SwampFox

American Media Services-Internet Webcasting Test Demonstrates Mobility Of Internet Radio Streaming

Using a Rental Automobile, a Dell Laptop, and a Built-In Wireless “Air Card,” AMSi’s 100-mile Roundtrip Webcasting Test Conducted Earlier This Month Shows That Streaming is a Viable “Portable” Medium

CHARLESTON, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American Media Services-Internet LLC (AMSi) today announced that a webcasting test conducted last week in the San Francisco Bay Area clearly demonstrates the viability and feasibility of Internet streaming.

While attending a streaming media conference in San Jose, AMSi President/Chief Executive Officer Reed Bunzel and Vice President/Engineering Laramie Guest conducted the groundbreaking experiment, driving from San Jose to San Francisco and back while streaming one of AMSi’s 90-plus formats via a laptop computer equipped with a Verizon Wireless AirCard connected wireless to Verizon’s cellular phone system. The objective of the test was to monitor how much drop-out occurred along the 100-mile test route, how quickly the signal would re-buffer when that drop-out occurred, how easily the cellular system handed off the signal from one tower to the next, and whether the listening experience was one that the average driver would accept on his/her commute between these two major California markets.

“The near-flawless signal we experienced all along this 100-mile round-trip clearly demonstrates that we are witnessing a huge shift in technological capability and the true emergence of a new digital medium,” Bunzel said. “While the point of this experiment initially was purely technical, the result was one that offered great insight into the evolving media universe. The underlying incontrovertible truth is that Internet radio no longer is tied to a cable and a surge protector. It is just as portable as terrestrial radio, it doesn’t have to appeal to a mass audience, it can be personal and interactive in nature, and almost anyone can join the club.”

“I am pleased at the improvements the cellular networks have made to their infrastructure since I attempted a similar test two years ago,” Laramie Guest observed. “This experiment illustrates some of the exciting possibilities available to broadcasters.”

The test began at 3:30pm on Monday, November 5 and lasted through several hours of typical Bay Area rush hour traffic. “We left the conference and picked up Laramie’s Dell laptop computer and connected it to Verizon,” Bunzel recalls. “We plugged it into the auxiliary power supply in the Chrysler Pacifica I had rented, and proceeded to drive 50 miles from San Jose to San Francisco—streaming one of our formats along the way. Since TheRadioDial.Com currently streams at 128 kbps we were treated to a rather high-quality audio signal, one that has a high data rate and, theoretically, would experience considerable drop-out as we traveled from one cell zone to another.”

“People who are familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area know that there are two major routes between these two cities,” Bunzel continues. “One is I-280, which travels up the ‘spine’ of the San Francisco Peninsula and passes through some largely rural areas, and the other is the 101 Freeway—also known as Bayshore—which travels nearer the bay and passes through heavily populated areas. We elected to travel north on I-280, and set out in the middle of San Jose, where we were picking up a decent stream with no drop-out. The incredible thing was that we never—and I mean never—lost the stream. We drove into San Francisco on 19th Avenue, crossed through Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, and continued across the Golden Gate Bridge. Again, the signal stayed with us the entire way—even as we went up and down hills and took the tourist route down Lombard Street.”

For the return trip Bunzel and Guest drove the 101 Freeway back to San Jose, and experienced virtually the same listening experience the entire way—except for a brief period of silence while passing San Francisco International Airport. It was unclear whether that was a result of cell phone towers “handing off the signal,” or just typical Internet drop-out. Still, they picked up the 128 kbps signal in fewer than five seconds, and never lost it again.

“This test confirms what we already suspected—that Internet streaming is close to becoming a fully mobile medium,” Bunzel concludes. “And as the automotive industry wrestles with what sort of receiver will go into the dashboards of new vehicles, it’s equally clear that tomorrow’s car radio will be an entertainment hub that incorporates a broad range of digital media.”

AMSi plans on conducting similar tests in several medium and large markets within the United States in the coming months.

American Media Services-Internet is an affiliate of American Media Services, and is designed to provide radio stations a turnkey solution in streaming audio content on the web, and generating revenue from online advertising. AMS-I was launched in December 2006 to assist radio station owners and operators in setting up and managing streaming radio sites.

American Media Services is a full-service radio brokerage, engineering and developmental engineering firm, and its developmental division leads the country in successfully implementing station upgrades by moving them into larger markets, dramatically increasing their value.