# WiFi Radio! Superb!



## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

I thought this might be of interest to TiVo users. As one myself I am pretty excited - I love listening to speech radio, but I don't record radio on my TiVo, mainly because I don't want to listen in the living room. I tend to listen to a lot of radio while in the kitchen, or in the adjoining room. 

Today I took delivery of a highly impressive Acoustic-Energy WiFi Radio. 'Wow' is an understatement. It's like having a TiVo where you don't even have to set up the recordings! The radio plays BBC Listen Again programming - just turn a dial until the name of the programme you want to hear appears in the display and off you go. It will pause etc., and skip forward or back. It copes with real Audio, WMA, mp3, AAC and so on. 

The radio also plays Internet radio from around the world, and streams audio files from a computer - Windows or Mac. 

I've only scratched the surface - I was pottering around in the kitchen and fancied listening to Just a Minute. Dialled it up and off it went. After that, I thought Hmm. I missed Any Questions on Saturday. Listened to that. Money Box? That could be good. I no longer have to listen to Radio 4 when it gets too highbrow and cultural. 

Given that the BBC do their Listen Again stuff at 44kbps, the quality through the WiFi Radio is pretty good - it actually doesn't sound *that* different from my regular DAB radio.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Priced around £200 if memory serves. Not bad, considering.


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

£189.95 including next-day delivery from WebElectricals.

Radio stations can be added to by using the Reciva (radio.reciva.com) website.

The Acoustic Energy web site seems to be down at the moment so look at tiny url dot com/o7whx for more info.


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## itm (Aug 12, 2001)

Sounds fascinating. How would you go about playing MP3 files from a PC-based server? Would it require something like Slimserver for example?? What's the interface like for that sort of thing?


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## itm (Aug 12, 2001)

Sounds fascinating. How would you go about playing MP3 files from a PC-based server? Would it require something like Slimserver for example?? What's the interface like for that sort of thing?


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

It can search your network for computers and scan a shared directory for audio files.

The interface is pretty slick - the volume wheel scrolls through menus and letters/numbers/characters for entering text. It has a similar feel to an iPod - the select key works down through the menu structure, the back key is like the 'menu' key on the iPod, it goes back up. The wheel moves between top/upper level menu choices. Works better than it sounds.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

WOW, I could do with a few of these dotted around the house... but I might just buy one for now 

Has anyone seen a car radio that pauses fm or dab?


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## popabawa (Nov 19, 2002)

Wow! It looks great.

scgf, any idea if it will support 'subscription' real audio broadcasts? i.e. one's where you have to sign in to listen?


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

I'm not sure. The Reciva web site supports the RA subscribed service, but it does state that this feature needs to be supported by the receiver itself.


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## Major dude (Oct 28, 2002)

I presume you can listen to live streaming of say Radio 5 live. What is the music sound quality like and do you get pauses or interuptions in streaming?


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

You can listen to nearly all the BBC stations, including the local ones from all over the country.

The problem with the BBC channels is that they use such a low bitrate - 44kbps is woefully inadequate for music, though speech sounds pretty acceptable. Some stations go even lower and sound a bit like listening to the radio over a hands-free telephone unit.

Still, IMHO everything on the this radio sounds much better than traditional AM, and hugely better than shortwave.

For me, it is the BBC Listen Again service that makes this product. For that alone I would say that it is well worth the money. The quality of Listen Again is far more acceptable than on a computer, played through a decent speaker system. Although I am in to high-end HiFi, listening to these programmes on the AE WiFi radio causes me no problems at all - I suppose it is a little like watching TiVo material recorded at less than best quality.

In any case you have to remember that this is a small unit with a small speaker. If you can listen to a small portable FM radio without having quality issues, you will be OK with the AE WiFi Radio.

As regards dropouts etc. I think this would be down to your Internet connection. If you can listen to a continuous stream on your PC/Mac you will be able to do likewise on the AE WiFi - after all, it is just another computer on your network.


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## popabawa (Nov 19, 2002)

popabawa said:


> Wow! It looks great.
> 
> scgf, any idea if it will support 'subscription' real audio broadcasts? i.e. one's where you have to sign in to listen?


I think I managed to dig out an answer on this;

_Q: If subscribed to a streaming audio service that provides programs on line but is not a radio broadcaster per se. Will it be able to add them to the list of stations it can get on the radio.

A: We don't currently have any support for subscription services, although we are investigating that right now._


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

Has anyone found a web site where it is described in detail? I cna't work out how you "tune" it to the station you want.

Also, can you deffo set it to use only 11g?


