Apple TV, now supporting Internet Radio!

November 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Apple TV - iTunes RadioOn Thursday Apple announced an update for Apple TV.  The Apple TV 3.0 update includes support for Internet radio streams.  You can now listen to you favorite Internet radio streams on through your home theatre system!

To access the radio streams choose “Internet” from the main menu and “Radio” from the drop down.  This weekend’s IBS Palooza event will be available on Apple TV and we will be adding all of Backbone’s other stations shortly.

Also, within iTunes radio you will note a new designation.  Backbone’s high fidelity AAC streams will be designated as AAC Internet Audio streams.  Stations that broadcast in AAC audio provide a higher quality sound at a lower bit-rate.

Tune in this weekend for a listen.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, News Tagged With: , ,

Backbone Enables World’s First HTTP LIVE Streaming Internet Radio Stations

October 22, 2009 by Leave a Comment

New streaming protocol promises more robust connections andability to traverse firewalls. IBS Student Radio Network will adoptHTTP Live Streaming in iPhone’s College Radio Tuner application

Two cutting edge college radio stations are making history as the first Internet stations to stream in the new HTTP Live streaming protocol. With the help of Backbone Networks Corporation, Long Island University WLIU-BK and Goucher Student Radio have become the first stations to add HTTP Live streaming to their broadcast offerings. This station upgrade is part of Backbone’s plan to further expand IBS Student Radio Network (IBS-SRN) station listenership by adding both HTTP Live Streaming and Shoutcast protocols to the current RTSP streams currently offered by the network to a variety of additional players on iPhone, iPod touch, computers and other devices.

Backbone LogoHTTP Live Streaming is the HTTP-based protocol which enables the College Radio Tuner App to seamlessly stream through firewalls, routers and proxy servers.

Shoutcast is the popular streaming protocol used by a number ofInternet radio stations, directories and tuners. Adding Shoutcastsupport extends Backbone’s powerful automation to this popular protocolfor all our stations. “IBS’ current iTunes and iPhone capabilities havebeen tremendous in connecting our member stations to the world. AddingShoutcast and HTTP Live Streaming will make our college and high schoolradio stations even easier to find and hear,” said Len Mailloux,Chairman of The Intercollegiate Broadcast System. “These extensionsgive us the chance to reach out to new listeners around the globe andshare the excitement and fun that is college radio.”

The first two HTTP Live stations, WLIU-BK (Long Island University,Brooklyn Campus) and Goucher Student Radio (Goucher College; Towson,MD), are important members of the IBS Student Radio Network. Backbonewill be upgrading all IBS-SRN member stations by the end of 2009.Backbone’s free College Radio Tuner App for iPhone and iPod touch nowsupports HTTP Live Streaming stations. In addition, during thisprocess, Backbone will be adding Shoutcast and Icecast streamingcapability to all stations, enabling them to be listed and found innumerous online streaming directories.

About IBS-SRN

In 2007, Backbone Networks Corporation, in cooperation with theIntercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS), launched the first trueInternet radio network, one that specifically aims to enhance thestudent radio experience. The IBS Student Radio Network enables studentoperated stations to syndicate live and produced programming amongmember stations, as well as automatically access a vast amount ofroyalty-free programming from worldwide third-party sources.

About IBS

The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) is a nonprofitassociation of mostly student-staffed radio stations based at schoolsand colleges across the country. Over 1,000 IBS member stations operateall types of facilities including Internet – Webcasting,closed-circuit, AM carrier-current, cable radio, FCC-licensed FM, LPFMand AM stations.

About Backbone

Founded in 1990, Backbone Networks Corporation has its roots indeveloping television and radio software, especially content productionand delivery applications. Its founders are pioneers in developingtechnology for the broadcasting industry. They have supplied softwareand systems for some of the highest profile broadcasters and theirevents.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, News Tagged With: , , , ,

IBS Fall Palooza Live Music Weekend, Nov. 6th-7th

October 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment
To kick off the 2009-2010 IBS Student Radio Network broadcast year, we are proud to announce IBS Fall Palooza 2009, Friday November 6th, and Saturday November 7th.
What is IBS-Palooza?
It is a weekend of local, live music on member stations of the IBS Student Radio Network, simulcast across the IBS Student Radio Network to kick off the fall 2009 semester.
IBS Palooza - Fall 2009
The goals of IBS Palooza are:
  • Use IBS Palooza as a recruiting tool for getting volunteers to work at your station.
  • Help local college bands get airplay– make your station important for your community.
  • Raise some money for worthy charities local to you.
  • Have some fun (of course!)

