GSM Association

Dawn Hartley explains what this young organization does in developing countries like Kenya and Namibia and why. This may be mobile, but I believe what they do is definitely of interest to broadcasters too.

Nursing the Phone

Just reposted this video because I wasn't happy with the quality of the video on Youtube. There was something wrong with the lip-sync. This Swedish company has a brilliant strategy to market their phones - Swedish nurses looking after a new born baby phone. I notice that this video had been downloaded 500 times in a few hours on Youtube.... It shows you what people are searching for. Katherine was at 3GSM...and they are way ahead of the Apple iPhone, in my opinion.

HHB Flash Microphone Recorder - Price reduction

This is an update to a post we put up in September 2005.

Way back on Friday Sep 9th 2005 at IBC Amsterdam, the UK company of HHB launched a great device for radio reporters. Basically, they have built a flash recorder into the base of a Sennheiser microphone, the same looking type which is marketed by Sennheiser as a wireless model. Instead of the transmitter, HHB has put in a flash-recorder into the same housing.

On the bottom are connected for a pair of headphones and a USB jack to the laptop. You can transfer recordings to the laptop at 90 times faster than real time, and there is no quality loss in the transfer since you're copying a digital file. The flash memory unit cannot be taken out (and lost), but you can get plenty of audio in - 3 hours at 48K linear, 18.25 hrs using the MPEG-1 Layer 2 standard at its lowest bitrate. I purchased a unit in 2006 and have found the 3 hour memory capacity to be fine for ordinary reporting. If you were using it to make a documentary, you'll need to dump content to a hard disk on a laptop. HHB say they have no plans to make the memory card removable in this model.

You do the editing of an item on the laptop, not on this device. The beast came out in Jan 2006 at a price of 699 pounds sterling in the UK (VAT extra) and 999 Euros (VAT extra). At the time we complained that the price was on the expensive side.

A press release on May 1st 2007 indicated that the retail price has now dropped to 529 pounds ex VAT in the UK, partly because of volume production and the drop in the cost of internal memory. I asked HHB in London whether this meant they would consider putting 2 GB instead of 1 GB, but the answer was that the feedback from clients indicated that 1 GB was enough for most purposes. Personally, I'd prefer 2 GB so I could use it for longer periods without having to dump to a Hard-disk. But I do more documentary work.

The audio quality of the recordings is great. For very noisy environments, there is also a cardioid version of the same device (the DRM85-C is the same price) which is far more directional. For my purposes, the omni-directional version is fine.

Unlike some other competitors, this Flashmic works on two standard penlight (AA) cells. I use the 2650 mAH capacity rechargeable cells from Duracell and get around 8 hours of recordings without a pause. Always have a couple of batteries spare in case. When the batteries go, they tend to fade rather suddenly.

I plug a pair of closed-type headphones into the base to monitor the sound and spot popping. The casing is rugged and well designed against hand-noise.

Things to bear in mind though;

- There is no audio buffer to allow the unit to be in standby and still capture the start of an important statement. Wouldn't be that practical anyway - you can't remote control this Flashmic since it is built into the base of the microphone.

- No line-in to the recorder. It's a flash microphone.

- Only Mono. No stereo versions

- Flash memory is not removable.


As well as broadcasters, this device might interest some podcasters too who want to interview famous people. There is a social factor here. Somehow the HHB looks better than the M-audio or a mobile phone stuck under someone's nose. They treat you like a professional because the device looks familiar.

Solar Power Interview with GSMA

Did you know that 60% of the cost of running a mobile phone network in Africa goes in trucking diesel fuel out to base-stations. This interview with Dawn Hartley of the GSMA looks at solar power solutions, which may well be of interest to some reporters in the field.

AEQ PAW 120

469 pounds is a lot to pay for a recorder. Yes it is cheaper than the HHB Sennheiser, but it is also considerably more expensive than the other handheld recorders we've seen. The good news is that the recordings are clean, and you can even get away with using the built-in mike, though politicians may be wary of speaking into something the size of a mobile phone. But the internal memory is either 512 or 1 GB and with MPEG-2 compression (or just WAV) that means very short recording times. That's a pain if you switch the thing on to record a press conference in WAV format and it lasts for more than 40 minutes. Memory full? Have to dump it to a PC before you can continue. Come on guys - haven't we learned anything from the photo camera market? Please lets use removable flash memory - it is cheap enough now.

Overall, I'm disappointed. Decided not to buy..

Reciva 2.0

I was interested to see a demo of the next phase of software to be put in a series of wifi radios being rolled out in the UK and elsewhere. There are other companies working on the same thing, but Reciva have managed to stay ahead by offering a database of some 5000 stations which automatically loads into the receiver.

GSMA at 3GSM

I had a fascinating talk with Dawn Hartley of the GSMA development fund who are doing some fascinating work with mobile phones in developing countries. I am even more convinced now that many of these ideas will merge with broadcasting, especially in Africa.

Vizrt Mobile at 3GSM

Vizrt has some very clever ideas for both the broadcast and mobile market. (Full Disclosure - I have done some consultancy for this Norwegian firm). They seem to have cracked the problem that graphics and subtitles look terrible on most mobile phones. Its only now that I have a chance to post these interviews - done in a different style to the 3GSM productions.

The Day the Music Died?

According to the Radio and Internet Newsletter, the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has just announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).
RAIN says the rates that the Board has decided on, effective retroactively through the beginning of 2006. They are as follows:
2006

$.0008 per performance 2007

$.0011 per performance 2008

$.0014 per performance 2009

$.0018 per performance 2010

A "performance" is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for each song it plays. The minimum royalty fee is $500 per channel per year. There is no clear definition of what a 'channel' is for services that make up individualized playlists for listeners.