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

The user manual can be downloaded from the Acoustic-Energy site.

To tune to a station you simply go to <stations>, and choose the continent, then the country and the available stations are listed. For BBC and other stations with 'On Demand' broadcasts you then get to choose between the streamed feed and on demand. You can alternatively choose a station by genre rather than geographical region.

Once you have located a station, you can save it to the 10 presets.

The Reciva website allows you to add stations not listed on the radio itself.

It really is very slick!


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

Ta. 

It's how it works "Listen Again" that I'm most puzzled by - what is a "station" when it comes to things like the BBC "Listen Again" stuff? Is the whole of Radio 4 Listen Again, for example, a station? Or is "From Our Own Correspondent" a station? In either case, how do you "drill down" to the particular recording you want?


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

Once you have located the radio station you want, say BBC radio 4, you press the select key. You then get a choice of 'On Demand' or 'Live'. Choose what you want with the dial, then press select. If you have chosen 'On Demand' you will see the name of a programme available. By turning the dial, you will scroll through the available Listen Again programmes in alphabetical order. When you arrive at the one you want, press select and it will offer to start playback from 00:00. Pressing select again will start the playback. You could use the dial to increase the start time to, say, 01:45 then press select and it would start playback from this point.

As I said before, the menu system is very much like how the iPod menu works. Think of a menu like a hierarchy and you can go down the structure, or back up again. Select goes down, Back goes the opposite way. The dial makes choices on that level - like choosing a radio station after you have selected USA, for example

The station is like Radio 4, Radio 5 etc.. If the radio knows that there is an on demand service then you get that further choice after selecting the station - live or on demand.


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

Ah, I see! Thanks for the lucid explanation.
If only it were better looking.


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

If I can, one further question on this ... can you set those buttons so that they pull up the latest editions of a particular programme, or are they limited to being a station?


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

Unfortunately the presets only work with stations. There again, Acoustic Energy seem keen to add extra features with firmware updates.

Apparently the WiFi Radio uses a form of embedded Linux, so there is another similarity with the TiVo.


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## Paul555 (Mar 20, 2004)

I have this radio that does a similar thing but a lot cheaper. Not WiFI, it has a USB sender. You have to leave the computer switched on though. Works really well and I recommend it.


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

Does it cope with "Listen Again"?


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## Paul555 (Mar 20, 2004)

ndunlavey said:


> Does it cope with "Listen Again"?


Yes and no. You would have to enter the url in manually on the computer. Not that user friendly but could be done.


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

Each time, or could I do it once and save it as a preset?

And I take it that this USB transmitter thing means its tied to one particular PC (at a time), so I'd have to enter the URL on that particular PC?


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## Cainam (May 25, 2004)

I am straying over boundary of legality here, so if any administrators feel I have gone too far, please delete this post.  

Like scgf originally posted, I too love listening to radio, but am not a fan of listening to it through my TV. And I would like to be able to get Internet Radio stations around the house.

The solution I went for was to buy a small FM transmitter from USA. It has a 3.5mm jack, and is meant to be used for plugging into an ipod etc, so you can tune your car radio into the FM frequency, and listen to the music through your car speakers. While this is legal in US, it is NOT legal in UK.

But the range on some of them is a lot more than you would need in a car. So much so that I have plugged mine into the spare headphone jack on my PC soundcard.

So I start playing the Internet stream of my choice, and listen to it on ANY radio in the house. :up:


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## scgf (Oct 24, 2000)

I like the idea of having something which does not have to connect to my computer at all.

There is a cheaper alternative to the AE WiFi Radio - it is called the Magicbox IMP and costs aound £50 less. Have a look here. There is a seller on Ebay who appears to have stock.

Acoustic Energy say that the innards of the IMP are not the same as their product.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Can you say "knock-off"


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

scgf said:


> Acoustic Energy say that the innards of the IMP are not the same as their product.


They probably share an asian manufacturer


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## B33K34 (Feb 9, 2003)

The other option is the Slim Devices Squeezebox connected to a amp and speakers - not a portable but another way of getting internet radio around the house (including BBC with the AlienBBC plugin). It's £230 for the wireless version.

I had a play with the AE device the other day. Ease of use is impressive.


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## TivoTortoise (Apr 7, 2002)

I just bought this AE radio from play.com who have it down to £160 with free delivery for Easter. http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=sr&page=title&r=ELEC&title=819525

I'm very pleased with it. The only small drawback I've found is that the alarm plays the last station I was listening too -so instead of the 7am news it started off in the middle of a listen again stream which was a bit disconcerting.

Dave


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