Os telemóveis e a roupa interior (e rádio...)

De um artigo da revista New Scientist, traduzido pelo Courrier Internacional ("Vem aí o telemóvel inteligente", Celeste Beaver, nº 44, pág. 42): "[o telemóvel] é o instrumento pessoal por excelência. Com excepção da roupa interior, não há nada que tenhamos sobre nós durante tanto tempo", diz Roger Entner, consultor de telecomunicações da Ovum. O artigo em causa fala da "pesquisa visual móvel", serviços de reconhecimento por telefone, através de imagens que são descodificadas para texto. Fala-se num serviço lançado pela Nokia em França (e já existente há vários anos no Japão), "capaz de reconhecer pequenos ideogramas, chamados «tags» que no fundo são códigos de barras a duas dimensões (...). Quando o «tag» é analisado por um «software» integrado num telemóvel, torna-se possível não aceder a informações práticas, cupões de desconto e todo o tipo de dados" - www.mobiletag.com

(qual é a relevância disto? quanto mais fundamentais os telemóveis se tornarem, mais importante é a rádio conseguir convergir com eles; no fundo, os serviços que não estiverem inseridos de origem num telemóvel correm o risco de não existir)

O método RAJAR (GB)

(e os problemas na medição de audiência)

«Understandably, measuring radio audiences is complicated: radio can be listened to virtually anywhere and there are literally hundreds of station areas to survey. The cost to the radio industry for this service is almost £4 million a year. RAJAR produce listening figures every three months based on the the response from 3,000 selected respondents who each compile a seven-day diary of their listening habits. While this may seem a time-consuming and old-fashioned method of measuring audiences, because radio is listened to in a variety of locations it is still felt to be the most reliable. Several types of radio-meters are being developed, but because they require respondents to carry or wear the meter at all times, their effectiveness is still in doubt". (Fleming, 2002: 15) 

A importância de haver apenas um sistema de medição de audiências (GB)

«(...) BBC and the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) set up a radio industry research company - RAJAR Ltd - in 1992 which they jointly own. Prior to this, audience data were collected by two separate services: the BBC Daily Survey which monitored BBC radio, and the Joint Industry Committee for Radio Audience Research (JICRAR) for commercial stations. The problem with this was that different methodologies and the fact the figures were not independently produced cast doubt on their accuracy. As RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) points out: "The creation of RAJAR has greatly improved overall confidence in radio as a medium over the years since 1992, principally because it provides a single accepted measure of radio listening"(www.rajar.co.uk).

(Fleming, 2002: 15) 

Os jovens e a rádio: uma relação a partir da música

"Many students never listen to anything other than music radio and have only an inkling that stations still exist which broadcast a variety of "programmes" analogous to those they can watch on television'" (Crisell, 1994: xi).

 

Mais rádios não é sinónimo de mais (melhor) oferta

«More radio stations do not necessarily bring about more choice for listeners and sometimes the only way to distinguish between one station and another is the station ident (the jingle that identifies the station with its name and frequency). The majority of stations in Britain follow a very similar format dominated by music" (Fleming, 2002: 6).

Elogios à rádio

"Radio is a constantly evolving medium. Throughout the last century it has adapted to cultural and technological change to remain a popular and distinctive medium despite the growth of television, cinema, cable and satellite services, the ubiquity of recorded music, and even the Internet. So what makes radio so distinctive? The most obvious answer is its availability. Nine out of ten people in the UK listen to radio every week for an average of three hours a day, representing over one billion listening hours a week. It is available in homes, shops, workplaces, cafes and cars and even to individuals walking in the countryside plugged into their personal steroes". (Fleming, 2002: 1) 

FLEMING, Carole, The Radio Handbook, Routledge, Londres, 2ª edição, 2002

O podcasting como "espada de dois gumes" para a rádio

"The truth is that podcasting is a double-edged sword. While it allows listeners to hear a show or a segment they might have missed on your station, it also offers an alternative to listening to your station. The trick will be to use podcasting to brand your station, build loyalty and make a buck, while retaining listenership.

Among advertisers, the talk about podcasting is getting louder, even though it is not a line item in media plans. And many agencies see media companies as the key beneficiaries.

In the end, the ability for stations and their parent companies to develop new revenue streams using the medium will determine whether it will be seen as friend or foe."

