[BC] HD Radio Article

[Dave Martin]

The reality is simple...bandwidth costs.  We are currently streaming both of
our FM's at 64 kbps Windows Media.  We feel this is the best balance of
sound quality / compatibility with listener's players / cost.

My pick for sound quality at lower streaming rates would be AAC.  A 32 kbps
AAC stream sounds better than a 64 kbps WMA stream in my opinion.  A 64 kbps
or higher AAC stream is truly amazing.  But any listener with a core Windows
system (even XP) cannot listen to this stream.  They have to download and
install one of the latest players like Winamp.

As long as we stick to WMA or Real, the quality is going to be mediocre.

----
Dave Martin
Lotus Broadcasting
Las Vegas, NV



-----Original Message-----
He also mentions that "some stations also have put their conventional and
HD2 stations on the Internet. Audio quality is not as good, though.", which
raises the question "why not?"

There's no technical reason why Internet streaming audio can't beat the
pants off HD -- in fact, it already does (with sufficient bandwidth and a
good codec)