|
 |
networkZONE Products for the week of November 19, 2007
CSR Says…
Internet Radio Comes To The Mass Market With a Sub $15 BOM
CSR has launched RadioPro, a Wi-Fi internet radio example design based on the company's UniFi single-chip Wi-Fi technology. RadioPro provides wireless streaming of internet radio via Wi-Fi, without the need for a PC and can support over 10,000 radio stations through a dedicated internet radio portal. With a bill of materials (BOM) of less than $15, CSR's RadioPro is the lowest cost internet radio solution available today, and comes with the added advantage of being software upgradeable. Already in use by a number of lead customers, radios using CSR's RadioPro will be available in shops in time for Christmas.
Figures published by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) show that almost a quarter of the UK population listened to radio via the internet in March 2007 alone. However, as a relatively new entrant in the home entertainment arena, the initial cost for specific internet radio products has so far come with a hefty price tag of no less than $200. With a BOM under $15, CSR's RadioPro will allow ODMs to bring internet radio products to consumers at a fraction of the price that has been previously possible; taking advantage of this rising trend for internet radio broadcasting.
RadioPro uses CSR's UniFi-1 chip to connect to a dedicated internet radio portal, through a Wi-Fi access point. Once a station has been selected, RadioPro's software ensures smooth, reliable and high quality streamed audio. CSR's RadioPro also supports "over-the-air" software upgrades, allowing end users to update their products directly with new capabilities as they are made available.
Offering ODMs a quick route to market, RadioPro is available free of charge and features all the required hardware design information and software to stream live internet radio stations. RadioPro's flexible architecture allows full customisation of the user interface and menus through a dedicated Software Development Kit (SDK).
RadioPro is based on two low power chips from CSR: UniFi, CSR's single-chip Wi-Fi solution and the Multimedia Application Processor (MAP), a highly integrated chip with a RISC processor, a DSP and a stereo codec. The low power design of RadioPro boasts up to 25 hours of active streaming time running on a 1500mAH battery, enabling truly portable internet radio products.
Tracy Hopkins, Vice President of CSR's Consumer Business Unit commented, "The market forecast for internet radio products is set to increase significantly within the next two years. With a $15 BOM, CSR's RadioPro is a breakthrough design that provides ODMs with the ability to penetrate this market quickly, at lower risk and at low cost to the consume
EN-Genius Says…
I have been waiting for something like CSR’s low-cost RadioPro Internet radio to hit the market for a couple of years now because I’m a big fan of the medium and think it’s too good to be tethered to one’s PC or laptop. While I’m at my computer, I listen to it exclusively but have not been able to afford the $200 - $500 it costs to buy a Roku, Slim Devices, Sony WA1, or other wireless media boxes for the other rooms in my house. There are less expensive solutions, but they all require you use your computer as a host to run the decode and streaming functions, something I’m not inclined to do with my work PC. So while I may have a few misgivings about CSR’s ultra-low-cost Wi-Fi radio chip set, I think it’s about the best solution I’ve seen to date and expect it will be at the heart of a new wave of products that bring Internet Radio to the masses.
 The sub-$15 Wi-Fi Internet radio consists of a low-cost RF front end built from discretes (PA, LNA, Balun and a handful of passives), their well-proven UNI-FI1 2.4 GHz WiFi radio, and a variant of the dual-core media applications processing (MAP) chip that’s been used for several other products. Like its Bluetooth-enabled cousin, the BluCore5, it incorporates CSR proprietary (royalty-free) RISC engine and a home-grown DSP (code-named Kalimba), plus interfaces for flash (32 Mbit), SRAM (up to 4 Mbit), and a user interface.
The MAP chip DSP co-processor handles the decoding of the audio using its own RadioPro software to support MP3, WMA and RealAudio from Real Networks. CSR says that they will be adding support for AAC and AAC+ in the near future. The 16-bit internal stereo codec supports audio bit rates of 8 kHz, 11.025 kHz, 16 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz (DAC only) and delivers it to a set of dual ADCs. If the audio stream it’s decoding has it, the string can deliver an SNR of up to -95 dB.
A pair of integrated amplifiers can drive headphones or small 16 Ω speakers with no external components. The amp chain also has support for single-ended speaker termination and line output. While I suspect that CSR's claims that RadioPro can run up to 25 hrs on a single 1500 mAh battery are based on driving a set of headphones, it should not be hard to add a little more battery capacity to give a similar operating time to a slightly larger device that included a set of speakers.
Like most radio appliances, the RadioPro relies on an Internet radio portal to provide an index of available radio stations and hand it the proper URL. Access to CSR’s default portal, vTuner, which provides access to 11 k+ radio stations (in close to 20 languages) is included in the BOM cost. Both manufacturers and end-users can add their own radio stations to the portal’s station list using their PCs browser. If desired, CSR offers optional support for a related Internet-based MP3 service called MP3Tunes. It can also be easily re-programmed to use any other portal using their software development kit.
 RadioPro’s nicely-equipped development kit includes a full set of device drivers, codecs, a TCP stack, portal library, and source code to enable customization of the user interface display. Also included is a software upgrade mechanism that enables quick, easy over-air software upgrades from a radio manufacturer’s web site. The upgrade service software comes complete with a reference design that provides a turnkey capabilities for pushing out bug fixes, new features/codecs, and services.
A client radio can be programmed to check for updates either manually or automatically at selected intervals. Security is equally well-provisioned with turnkey support for WEP, WPA, WPA2 and password-based security. The security element even supports the new Wi-Fi Protected Setup mechanism which provides a one-step, push-button means of pairing the radio to an access point.
CSR says that the next spin of the RadioPro is already underway and it will add Bluetooth, new codecs, a possible FM receiver, and Asian fonts to the UI. Software is also under development to support streaming from a local digital media server (so you can listen to that half-terabyte of bootlegged MP3s you have tucked away on your computer or NAS box.).
With most of the tough low-level engineering done for them, developers should be able to concentrate on using the chipset as the basis for many of the products I’ve dreamed about such as a $100 Wi-Fi adapter for my current audio system or a reasonably-priced stereo table radio that feeds me the BBC, and the same great alternative music stations that I get in my office. Its compact form factor (a 4 x 4 cm footprint, and even smaller for the upcoming BluCore Player module) and low power drain also suggest it could be easily integrated into any one of the many iPod-like portable media players on the market today. Besides the handheld players it highlights, CSR also anticipates that RadioPro will find itself integrated directly into standard broadcast receivers and other Hi-Fi gear as well.
 I think RadioPro is one of those industry-changing products that could really put Internet radio in direct competition with broadcast radio and encourage a revolution in music, culture and news distribution. About the only potential problem is the music industry’s attempts to crush Internet radio with oppressive royalty fees, far in excess of anything close to what radio pays (see my February 2006 editorial The Golden Rule for details). My only other concern here is that the development software makes it easy for some MBA to come up with a business model to build cheap Internet radios that lock out all stations except the ones they have a financial interest in, something that defeats the whole purpose of the device. Given how to most of the normal broadcast spectrum is now dominated by a handful of diversity-averse media giants, I’d hate to see the same thing happen to Internet radio just as it’s hitting the mainstream.
The the RadioPro chipset is available now, along with a complete hardware and software development kit.
While CSR was very reluctant to discuss the specific price of the chipset, they did insist that high-volume customers would enjoy complete eBOM costs (chipset plus RF components) of under $15: low enough to make it possible for manufacturers to offer many products with a retail price of $60 - $70.
Data Sheet
|
|
|
|
|
