Sumners

Internet Radio Explained...

How does it work?

Internet Radio is broadcast using the Internet as the connection to the radio rather than radio waves. Conventional radio is broadcast using transmitters at fixed locations.

The further that the radio is from the transmitter, the weaker the signal becomes until beyond a certain distance, the station cannot be heard.

Internet Radio does not have this limitation. With your radio connecting to the internet, it becomes possible to listen to stations from all around the world, as well as those from broadcasters nearer home.

For example, a Scot living and working in London could listen to a Scottish radio station; a Japanese working in France could listen to Japanese as well as French, Scottish or American radio.

What's required to use Internet Radio?

The basic requirement to use Internet Radio is that you have a broadband Internet connection to your home (or wherever you use the radio).

You may well have a PC, but it does not need to be switched on in order to listen to radio stations via the Internet.

You do need a broadband connection for Internet Radio. But if you are not interested in radio listening, and wish to use an internet radio such as the WM-201 to listen to your music collection (from your PC, for example) then broadband is not required.

Broadband can still be useful if it is desired to be able to update the software in the radio to take advantage of any new features as they become available.

About DAB radio...

What is DAB radio?

DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting, it is a way of broadcasting radio digitally via a network of transmitters. It provides listeners with more choice, better sound quality and more information.

More Choice

Because of the way DAB technology works, broadcasters can transmit many more stations than ever before.

Listeners in most major towns and cities in the UK can receive between 30 and 50 radio stations with a digital radio, in many cases that's more than double what's available on analogue.

Because digital radio uses the spectrum more efficiently than analogue, it is possible to broadcast more channels using the same frequency, making room for broadcasters to expand their station portfolios.

Less Noise

DAB digital radio delivers improved sound quality. The technology allows the receiver to lock on to the strongest signal it can find and ignore everything else. This eliminates the hiss, crackle and fade so familiar on analogue radio.

Ease of Use

A DAB digital radio will tune to a station at the touch of a button. No more fine tuning a station to get the best reception.

A DAB set allows the listener to scroll through a list of available stations by name - then tune in by pressing the 'select' button.

More Information

Have you ever heard a song on the radio and wanted to know who it is by or what it's called? Or tuned into speech radio and wanted to know what the programme is about or who is speaking?

Digital Radios have a screen which can show text information transmitted by the radio station.

Some stations send information about latest news, sports scores, what's on now and next, website address and phone numbers.

Some radios offer an option to view the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) which shows listings information for some stations. It is also possible to Pause rewind and record live radio.

MP3 Explained

MP3 has changed the way people listen to music on the Internet.

It wasn't so long ago that the average pop song converted into a WAV file would have taken hours to download using a 28.8kbs modem connection and required up around 50 megabytes of disc space.

With the same song converted into an MP3 file, the download time and file size are reduced dramatically to around one-tenth the original size while sounding just as good as before.

MP3 is a form of compression. It's an acronym which stands for Mpeg 1 Audio Layer 3.

The benefits of MP3 compression mean that people can back up their music collection onto hard disc or burn their own music selections onto CDs which can hold over 100 songs.

Some Roberts radios are able to playback MP3 files which means that you can not only play your music collection on your PC.

You can also play it through the radio speakers by inserting an SD card with your files into the machine, by playing these files from a CD written using your computer, or by streaming the files directly from your computer using one of our Internet Radios.