Modulation Index, LLC, Los Angeles, CA USA announced StreamS HiFi Radio, a new Internet Radio App for iPhone/iPod touch/iPad hardware. Via the StreamS Directory, StreamS supports and lists thousands of high quality AAC and HE-AAC streams including AM/FM stations and NET streams.
Without having to register on a website, users can add their own streams within the StreamS App, which is only necessary if these streams are not already listed in the StreamS Directory. Program providers can also request a listing in the StreamS directory. Although the directory is AAC/HE-AAC only, manual entry permits AAC/HE-AAC and MP3 streams to be entered and saved as Favorites.
Users can search, save streams and stations as Favorites, view Recents, Save Titles, and purchase on iTunes. StreamS supports social networking ? users can Publish Current Title to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. It even provides a world StreamMap? showing what other users are listening to. StreamS optimizes the user experience by displaying album art and artist title information in a fast, easy to use, mobile-oriented interface.
Because the StreamS App decodes HE-AAC and AAC correctly, listeners will hear these streams in full fidelity the way their creators intended. Many of the dedicated single-station and other player Apps decode HE-AAC incorrectly or do not support AAC/HE-AAC at all. Apple?s Steve Jobs recently decided that many single-station players have no place in the Apple iTunes App Store because of their limited functionality and cut-and-paste similarity to other players from the same developers. Additionally, many of these Apps sound bad, the most common and egregious problem being frequency response that extends to less than 15 kHz even when a stream itself contains all of the data necessary to achieve 15 kHz bandwidth, which is the minimum audio bandwidth required for high fidelity. These problems prevent the Apple hardware from providing a high-quality user experience.
With its ability to play thousands of standards-conforming streams, StreamS HiFi is the kind of App Apple prefers. Of course, Apple hardware allows users to run many other Apps as well, including web, e-mail, and contacts, so portable multipurpose devices become excellent-quality Internet radios too.
To allow users to exploit their Apple hardware?s entertainment potential fully, StreamS supports external audio connections, Bluetooth Audio and Apple AirPlay to AirPort Express and Apple TV. This allows high quality audio to be streamed to just about any device, anywhere there is an Internet connection. Some of the supported hardware devices do not require a wireless contract. If they use a Wi-Fi connection, any carrier can be used.
In 2002, back when HE-AAC was still called aacPlus, Orban introduced the first Internet HE-AAC streaming encoder application. Since then HE-AAC became an MPEG standard, joining AAC. HE-AAC has been included in all mobile multimedia devices and is supported by Adobe Flash, Microsoft, and now Apple. It is now more popular than MP3 and WMA in streaming applications because it is more efficient and sounds better at a given bitrate. Meanwhile, AAC powers the world?s largest music download store, Apple iTunes, because MPEG?s rigorous double-blind listening tests showed that AAC offers the best audio quality at bitrates of 128 kbps and above in stereo. (Above about 512 kbps, lossless coding is possible and is fully transparent to the source, but the required bitrate is uneconomical for streaming.)
HE-AAC is now in version 2, which improved efficiency further by adding parametric stereo encoding. StreamS HiFi Radio supports AAC/HE-AACv2 streams in all popular transports, including ICY/SHOUTcast, ICY/Icecast2, RTSP/RTP, and Adobe Flash RTMP and HTTP/FLV, allowing StreamS to play all AAC/HE-AACv2 streams found on the Internet today.
?As the developers of Orban Opticodec-PC HE-AAC encoders, we thoroughly understand the technology and get the HE-AAC decoding right,? said Greg Ogonowski, President of Modulation Index and Vice President for New Product Development at Orban. ?This gives listeners the best fidelity possible and provides capabilities that are more than competitive to satellite and HD Radio, whether heard on earbuds, auto sound systems, or home stereos. Deployed mobile devices greatly outnumber other digital radios. Moreover, we have found that unlike cellular voice channels, the high-speed data-grade mobile channels used by this service are typically free from dropouts, noise bursts, and unexpected disconnections. Thirty years serving the professional broadcast industry has taught us that radio networks are fanatical about the quality of their signal. By using a professional grade decoder, we are able to meet these high expectations.?
"For years, our audience has been begging us to find a way to make Boomer Radio available outside of the workplace,? said Ron Rubin, founder of Boomer Radio. ?With Adobe Flash streaming on the iPhone using StreamS, listeners can now enjoy our programming anywhere they go with the best sounding audio available today. And broadcasters who adopt this solution will be afforded new opportunities to monetize their content."
"Our customers have been looking for a path to profitably serve their listeners on the iPhone without losing control of their business," said Jonathan Speaker, chief operating officer for StreamGuys. "StreamS HiFi Radio and the Modulation Index custom radio apps now make that path clear."
Detailed information can be found here:http://www.indexcom.com/iphone
Consumers interested in StreamS HiFi Radio can find it for sale through the Apple iTunes App Store here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/streams-hifi-radio/id381467884?mt=8
Custom versions of StreamS are available.
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