For noncommercial webcasters, the fee will be $500 per channel, for up to 159,140 ATH (aggregate tuning hours) per month. They would then have to pay the commercial rate for all transmissions above that number.

Participants are granted a 15 day period wherein they have the opportunity to ask the CRB for a re-hearing. Within 60 days of this final determination, the decision is supposed to be published in the Federal Register, along with any technical corrections that the Board may wish to make.

Basically, that wipes out any chance of profit for niche radio networks on the web. The advertising they are able to command will never be enough to pay those bills in 2007, let alone in 2010. And remember these fees are simply the performance rights and do not include money that goes to the original composers.

It is also not clear whether these sorts of rights would apply if music was streamed to mobile phones, like on the DMB/DVB-H type networks being rolled out in Europe.

So what will this mean? A mass migration of US webradio services to servers outside the US? A great boost to non-RIAA music like that found on Podsafe music network? I think it just means that US radio stations will kill their Internet radio services for the time being until these lunatics realise they are truly throttling the music business. Hopefully it means European music stations now have a chance of a global audience. Radio is certainly scoring a series of own-goals.

Sideview of the SkyQube

Sideview of the SkyQube
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks.

You slip your normal SIM card in the slot - and leave this box at home. I guess I'd want to try it out on a trip when it didn't matter too much if my phone wasn't working.

SkyQube

DSC00081
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks.

Now this is interesting if you do a lot of travel. You connect it up at home and put the SIM card of your mobile into it. When you get to your destination you buy a cheap prepaid SIM that allows you to receive calls for free. This green box uses Skype to beat the roaming charges levied in other countries. Also features a recording function and callback. Cost? About 300 bucks to start with. Might be worth experimenting with for reporters in "difficult" countries? More details at www.Qoolabs.com. Seen at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona last week.

DRM85CSHEETV31.pdf (application/pdf Object)

DRM85CSHEETV31.pdf (application/pdf Object)

I see that HHB in the UK is now selling a cardiod version of the integrated Flashmic 1GB flash recorder. The older one uses an omnidirectional mike. This one is better for noisy surroundings, but less handy for doing general interviews because you have to make sure it is pointing accurately or you'll hear nothing off mike. I wonder why they can't put 2GB in the device now for the same price. 1 GB is super cheap these days.

Power Alternatives

So you're out in the middle of nowhere in a jeep (or on a plane). What about charging your recorder, laptop, camera, moviecamera, torch, etc. You could take spare batteries for everything, or get one of these inverters for around 100 dollars. It also has USB power outlets to charge iPods, Blackberries, some phones. Haven't seen 220 volt models. Doesn't matter for most travel devices these days - 110 volts is fine.

EJamming nears Launch

Interesting to see how musicians are collaborating on line. Just a few weeks ago, noticed a demo of eJamming. The blurb on the site reads....

Say you’re putting a band together and you can’t find a killer bass player in your town. Or you’re sitting there sequencing a great piece of music but your drumming sucks and you’re no Eddie Van Halen on guitar. Or your old band mates now live in Seattle, New York and Nashville and you’d kill to play together again. What’s the answer?

Just plug any digital instrument that’s enabled for GENERAL MIDI – a MIDI-enabled keyboard, a MIDI-enabled guitar or MIDI-enabled bass, MIDI-enabled drums, or a MIDI-enabled wind-controller -- into your PC or Mac computer, fire up the eJamming® Studio and we’re connecting you over the Internet to a whole world of musicians across town – or across the ocean.

In Sync. In Real Time. Or in as close to real time as the laws of physics allow.

And now that eJamming Studio comes with our own exclusive Sonic Implants Sound Set inside – it’s even easier to create and collaborate together over the Internet!

MicroHDTV Camera

A novel miniature camera allows viewers to enjoy a new live experience and watch a ski jump or a car race in high resolution from the actor’s perspective. The camera is so tiny that it even fits inside the cramped cockpit of a racing car. Until recently, this could only be done in standard TV resolution. Now these images have made the leap to ‘high-definition TV’ (HDTV), thanks to a mini-camera developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen. Several licensees will soon be putting the camera into series production.

Measuring 4 by 4 by 8 centimeters, the camera is smaller than a bar of soap and can even be accommodated in a cramped racing-car cockpit or a ski jumper’s helmet. »The MicroHDTV model is one of the smallest HDTV cameras currently available,« says Stephan Gick, group leader at the IIS. »We achieved this chiefly by taking two different approaches: The camera’s electronics have a very low power loss, which means that little heat is generated and the housing can thus be kept very small. By using highly integrated parts, we were able to fit all of the components such as the image sensor, the analog-to-digital converter, the color processor and several interfaces into the tiny space available inside the camera.«

With its format of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a variable frame rate of up to 60 frames per second, the camera meets all the requirements expected of a professional HDTV production. All parameters – such as color settings, white balance, image format and frame rate – can be controlled using the integrated software. All it takes is to open a web browser, connect the camera to the notebook via a local network and set the desired parameters. »Because the camera is so small and can be controlled via the Internet, it can deliver pictures of scenes that could not be viewed in the same way before – for example, recordings of sports events or applications that require the camera to be installed in difficult-to-reach places,« says Gick.

Another of the camera’s advantages is that it can be operated using standard optical systems. The MicroHDTV camera will be on display at the CeBIT trade fair (Hall 9, Stand B36), which will take place in Hanover, Germany from March 15 to 21 2007.

More information from Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Gick, Phone: +49 9131 776-521
Fax: +49 9131 776-598

Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen IIS
Am Wolfsmantel 33
91058 Erlangen, Germany