"Six In '06: Radio's Mega-Trends", Billboard Radio Monitor
Jan. 13, 2006
By Tony Sanders, Bram Teitelman, Phyllis Stark, Paul Heine and Ken Tucker

Mais projectos Cotonete

Depois da ideia de transformar os blogues em programas de rádio, a Cotonete avança com mais uma proposta inovadora naquilo que ainda pode ser conhecido como rádio na internet (!):

(do Press Release da Media Capital)

"Cotonete Lança Novo Serviço: Cotonete Rádio Blog

O Cotonete Rádio Blog é uma nova funcionalidade que permite aos utilizadores registados no Cotonete colocar num blog ou página pessoal na web um pequeno player, ao qual são adicionados rádios e canais do Cotonete, bem como rádios pessoais.
Para além de dar a oportunidade de cada utilizador seleccionar a ‘banda sonora’ ideal, este serviço permite seleccionar a cor e definir qual das rádios adicionadas tocará em primeiro lugar, assim que se entrar no respectivo blog ou página na internet.
O player inclui um pequeno banner publicitário, cujas receitas serão partilhadas pelo Cotonete com diversas Instituições de Solidariedade. A cada mês será seleccionada uma Instituição, que receberá 20% da receita gerada pelo banner solidário nesse mês.
http://cotonete.clix.pt/radio_blog/index.asp"

 

O mercado dos LAD em Portugal

"Luís Pereira, director-geral da Creative, um dos principais fabricantes  de leitores de MP3. adianta que «entre Janeiro e finais de Novembro de 2005 o mercado valeu para cima de 230 mil d unidades. Isso leva-me a crer que acabámos o ano com vendas entre 250 mil  e 270 mil unidades, enquanto no ano passado vendemos cerca de 20 mil. Em termos de valor, este era um mercado que no do ano passado valia dois milhões e 700 mil euros  e que hoje já vale mais de 21 milhões». Apesar do «boom» dos leitores de MP3, Pereira acredita que o mercado ainda está muito longe da sua saturaçã. «Até 2009 podemos assistir, em Portugal, à quadruplicação do mercado. Neste momento, em termos de futuro, estamos assistir à importação de tudo o que é imagem e video para este tipo de aparelhos. Muito brevemente vamos falar não só da portabilidade da música mas de todos os conteúdos digitais em imagem ou vídeo. Sejam eles os telediscos, intimamente relacionados com a música, sejam as bandas sonoras para as colectâneas de fotografias que as pessoas gostam de coleccionar, mas também de filmes e séries de televisão".

(Miguel Francisco Cadete, "Crise, Qual Crise?", Expresso, 28 de Janeiro 06, pág. 24)

O primeiro videocast

"Dois argumentistas da equipa das Produções Fictícias, que produz, entre outros programas, o Contra-Informação, acabam de criar o primeiro vídeo português para ser visto num iPod. O videocast O Horror iNominável tem uma natureza humorística e está disponível desde anteontem na loja do iTunes português, ocupando o primeiro lugar dos podcasts mais procurados - o resto da lista é composta essencialmente por ficheiros de som."

Uma nota: a jornalista do Público diz "para ser visto num iPod". Trata-se, evidentemente, de uma falta de rigor. Primeiro porque nem todos os iPods reproduzem imagens e depois - mais importante - porque iPod é apenas uma marca. A mais importante e destacada das marcas de leitores de audio digital, mas uma entre muitas outras. É como se dissessemos que  o jornalismo português se resume ao Expresso ou todos os carros vendidos em Portugal fossem renaults...

As rádios personalizadas na net (Pandora)

A experiência pandora.com continua a entusiasmar aqueles que a descobrem 

«Pandora.com, an inventive "Internet radio" website that generates music streams — "stations" — based on one’s favorite artists or songs.»

(mas apenas continua acessível nos EUA: "At this time we are only licensed to offer Pandora music services to residents of the United States. Audio streaming regulations differ from country to country, and we are working on acquiring the proper licenses so we can legally offer Pandora outside of the United States. We require your zip code to confirm that you are a resident of the United States"; a solução para os que quiserem experimentar - e vale a pena - é introduzir um qualquer código postal de cinco numeros na caixa que pede «zip»)

Stern no satélite; aumenta a "piratice"

O assunto já tinha sido desenvolvido aqui, mas parece ser cada vez mais interessante:

"Illicit downloading of shock jock Howard Stern's shows increased fivefold Thursday after the Los Angeles Times reported on the broad availability of bootlegged versions of his Sirius Satellite Radio program on Internet file-sharing networks.

