New HD Radio Concept Provides Customizable Listening Experience

With the advent of the MP3 player, especially the popular iPod, consumers have embraced and in some cases come to expect a new level of control over their audio entertainment. Acknowledging this new listening paradigm, NAB FASTROAD and iBiquity Digital Corporation have undertaken a project to explore the concept for a new personalized service for in-band/on-channel (IBOC) digital radio. The results of this work were released today in a report entitled “HD Radio System Persona Radio Project Overview,” now available for download from the FASTROAD Web page at www.nabfastroad.org.

The Persona Radio is a proof-of-concept advanced receiver design that would allow users to create a customizable listening experience and create opportunities for behavioral targeted advertising. Aspects of the listening experience that are customizable include audio content, text displays and advertisements. The report released today details the concept of how the Persona service could work the necessary supporting broadcast infrastructure and a variety of possible listener use cases.

One of the principal actions upon which the operation of the Persona Radio is based is that of “content insertion.” The idea is that content would be downloaded to the receiver using the advanced data capabilities of the HD Radio system and then stored in memory on the device, for later use as directed by the listener or in some cases by the station.

Release of this report follows initial discussions of the Persona Radio project by iBiquity in their exhibit at the 2010 Radio Show produced by RAB and NAB, where a mock-up (shown in the images below) of a Persona Radio receiver was featured as part of iBiquity's hospitality suite. This Persona radio mock-up was implemented on an Insignia NS-01 portable HD Radio receiver. Some pictures of the mock-up’s receiver display are shown here:

• Upper left – this is the highest level “main menu” which allows the user to configure the “behavior” of the Persona Radio. When each item is selected, it expands to provide the user with options for configuration and action;


• Upper right – on the “My Profile” page the listener enters demographic information which will be used to customize the listening experience as well as for targeting advertisements. One of the options found here allows for entering favorite location information, potentially associated with the user’s home/work/visited categories;


• Lower left – shows an example of targeted advertising, which would be selected and displayed based on the user’s profile information;


• Lower right – this is a “QR code” which is delivered to the receiver and corresponds to a targeted advertisement. This can be scanned by a retailer and used as an “electronic coupon.” Additional information on QR codes is available on the Internet at www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/index-e.html.

NAB FASTROAD (Flexible Advanced Services for Television & Radio On All Devices) is the technology advocacy program of the National Association of Broadcasters. The overall mission of the FASTROAD program is to seek and facilitate development and commercialization of new technologies that can be exploited by broadcasters using radio and television broadcast spectrum. More information is available on the FASTROAD Web site at www.nabfastroad.org.