IBS Fall Palooza 2009 happens on the first full weekend of November, Friday November 6th and Saturday November 7th. Currently the following schools are signed up or considering a broadcast as part of the event:

  • Simmons College Boston
  • All Independent Radio from Art Institute, Boston
  • Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC
  • University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
  • WFNM – Franklin & Marshall College Radio, Lancaster PA
  • Goucher College Radio, Towson MD
  • KXZY Oklahoma State, Stillwater Oklahoma
  • Roosevelt University, Chicago
  • Simmons College, Boston
  • XTSR – Towson University Radio, Towson MD
  • WLIU-BK – Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus Radio
The ground rules for IBS-Palooza are very straightforward:
Live local bands from your college, broadcast live on your station. All organized by you– content is of your choice.
Each station will agree on a 1-2 hour time slot, and we’ll take care of everything else. You’ll just broadcast normally on your station, and we’ll pick it up and rebroadcast it on the IBS Radio Network station ‘IBS-Palooza’.
Each station should elect one or more charities to be a beneficiary of the broadcast. You’ll put a link in your stream to a place where people listening can click through to donate to that charity.
You’ll be able to simulcast the rest of the event on your station if you want to.
You need to be a member of the IBS Student Radio Network (IBS-SRN) to participate.   For more information about the IBS Student Radio Network, you can sign up at http://www.backbonebroadcast.com
Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, College Radio, Music Radio Tagged With: ,

IBS Student Radio Network welcomes Hesser College, Manchester New Hampshire

September 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The IBS Student Radio Network is proud to welcome its newest member, Hesser College Radio. based in Manchester New Hampshire.

Hesser College provides a high-quality, student-oriented, career-focused, affordable learning experience and places high value on hands-on, employment-related skill building. Founded as Hesser Business College in Manchester, New Hampshire in 1900, Hesser College continues to follow the principle of providing individual encouragement and assistance to all students instilled by its founder, Joel H. Hesser.

Find out more about Hesser College at: http://www.hesser.edu

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, College Radio Tagged With: , ,

College Radio Tuner v1.0.1 released

June 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Version 1.0.1 of the College Radio Tuner has been released to the iTunes Application Store.  The release features compatibility with iPhone OS 3.0 for the iPhone, and iPod Touch.

An updated release with improved performance and updated features will be released over the summer.

Download the College Radio Tuner from the iTunes Application Store.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, College Radio, News Tagged With: ,

IBS Student Radio Network welcomes Champs Charter School

June 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The IBS Student Radio Network welcomes its newest member Champs Charter School.

Founded by Dr. Norman Isaacs and a small group of concerned parents in 2005, CHAMPS Charter High School is an independent public high school offering small academic classes including honors and advanced placement, as well as comprehensive academies for dance, drama, film, music, new media and robotics. Students come from diverse backgrounds and a wide geographic area. Kindness and respect for one another predominate on the campus.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, High School Radio Tagged With: , ,

IBS Palooza Internet Radio Live Simulcast – Spring Wrapup

April 26, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Thanks to all member schools who participated in the IBS Spring-Palooza broadcast weekend, April 24th-25th. Our live broadcast that started on Friday night at 4pm was simulcast on other IBS stations across the network. 22 hours of original programming broadcast throughout the weekend focused attention on our member stations, terrific local bands- and again raised money for worthy charities!

Listeners from around the world tuned in again to hear our broadcasts. You can explore this map of listeners, containing data from Friday, the 24th, through the first day of rebroadcasts on Sunday night the 26th.

All broadcasts were heard on iTunes® Radio, http://www.studentradionetwork.org and the College Radio Tuner iPhone/iPod touch application. Click on the image below to explore the map of connetions (red icons are computer based connections, blue are iPhone/iPod touch listeners).

spring_palooza09_stats-resized-600If you are a participating school, and have not uploaded your show recording – as soon as you do, we will start rerunning your broadcast on the IBS-Palooza station.

We will continue to repeat show recordings, and play music from member bands throughout the summer, up until the Fall IBS-Palooza, tentatively schedule for November 2009.

