05/11/2009 A ground swell for Internet Radio.

Tagged under DAB+, Digital Radio, Networking, Pure, Sensia
Posted by Len | No Comments

On the SmartHouse website David Richards suggests that Internet Radio is starting to gain a foothold in Australia. We spoke about this a little later in the day and he mentioned that his research indicated that Internet Radio may be more popular than we all realise.

Type ‘Internet Radio Player’ into Google and you will get an astounding 235,000,000 results. It has been reported that 1 in 7 of all Americans aged between 25 and 57 listened to internet radio on a weekly basis last year. Yes, I agree, Internet Radio may be more popular than we imagine. And why not? Assuming that you have the broadband download plan to support it you can choose any genre of music that you like. (Internet Radio is also a real bonus for ex-pats picking up music and news from their countries of origin.)
I am a Jazz/Blues fan, but finding a Blues station in Australia is tough going. Yet as I write I am listening to KOQX in San Jose, admittedly via my laptop. The real growth for Internet Radio though is through home audio devices like IP addressable receivers, stand alone component tuners (still a little thin on the ground) and bench-top radios.

However this does highlight the necessity to ensure that you have a robust network set-up in your home – this is something that we are now trying to reinforce to anyone building a new home or renovating.

One of the real selling tools for the new raft of DAB+ radios goes beyond free to air Digital Radio, and is the ability for many of them to also receive Internet Radio.  I believe that the popularity of on-line radio will really come into its own with the release of the new generation DAB+ radios, in particular the upcoming Pure Sensia (pictured above.) This is a stunning unit for many reasons (including the fact that it is one of the sexiest looking bit of kit to come onto the market in decades); one being the fact that it is controlled via a touch screen on the front, and the interface is so simple that it makes accessing an Internet station no more difficult than listening to any local station.

The Sensia is due for release in Australia at the end of November.

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