[BC] Now, stunned at Ibiquity

[Tom Bosscher]

Kent Winrich wrote:

> 
> I am stunned at the lack at forward thinking people in radio.


I'm totally stunned by the TOTAL lack of real world thinking 
on the Ibiquity plan. That includes "forward thinking" at 
Ibiquity

And why?

I'll tell you..

The amount of data available on the typical FM IBOC hybrid 
mode left over for ancillary use is pathetic. And I mean 
pathetic.

If we as broadcasters had thought about this, (and I did 
espouse this quite a few years ago, but I don't work for any 
good old boys groups), we would have allocated at least 3-8 
kbps for data, for profit yes, but to do something that no 
one else could. That data stream could be sending out all 
the proper NWS information, like tornado warnings, flash 
floods, AMBER, etc. With enough bandwidth to allow one way 
audio, (what is needed, 4 kbps?) for the emergency 
management people to issue voice information to the public. 
IBOC FM could have been one of the most perfect delivery 
platforms to send the proper information to the masses. But 
no. No thought to that. I have read ALL of the Ibquity white 
papers, and until you go with the whole channel as digital, 
there is no room for any reasonable amount of bandwidth to 
do this. And in the mean time, there is no plan, written 
down that I have seen, that makes ANY plans to use ANY of 
the existing bandwidth for a emergency management to the 
masses digital broadcast. None.


And as I stated, we the broadcasters, we WERE in the right 
place to do the right thing. Now, it looks like the cell 
folks have figured out that the broadcasters just don't 
care. Think of what the cell folks can do. There is so much 
they can do with their data, because they have thought of it 
in advanced. But we, the broadcasters would not want to give 
up  3 to 4 kpbs worth of data. "Why Tom, thats 3 to 4% of 
our bandwidth. Do you how much money you are making us give 
up?" Um, you're not.

I am not anti Ibiquity. I just wished that there had been 
some real world, forward thinking, kicking the box out of 
the way people at Ibiquity, and their controlling broadcast 
owners.

Too late. The cell industry is going to go right by us on 
this one.

tom bosscher