New: Band airplay statistics: New for IBS-Spring Palooza 2009, statistics are available for individual bands’ airplay in iTunes® Radio during the month of April. To get links to airplay stats for your school’s participating bands- send an email to palooza@backbonebroadcast.com

IF you would like to become a member of the IBS-Student Radio Network, and participate in the next IBS-Palooza, you can find out more on our website.

What is IBS-Palooza? It is a weekend of local, live music on member stations of the IBS Student Radio Network, simulcast across the IBS Student Radio Network to kick off the fall 2008 semester.

The goals of IBS-Spring Palooza are:

* Use IBS- Spring Palooza as a recruiting tool for getting volunteers to work at your station.
* Help local college bands get airplay- make your station important for your community.
* Raise some money for worthy charities local to you.
* Put on a great night of music!

IBS-Spring Palooza happened on the fourth weekend of April, from the 24th to the 25th of the month (Friday night through Saturday). The following schools broadcasted as part of the event:

* All Independent Radio from the Art Institute, Boston MA
* Central Methodist University, Fayette Missouri
* Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC
* University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
* Goucher College Radio, Towson MD
* KXZY Oklahoma State, Stillwater Oklahoma
* Roosevelt University, Chicago IL
* SUNY Stony Brook NY
* Simmons College, Boston MA
* XTSR – Towson University Radio, Towson MD
* WLIU-BK – Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus Radio

The ground rules for IBS-Palooza are very straightforward:

* Live local bands from your college, broadcast live on your station. All organized by you- content is of your choice.
* Each station will agree on a 1-2 hour time slot with IBS, and we’ll take care of everything else. You’ll just broadcast normally on your station, and we’ll pick it up and rebroadcast it on the IBS Radio Network station ‘WIBS’.
* Each station should elect one or more charities to be a beneficiary of the broadcast. You’ll put a link in your stream to a place where people listening can click through to donate to that charity.
* You’ll be able to simulcast the rest of the event on your station if you want to.
* You need to be a member of the IBS Student Radio Network (IBS-SRN) to participate. If
you’re receiving this message- likely you are a member already, but if you’re not, you can sign up here

Thanks to everyone who has already signed up to have their stations be a part of the second major IBS SRN Network Broadcast – ‘IBS- Spring Palooza‘. We look forward to having you all onboard again in the fall.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, College Radio Tagged With: , , ,

IBS-Palooza College Music Event initial planning

February 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

After the success of the initial IBS-Palooza in September, 2008, many member schools asked “When can we do that again?” We’re proud to announce “IBS-Spring Palooza” to be held on Friday April 24th and Saturday April 25th, 2009.

What is IBS-Palooza? It is a weekend of local, live music on member stations of the IBS Student Radio Network, simulcast across the IBS Student Radio Network to kick off the fall 2008 semester.

We’ll be discussing IBS-Spring Palooza in detail at the IBS Affiliates Meeting at the IBS National Conference in NYC, on March 5th, and also during the rest of the IBS National Conference March 6th-8th at the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. If you are not already signed up for the conference, it is not too late to do so.

The IBS Affiliates meeting will be held on Thursday evening, March 5th at the studios of IBS Affiliate WLIU-BK at Long Island University, Brooklyn campus.

IMPORTANT NOTE to affiliates attending the affiliates meeting: IBS has acquired a limited number of tickets for a Thursday night (3/5) live concert featuring The Roots, taking place at the Highline Ballroom, which is not too far away from the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. The concert is at 11:30 PM (after the affiliates meeting). Demand for tickets is especially high, as The Roots will be the house band on the Jimmy Fallon show starting that same week.

Thanks to everyone who has already signed up to have their stations be a part of the second major IBS SRN Network Broadcast – ‘IBS- Spring Palooza‘.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, College Radio, Music Radio Tagged With: , ,

Free College Radio Tuner launched for the iPhone

February 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Backbone Networks Corporation today announced its College Radio Tuner application for Apple’s iPhone® and iPod Touch® is now available from the iTunes App Store®. This free application showcases the growing IBS Student Radio Network, a collaborative effort between Backbone and the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System.

The College Radio Tuner allows a worldwide mobile audience to find and listen to cutting edge, student-run Internet radio stations. It allows the user to scroll easily through a list of stations, find and click to play live internet radio right on the iPhone or iPod touch, whether connected via WiFi, 3G or Edge networks.