"The genie's out of the bottle," said Aram Sinnreich, managing partner of Radar Research, a Los Angeles media consulting firm.In 2004, Sirius hired Stern on a five-year, $500-million contract in hopes of wooing new subscribers to its $12.95-a-month satellite radio service. He helped deliver more than a million new subscribers before he even took to the microphone Jan. 9.

But almost immediately, pirate radio stations in New York and New Jersey began rebroadcasting the show on unclaimed FM radio frequencies, and websites began streaming it online without permission.

Sirius was quick to take legal action and, in an ironic twist, to seek help from Stern's longtime nemesis, the Federal Communications Commission.

Internet file-sharing sites, which allow potentially millions of computer users around the globe to exchange audio recordings, represent a challenge that comes as no surprise to Sirius. In recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, the company acknowledged that piracy could "harm our business."

The extent of that harm is still not fully known. Mark Ishikawa, chief executive of BayTSP, a Los Gatos, Calif., company that monitors online piracy for the entertainment industry, described the surge in downloads Thursday as "waking the sleeping giant."

"Ilicit Downloading of Stern's Show Soars Fivefold", LA Times, 3/2/06, By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Times Staff Writer

 

A rádio perde o privilégio da divulgação da música

"Enquanto a indústria discográfica faz o balanço de um ano em que as vendas voltaram a baixar, alguns sinais apontam para uma democratização da música, graças à Internet, que começa a alterar o equilíbrio de forças no seio da indústria musical. Explorando designadamente os fóruns e os blogues musicais, as companhias independentes de discos fazem grandes progressos, à custa dos quatro conglomerados mundiais de música, cujo modelo comercial, que consiste em promover os «hits» graças à difusão radiofónica, parece cada vez mais ultrapassado".

Jeff Leeds, no New York Times, traduzido pelo Courrier Internacional, "Net beneficia editoras independentes", nº 43, pág. 43

Mais:

"(...) a música deixou de poder ser encarada unicamente como um negócio em que só as editoras, distribuidoras e retalhistas servem de intermediário entre o artista e o consumidor. Na idade da informação, em que os ficheiros ocupam uma ninharia de espaço e fluem facilmente num oceano de música, a música passou a ser integrada num universo mais vasto, regido muitas vezes por pressupostos contraditórios. Para uma banda que pretenda rentabilizar as suas digressões, pode fazer todo o sentido oferecer a sua música gravada".

(Miguel Francisco Cadete, "Crise, Qual Crise?", Expresso, 28 de Janeiro 06, pág. 22)

"iSeeRadio": dar imagem à rádio

Lembram-se do projecto Visual Radio?

Pois há aqui um concorrente interessante; make your audio visual!

700 emissoras em HD!

«While the story on digital (HD) radio is still early, more and more terrestrial stations are upgrading their broadcasts. Just recently, HD radio technology provider iBiquity Digital counted its 700th compliant station, part of an early swell in the United States. "As a result of broadcasters converting stations at a pace of more than one per day, 6 in 10 Americans now have access to HD Radio broadcasts," commented Robert Struble, president and CEO of iBiquity. The updated tally includes stations across the AM and FM band, many of which have "multicasting," or "HD2" capabilities. iBiquity is the sole licensor of HD radio technology in the United States.» fonte: "Terrestrial Radio Industry Counts 700th HD Broadcaster"

Uma explicação para o (aparente) sucesso: «certainly the promise of new content moved the business news needle in a way that the promise of digital sound never did. That's also because the concept is easy for consumers and analysts to understand. "You can get new program channels in addition to your old ones, and all you need is to buy a new radio." Nothing particularly complicated about that».

 

 

A qualidade do som digital é má?

«Music lovers are calling on broadcasters to improve sound quality on digital radio after complaints that it is worse than traditional FM. Critics say the BBC and commercial broadcasters have crammed so many new stations into their digital transmissions that sound quality has been badly compromised. While the difference is barely noticeable on kitchen radios, owners of expensive hi-fi systems say digital sounds tinny and muffled.

About five million people listen to digital radio. The sets, usually costing between £70 and £130, are easier to tune, give access to dozens more stations and display channel and programme information. Many people also believe sound quality is better. But while digital transmissions have none of the hiss or crackle found on traditional radio, a vocal minority of hi-fi buffs argue that the sound quality is much worse than FM.»

