Artist Experience®

HD RADIO™ TECHNOLOGY – ARTIST EXPERIENCE®

DEFINITION

Artist Experience is the synchronous transmission, delivery, and display of images on the HD Radio receiver that are related to the specific audio segment. Potential applications include:

  • Cover Art images such as artist photos, slide shows, or other images that are related to the song or audio being played.
  • Commercial images such as sponsor logos and advertisement images related to the marketing campaign.

The image is displayed and is tightly synchronized with the song or audio being played; multiple images are displayed one at a time. If the Cover Art or primary image is unavailable, the station logo or other default image is displayed on the receiver.

The images nominally have a resolution of 200 pixels by 200 pixels and a maximum file size of 24 kilobytes.

The image support data client is optimized to make use of the available bandwidth based on the following factors.

  • Size of image
  • Image repeat rate
  • Image data transfer rate

Contact iBiquity for further details on the analysis for bandwidth requirements.

PSD messages must arrive at the HD Radio broadcast equipment within 0.5 seconds of each new segment or song so that the image can be tightly synchronized with the song.

The Artist Experience service gains the highest priority in the service configuration. The synchronization trigger is sent through a custom frame in PSD called the XHDR. The image should be sent prior to the start of the associated song.

Transmitting station logos is critical since receivers use the logos as a fallback when synchronized images are unavailable.

IMPLEMENTATION

Commercial HD Radio receivers are available that can be used as a monitoring tool for the Artist Experience service.

  • Artist Experience images may either be rendered in the JPEG format or PNG format. Artist Experience images may also utilize the transparency feature of the PNG format so that the image will assume any shape desired rather than appearing as a square or rectangular image.
  • It is recommended that Cover Art images are accompanied with a promotional message in the Commercial frame of the related PSD, such as information on purchasing the song and information about the music store.
  • Importers must use Version 4.3.1-p1 or later. The Importer must be configured correctly per the Artist Experience data client vendor.
  • Exciters/Exporters must use Version 4.3.2 or higher.
  • Image Support Client/Automation software must be based on LOT SDK Version 4.3.3 or later.
  • Automation systems must incorporate HD Radio HDP PSD SDK Version 4.7 or later.
  • XHDR frame trigger is sent within every ID3 tag (image client functionality).
  • Artist Experience images are sent at least once per song (image client functionality), preferably twice.

ARTIST EXPERIENCE VENDOR INFORMATION

  • Broadcast Electronics / TRE

Tim Bealor, 217.224.9600

rmiklius@bdcast.com

http://www.bdcast.com/products/studio-products/datacasting-the-radio-exp…

  • Emmis Interactive / TagStation

866.986.8997

support@tagstation.zendesk.com

http://www.tagstation.com

  • Jump2Go

Allen Hartle, 425.641.9043

allen@jump2go.com

http://www.jump2go.com/