The College Radio Tuner automatically searches for and adds new stations as they become available. Initial release of the tuner includes a complement of twenty five participating IBS-SRN stations, with more joining every month. Among these initial participating stations are those affiliated with Oklahoma State University, Goucher College, and Methodist University.

Stations originate their programs in superior quality MPEG-4 AAC format, the same international standard Apple® uses for its iTunes Store® offerings. The College Radio Tuner is the first RTSP/RTP/AAC player for the iPhone and iPod Touch, bringing the open standards supported across the rest of the Apple product line, including QuickTime®, to these devices.

In addition to streaming music and other audio to the iPhone, the College Radio Tuner also displays album or station image art, as well as embedded text listing artist, song title, album name, and other information The tuner also provides clickable links to the station’s web site, to the iTunes Store, where listeners can purchase and download the playing song, or to a call-in phone number that the iPhone automatically dials to facilitate listener interaction and talk radio segments.

Station-controlled automation software is supplied by Backbone, who provides central networked hosting for all IBS-SRN member stations. Stations can broadcast both live and automated radio program material,including remote live coverage of school sporting events and concerts. Backbone CTO George Capalbo added, “The Student Radio Network provides community within and among the schools, and it enhances their ability to communicate with alumni, the student body and their families.”

In contrast to commercial radio, IBS Student Radio Network stations are typically run by students rather than professional staff. Programs are a result of both school curricula and student club activities, and include events that involve their schools, communities and the development of the arts. Last fall, the IBS-SRN held IBS Palooza, the Internet’s first multi-venue music festival where participating schools independently showcased local independent musicians and bands, broadcasting simultaneously over a weekend long concert. Schools shared live feeds among stations on the IBS Student Radio Network. A spring IBS Palooza is scheduled for April 2009, and will be available free on the College Radio Tuner.

For the actual press release please see PRWeb.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog, College Radio, News Tagged With: , , ,

Public Comment on CRB record keeping rules

January 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Fred Wilhelm started a discussion about the CRB record keeping rules.  The complete article on the CRB record keeping is in the recent P2Pnet.

Well, I wanted to add my piece to this so I responded to Fred from the perpective of our customers, the web-casters.

Backbone Networks, as an internet radio aggregator, has an additional concern regarding web-casters. This concern would be true if the rumored standard ISP charge for music is implemented. Web-casters would still have to pay a performance royalty for streaming music to listeners with the ISPs that had implemented the charge. This is music for which the listener already has a right to hear. In other words, the streaming royalty would constitute a double payment.

For listeners of web-casters on ISP services that pay the license fee Backbone would like to see the streaming royalty rates waived however the reporting requirement remain. This would eliminate the double payment while at the same time providing the information back to SoundExchange to enable appropriate allocation to the artists.

Webcasters provide a service to their listeners, they program their shows to highlight new music and other programming that keeps their audience engaged. As such they are helping listeners find new music, i.e. some of the 7500 artists you reference. Anyone who has listened to Radio Paradise, Soma FM, BaGEL Radio, AccuRadio, Pandora or one of the IBS-SRN college radio stations know that these web-casters add significant value to their listener communities.

While we believe that the current royalty rates are way too high and are slowing the adoption of internet radio, this solution would at least help lower the cost web-casters bear for streaming to listeners on those ISPs. This may even help the web-casters that provide the added value of progamming interesting playlists for their listeners to continue to operate.

Separately we have a few additional broader concerns for web-casters. These are:

– The worldwide nature of the internet enables a worldwide audience. However, the complexity to report in the US is multiplied dramatically as the stream crosses borders. This friction in the system is a drag to the overall health of the music industry and internet radio.

– The royalty rates are tied to a particular transmission medium yet the listeners do not make such a distinction. We would support “broadcast neutrality” for the rates and ask that the rates be normalized between terrestrial, satellite and internet transmission. What we find most strange about the rates is that they are highest for internet transmission yet those streams are the most valuable because of the information and statistics that are associated with them.

I bring up this point because as an internet aggregator we would only support providing additional reporting to SX in exchange for reduced rates. Further, the more information provided the lower the rate should be. This data is extremely valuable and should not come for free. To me I think that the full requested information associated with each play is about equal to the current royalty rate.

We are all for finding workable solutions that promote artists while enabling web-casters to operate in a profitable manner and not all web-casters agree with our position but we believe that it is directionally correct and fair to the artists and web-casters.

Filed Under: Backbone Radio Blog Tagged With: , ,
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