MAIS: «The quality of a signal is measured by its "bit rate" - the number of pieces of information transmitted each second. A typical CD, for instance, has a rate of 256,000 bits per second (kbps). The best quality digital radio station is Radio 3 which usually transmits at 192 kbps. But Radio 1, 2, 4 and 6 are broadcast at 128kbps, while Radio Five Live is broadcast at 80kbps. To accommodate the part-time station BBC Five Live Sports Extra during sports events, Radio 4 drops to 80kbps and becomes mono, while Radio 3 reduces to 160kbps. Steven Green, a music journalist who campaigns about digital radio quality says such rates are "noticeably" worse than FM. "On a small portable, it is not an issue," he said. "But if you have very good FM reception on a hi-fi system, digital radio is worse." Radio 1 and 2 listeners suffered most. Music lacked definition and had a compressed dynamic range. "It's pretty nasty. I don't listen to digital radio."In analogue radio each station has a dedicated frequency. But with digital, several stations are transmitted together on one frequency in a package called a multiplex. There is a trade-off between the number of stations that can be broadcast on each multiplex, and the bit rate. When the BBC began its tests of digital radio in the 1990s, it broadcast all its major stations at 192kbps. But in order to introduce new channels - such as 1Xtra, Radio 6, Radio 7 and BBC Asian Network - it reduced the sound quality across the board.»

Mr Green says the BBC gains quantity at the expense of quality and is petitioning the corporation to raise bit rates through his website www.digitalradiotech.co.uk.

A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC has a responsibility to serve all its diverse audiences and we believe we have found a balance between launching new services and broadcasting in good sound quality.

"We believe we are providing good sound quality on all our digital radio networks and recent research bears this out. The majority of people are very satisfied with the sound quality with around 95 per cent of digital radio listeners rating it 'excellent', 'good' or 'satisfied'."

Mandy Green, of the Digital Radio Development Bureau, said the industry no longer promoted digital on sound quality. Only a small fraction of listeners were unhappy. Clare Newsome, the editor of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, said: "If you are replacing a 20-year-old kitchen radio with digital, the bit rate is irrelevant."

Telegraph, "Digital radio sound 'is worse than old FM', By David Derbyshire Consumer Affairs Editor, (Filed: 16/01/2006)

TiVo converge com o podcasting

O facto de o TiVo (potente máquina de gravação video digital, que - por aquilo que sei - apenas existe nos EUA) passar a receber e a reproduzir podcasts é um sinal dos novos tempos; da capacidade das novas tecnologias convergirem; do podcast se afirmar.

"The functionality uses  RSS feeds to bring the audio shows to the listeners. The shows are not actually downloaded to the TiVo boxes but are in effect streamed. There's no word on what additional ads might be included as part of the service but whatever spots might be within the podcast will be left intact"

As primeiras reacções não são muito animadoras: "initial reactions aren't too promising. Perhaps the service is still in alpha beta, but folks are finding that it takes a good four or five minutes to add an RSS feed to the TiVo via a remote. Worse yet: after all that hard work the only reward you get is to have the feed disappear from your Favorites after using the regular TiVo menu. That's pretty sad since TiVo remembers every pixel of a television show. You'd think it could remember a few characters for a podcast feed."

 

Isto é o segundo choque

"The attack is arriving in the form of satellite radio and its portable receivers, online niche and genre "broadcasts" from music services (MSN, Real, Launch), and even homegrown podcasts" ("Everything kills the radio star", PC Mag, 14/9/05, por Lance Ulanoff)

A segunda vida da rádio na net

Neste artigo da PC Mag ("Everything Kills the Radio Star", 14/9/05, de Lance Ulanoff) fala-se em duas fases da rádio na net; a primeira, logo após a explosão da net ("In the early days of the Internet, radio stations were among the first media outlets to try putting their content on the Web. Station after station around the country added a little link to its rather amateurish Web sites, offering live, streaming audio of their broadcasts. The quality was, as I recall"), e a que se vive agora:

"The fad fell victim to rising expenses: No one wanted to pay for the bandwidth costs, and radio execs were hard-pressed to prove to advertisers that their message was reaching more people online. What's more, the Internet was allowing local stations to encroach on each other's territory, making a mess of the FCC's rules for where local radio stations could broadcast (in place mostly to avoid actual interference between two stations on adjacent bands).

Within a year or two, I found it virtually impossible to find any decent commercial radio stations online. I could always find small-market ones but not my favorites.

Today companies like Clear Channel, Infinity Broadcasting, and NPR have all rethought their strategy. Of course, it's no longer about trying new things. This new interest in broadcasting online is all about survival. (...) The number of online radio stations has jumped into the thousands, and the list is full of commercial stations you know and love. It's also easier to find stations and manage your choices, since we no longer have to choose from a number of proprietary players. Quality is also much improved, thanks to better compression technologies and broadband."