As a Business Gets Bigger, Its Radios Get Smaller

Published:2010/11/18 23:49:00 Author:Michelle From:SeekIC

With fee-based satellite radio gaining a foothold in the United States, the two companies that offer the service are hoping to expand their customer base by selling smaller after-market receivers with a range of new capabilities.

Later this week, XM is set to introduce receivers capable of storing up to 30 minutes of any live broadcast to play back at a later time. With a function that works much like the pause control of a digital video recorder, the units will also be able to replay the last 30 minutes of the channel to which the unit was most recently tuned.

The earliest plug-and-play satellite receivers were bulky, but both companies have succeeded in shrinking their units. XM’s newest and smallest-ever unit, the Roady2, released last month, is 3.4 ounces, half the weight of its predecessor model.

Even the antennas are shrinking. Aware that many customers mount the antenna on the dash rather than the roof, both companies are using microantennas not much bigger than a quarter.And by the beginning of next year, Sirius will offer a receiver that can download Sirius programming from the Internet for later playback in areas where signals cannot reach. Related chip is:MRF429 .

Reprinted Url Of This Article: http://www.seekic.com/blog/ComputersAndTechnology/2010/11/18/As_a_Business_Gets_Bigger_Its_Radios_Get_Smaller.html

Print this Page | Comments | Reading(439)