Other Smart Stuff: TV and Beyond: Killer Online Audio

by Jim Mikles
Winter 1998/Spring 1999

While television is an integral part of our lives and the core of our publication, a smart TV isn't the only thing that technology can offer in terms of selectivity and control. In the spirit of offering our readers insights into what new technology can afford them, we are proud to introduce a new column: Other Smart Stuff. As its title suggests, this space will be devoted to bleeding edge technology that may or may not have to do with television, but will certainly have some application in making our lives "smarter" in general. We hope you enjoy it. This issue, we take a look at the intriguing and fast-growing realm of Internet-based "smart" audio. --Eds

A good sound system is a cornerstone in most home media systems. But just as a big screen doesn't make a smart TV, a big amp and big speakers don't make a smart sound system. Smart sound, like smart TV, means selectivity and control. One of the most useful tools for adding selection and control to our media is the Internet. With a PC wired into a home media system, you gain a practically unlimited ability to select and control not only what you watch, but also what you listen to.

Audio is quite conducive to distribution over the Internet. It requires much less bandwidth to send than the full-motion video we expect on our televisions, and even fully digital, CD-quality sound can travel across the existing Net infrastructure with little problem. Because of this, there is a growing abundance of rich, varied and high-quality audio content available on the Net.

Personal Audio

One of the main benefits of smart audio is the plethora of content available. No matter what the topic or genre: music, news, talk, instructional, literature, self-improvement, and whatever else there is that can be conveyed with audio, it can be found on the Internet. Because of this, Net audio has the potential to be a highly personal medium. Much of the existing Internet-based audio content is distributed by "streaming" it across the Internet. Streaming is a process of compressing the audio data and sending it in real-time to a PC.

The leading innovator in this area of technology is RealNetworks. RealAudio, by RealNetworks, is the most popular format for streaming audio on the Net. It requires the RealPlayer software plug-in to run, and consumers can download the software for free from the RealNetworks home page (www.real.com). RealAudio content is everywhere on the Net and the format works especially well with so-called "spoken word" content that includes interviews, lectures, audio books, news and sports. With "spoken" content, the quality of the sound is less important than with music. Spoken audio sent in mono for a 14.4 Kbps modem sounds decent. With 28.8, you can get the same content in stereo. With faster connections, such as a 56Kbps modem or an ISDN connection, RealAudio can rival FM stereo in quality. Using streaming "spoken word," you can find everything from John Travolta's Scientology sessions to Stephen Covey's Seven Habits. A great clearinghouse site for audio content is AudioNet (www.audionet.com), which catalogs hundreds of RealAudio "netcasts." Browse the selection of radio stations from around the world that are broadcast on the Internet. Listen to the L.A. Police Dept. scanner at about 2 a.m. Pacific time on a weekend to find some very interesting conversation topics. Many sporting events, lectures and interviews are also archived and streamed in RealAudio.

Digital Audio

If music is your thing more than spoken word, there are exciting smart audio developments in this arena too. You have probably heard by now of the Motion Picture Entertainment Group (MPEG) standard for compressing digital video. It's used in DVD (digital video disc) and DBS (digital broadcast satellite) for a very high-quality signal. There's an Internet audio version as well. Called MP3, which stands for MPEG 1, layer 3, MP3 is a way to compress digital audio so it takes up relatively little space on a computer hard drive, but still delivers digital, CD-quality sound. With MP3, it's possible to download songs from the Internet and play them with a computer.

This opens up world of applications for the smart media consumer. Most PC/TVs, for example, are part of a home theater system that includes hi-fidelity audio components like speakers, subwoofers and amplifiers. You can easily construct a PC-stereo by connecting your PC's sound card to the input jacks on your stereo system with an adapter cable available at any electronics store. The cable takes the single signal output by your sound card and splits it into its left and right composite signals. Playing MP3 requires one main software addition to your system: the player. You can easily download freeware players from the Internet. The most popular two are WinAmp for Windows and MacAmp for Macintosh.

To get the players and a great assortment of MP3 audio content, www.MP3.com is a good place to start. MP3 as a format is a threat to the recorded music industry because with a few hundred dollars worth of equipment, it is possible to take commercial CDs, convert them to MP3, and then put them on the Net for anyone to download. Be careful what you say or do, because not everything that's on the Net in MP3 is there legally. Fortunately, there are a growing number of bands that either allow free recording and distribution of their music on the Net, or who have decided to use the Internet as a primary distribution channel.

Portable Audio

Great. So now you have your favorite author's recent bestseller, your Spanish lesson and your favorite band's latest concert available to your via your PC-stereo. But if the beauty of audio content is you can use it while you do something else, being tied to a computer sort of defeats the purpose. Fear not. Portable players are available that allow you to store your smart audio and take it with you.

The Audible MobilePlayer (www.audible.com) is a product by Audible Inc. that costs $199, sits in a dock that plugs into the back of a PC (no Macs) and stores content streamed in the Mobile RealAudio format for purchase and later playback. For MP3 enthusiasts who want to go portable, there's the MPMan. The MPMan, sold on the MP3 Website at www.mp3.com/mpman, is a player that sits in a docking bay that plugs into the PC and stores digital, CD-quality sound. The 32MB version, which stores around 30 minutes of MP3 music, is $299. The 64MB version, which stores around 60 minutes of MP3 music, is $499. The MPMan is battery powered and hosts a standard audio mini-jack for stereo headphones, connection to a sound system, or (with a cassette adapter) to a car stereo. For a cheaper, albeit less fancy, way to make Internet audio mobile, plug the sound card into a cassette deck and record your selections to tape.

Personal, portable and powerful, smart audio is just coming into its own. Just as the Internet is changing the way we interact with our televisions, it will also revolutionize the way we interact with our audio. --Jim Mikles is Smart TV's Associate Editor