mobile operators do not have at the moment
Dont agree. I have streamed music via Soundcloud, Mixcload and various internet radio stations via bluetooth to my head unit for over a year now, I have travelled all over the southwest and have done journeys from Plymouth up to the NEC in birmingham and back and without interuption, personally i dont see an issue.They struggle now as it is.
Internet Radio is fine over your home WiFi Broadband connection where your data limits and latency on the network are good.
Data connectity in an my audi with its 3G SIM is poor. Its fine for getting data, bringing it local and then displaying maps for example, but constant streaming is a non starter.
Just keep an eye on your phone as you drive down the motorway as it drops in and out of GPRS/EDGE/3G etc....it will be constantly buffering and the audio will be interrupted all the time. You can try this already with any smartphone and an AUX in on your car.
Its not just masts on roads thats required, its upgrading the entire back haul on the networks. Money that mobile operators do not have at the moment
Edited by oldaudi on Thursday 19th December 12:46
My car only has analogue radio, for my entire commute (Nottingham to Derby) I stream digital radio from my phone using the TuneIn app. Phone connected to Aux in, charged via 12v usb connector, I don't struggle for signal at all.
However, if I go anywhere "rural" this falls down as there's not enough bandwidth to stream. Oh, and an unlimited data plan is really required for this, I use around 8-10GB a month due to streaming radio but happily pay GiffGaff £12/mon for the connection.
In the not to distant future I can see cars using internet streaming as the default built in to their ICE systems, I'd imagine to 90% of the public they wouldn't need to know/care about how the radio is transmitted (analogue/dab/streamed) if it was all the same interface.
However, if I go anywhere "rural" this falls down as there's not enough bandwidth to stream. Oh, and an unlimited data plan is really required for this, I use around 8-10GB a month due to streaming radio but happily pay GiffGaff £12/mon for the connection.
In the not to distant future I can see cars using internet streaming as the default built in to their ICE systems, I'd imagine to 90% of the public they wouldn't need to know/care about how the radio is transmitted (analogue/dab/streamed) if it was all the same interface.
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