ASIA-PACIFIC BROADCASTING

NEW YORK – Stakeholders from different industries involved in streaming media last month formed an alliance

to foster interoperability of standards for devices capable of doing streaming media.

The Internet Media Device Alliance (http://www. imdalliance.org/) is composed of players from the broadcast industry, led by the BBC, receiver manufacturers and Internet music streaming providers.

“It’s clear that the time has come for Internet media device companies, broadcasters and content providers to join forces to present a clear message to assure the consumer that Internet radio products are produced and delivered to a certain industry standard,” states Harry Johnson, chairman of IMDA and president of vTuner.

Streaming media is the online or real-time delivery of audio, video and multimedia content over the Internet. Of late, music and video are some of the top media being presented delivered in streaming method. Real online or real time delivery is better experienced using broadband or high-capacity Internet.

The creation of the new industry forum was decided at the Internet Radio Summit in 2008 hosted by the BBC in London last June.

The stakeholders raised concern that the proliferation of different types of services offering streaming media, such as broadcast radio stations, pod­casts, on-demand content, is making it difficult for consumers to decide which devices to purchase.

One of the thrusts of the alliance is to create an IMDA certification and logo programme to guide consumers, retailers and manufacturers to ensure that devices offering streaming media services are compatible and inter­operable.

“One of the key activities of the alliance will be to define a series of end-to-end technical standards, functions and profiles to encourage the development of a wide range of Internet media devices. Other objectives include the promotion of Internet-connected device technology to consumers and retailers both within and outside the IMDA,” the alliance said in a statement.

Among the members of its steering committee are: Harry Johnson, vTuner; John Ousby, BBC; Anthony Sethill, Frontier Silicon; Colin Crawford, PURE; Nick Piggott, Global Radio; Ben Terrell, Reciva; Olivier Carmona, AwoX; Oliver Depardon, Orange (France Telecom); Stephan Noethen, TerraTec; and Todd Beals, Audiovox.

Nick Piggott, head of creative technology, Global Radio, comments: “We’re pleased to support the foundation of an industry body that will foster agreement on technology between manufacturers and broadcasters, whilst still allowing us to consistently deliver a competitive content experience to connected media devices.”

The IMDA said it is open for membership to consumer electronics OEMs, retailers, radio broad­casters, content aggre­gators, online music service providers, device manufacturers and technology providers.

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