HD Radio had a great showing at the Radio Show in Chicago last week. Six Chicagoland dealers provided cars that were on the floor of the Hyatt Regency hotel, including; Ford, VW, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru and Volvo. All the vehicles had HD Radio receivers built in, and all were impressive implementations that show many of the new capabilities digital offers to broadcasters and listeners. iBiquity President and CEO Robert Struble says it was the best show the company has had so far. "That is driven by the progress we have made in cars and on the consumer side. Broadcasters recognize it is real now, and they are responding."
Struble had nonstop meetings at the show with many broadcast leaders. In one day alone he had 14 meetings. "We had a 'mini booth' in the suite that showed all of our progress, and a few next generation devices which we
cannot yet display publicly. We also made the point that the broadcast infrastructure has some catching up to do. The features available in the HD Radio receivers now being sold in many cases like album art have capabilities that most stations are not yet delivering. In our perpetual 'chicken and egg' rollout, the receiver 'eggs' are now in front of the broadcaster 'chickens'. That must be addressed, or we will miss our opportunity to compete in the digital dashboard."
Struble says the automobiles with HD Radio installed clearly highlight the difference between analog and digital. "In new cars, digital stations will have an advantage over analog utilizing those big bright screens in the battle for the digital dash. If I am broadcasting in analog, the consumer will see my frequency, and that's it. With digital, we see song title and artist, HD2/HD3 indicators, a tag button to save info on a song, and rolling out now, album art, which consumers have come to expect. These car displays show analog is being left behind."
There are now 19 different brands carrying HD which you can check out at www.HDRadio.com. High end guys like BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and Audi. Mass market brands like Ford, Toyota, VW, Hyundai and Kia. Struble adds "broadcasters can anticipate that the announcements of new automakers launching HD Radio Technology will continue at the same impressive pace we have seen."
These new vehicles contain a dash full of digital capabilities according to Struble. "Higher quality audio. New content with HD2, HD3 and HD4 channels. Scrolling text showing song artist, title and advertiser messages. iTunes Tagging, allowing listeners to store songs they like for later purchase on iTunes. And our latest, Artist Experience, which enables broadcasters to send images like album art to those big beautiful screens. Again, what you saw in these new cars is the night and day difference between analog and digital."
Struble says radio is the only medium in the car (or anywhere else for that matter) that is not digital. Hopefully enough said. People expect digital. This is both a matter of long term competitiveness and revenue and business upside for radio broadcasters.
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