Visual Radio

Visual radio is a generic term for adding visuals to normal audio radio broadcasts. Visual Radio is a trademark for the Nokia solution for visual radio.

Nokia Visual Radio

Visual Radio is a technology developed by Nokia to make it easier for audiences to interact with radio programs. Visual Radio is built-in functionality available in an increasing number of phones that are already equipped with analog FM radio (notably the Nokia 3120 Classic, Nokia N96, Nokia 6220 Classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 6120 Classic, Nokia N78, Nokia N82, Nokia E51, Nokia N81, Nokia N77, Nokia N76, Nokia N95, Nokia N93i, Nokia N92, Nokia N93, Nokia N91, Nokia N80, Nokia N73, Nokia N72, Nokia N71, Nokia N70, Nokia 6301, Nokia 7500 Prism, Nokia 6500 Slide, Nokia 6121 Classic, Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia 6267, Nokia 3110 classic, Nokia 5700, Nokia 6110, Nokia 6300, Nokia 6290, Nokia 6288, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6136, Nokia 7373, Nokia 6151, Nokia 6085, Nokia 5300, Nokia 5200, Nokia 5500 Sport, Nokia 7710, Nokia 7370, Nokia 6280, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6233, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6131, Nokia 6125, Nokia 6111, Nokia 3250, Nokia 3230). The interactive visual channel is produced by the radio station. It offers several opportunities for interactivity in radio programming: quizzes, messaging, content download, commerce, etc.

It is important to note that Nokia's Visual Radio is not radio streaming - the audio is received via a regular analog FM radio embedded in the phone. A presentation of graphics and text, synchronized to the audio programming, is being streamed to the phone over a data connection; indeed, the FM transmission chain is unaffected by the addition of Visual Radio.

On phones with built-in Wifi (tested on E51 and N95 8GB), the Nokia application does not allow a Wifi access point to be used for the data connection, only GPRS access points are allowed, allowing the possibility of revenue sharing between Nokia, the Radio stations and GPRS network operators.

The platform is composed of three parts:
* A Visual Radio Tool that can be integrated with the radio station's own legacy playout system, so the interactive visual channel created by the radio station's content producers is synchronized with the audio programming.
* A Visual Radio server that handles the two-way traffic between audience and radio stations;
* A Visual Radio client application on the mobile phone, that displays the interactive visual channel and takes care of user interaction.

The Visual Radio concept was created by Nokia and the platform was originally offered to radio stations and operators globally by HP. However, since October 2007, Nokia has been collaborating instead with RCS Inc., of New York, whose Selector music scheduling system is used by thousands of radio stations around the world. RCS produces the second-generation version of the Visual Radio platform and also markets a similar product for Internet (and most other digital platforms) under the RCS RadioShow brand.

Nokia is making the Visual Radio client available to users of other phones, and have announced that they are producing a Java applet to enable this.

Stations already supporting Visual Radio include the UK's GWR Bristol, GWR Bath, Virgin Radio, The Voice in Helsinki, Mediacorp stations in Singapore, and Los 40 Principales in Spain.

Other forms of visual radio

podtronic.com

In November 2005, spodtronic.com started producing a visual radio service in Germany.

Their version of visual radio uses radio streaming over UMTS, with associated graphics and text sent down the same UMTS connection. A client is available for a user to download and install into their Nokia (series 60) mobile phone.

This product requires no extra infrastructure at the radio station, since it works by using the metatags already present in the internet stream.

DAB Digital Radio

Visual radio applications are also possible over DAB Digital Radio. Using a technique called MOT Slideshow, visuals can be broadcast within the same data spectrum as the audio. Slideshow-enabled stations are already operating in some parts of the world, including Singapore, where they market this as visual radio.

External links

* [http://www.visualradio.com/ Nokia Visual Radio]
* [http://www.rcsworks.com/ RCS Inc.]
* [http://www.spodtronic.com/ spodtronic.com visual radio]
* [http://press.nokia.com/PR/200503/983341_5.html Press Release: Kiss FM begins]