Courtesy of the guys at ikmultimedia.com
The Extra Challenges Of WiFi’ed Internet Radio In Your Business
Internet radio is becoming more popular in the consumer market but it doesn’t translate completely, as yet, into commercial environments because of the challenges of providing a 100% reliable quality if service.
No streaming music service or Internet radio will offer 100% end to end availability because they don’t have control of the end to end solution.
These service providers can provide a level of service depending on their own centralised infrastructure however in most cases the real challenges begin once the stream enters the local telecoms network and the local area network.
Broadband providers offer services based on a contention ratio that means in busy times you will be competing for the same bandwidth as your neighbours. In most cases telecoms providers seem to have this well managed although the challenge is constantly increasing as more services become network connected.
Within the local area network things get even more busy. For example a coffee shop needs to offer wi fi for free to compete now. Added to this your own business traffic using that same broadband connection. And lastly, if you are using a wi fi connected device such as a phone or tablet to receive the Internet radio stream, you will probably be then sending the audio output back out onto the wi fi network to Air Play or DLNA wi fi connected devices thus doubling up the actual stream of the original radio.
The result of this is a music stream that suddenly cuts out and you have no idea when it will start playing again or indeed if it will be interrupted again.
Melody Pods’ music services are different in that we offer our services for downloading our music to devices. From these devices you can stream via wi fi.
But also you can consider a local connection to a Bluetooth sound system and avoid wi fi all together. Bluetooth, in our opinion is the best solution for small businesses and it’s our recommendation for businesses using simple sound system solutions.
Even simpler is to connect via a quarter inch earphone jack into the back of a sound system.
These options can make a huge difference to a busy commercial environment. Removing services from broad band and wi fi enables you to realise a highly available and uninterrupted music service to compliment you business ambience, leaving the rest of your business and your customers to maximise the usage of your broadband and wifi services.
Android Alternatives To The IPod
My family have a long history with ipods now. In fact, the latest versions, enabling Facetime functionality via WiFi provides some exciting options for the younger generation who can delay their commitment to monthly networking bills for the rest of their lives just a little longer.
However, for those of us looking for the cheapest device to play music in our businesses these devices provide realistic alternatives to using a mobile phone to play music and to an ipod which otherwise would be the only option for an app based royalty free music playing system. In addition, they provide an even cheaper way get background music into your business.
An article here covers some of the current possible alternatives to the ipod, which is great for the customer in terms of competition. Considering the need for businesses to look at delivering a system for background mood music and the potential for the need for a large budget, it is great to see the combination of an Android music player linked with a bluetooth sound system playing Melody Pods music.
Why spend thousands on a dedicated music storage player with traditional performance and copyright licenses when you can get all you need from an Android mp3 player or an ipod either running the MelodyPods player app and a Melody Pods subscription ?
Soon we will be doing some design exercises into creating solutions for small businesses around budget mobile devices that highlight the reduction in costs that achieve the same objective of much more expensive and more complicated solutions.
Mobile Replaces Satellite For Background Music Distribution
Mobile smartphone technology provides many opportunities to create disruption in existing markets that may have been doing the same thing the same way for many years and in fact, don’t provide customers with the best value possible anymore.
Secure Internet distribution to mobile music playing devices is one great example of this.
By replacing old satellite systems at a fraction of the cost and delivering the same quality of service businesses can gain better access to musicians who are producing music to meet more exacting needs because of improved feedback loops with customers.
Added to this the value of royalty free music, music that is licensed without being registered to any traditional performing rights society, therefore requires no additional performing or compositional / copyright licensing or royalty collection, and you have a great value service that businesses will gain great help in supporting their businesses.
Your Security Is Taken Seriously Here At Melody Pods
Here at Melody Pods we take a view that although we use industry strength security and security policies (around passwords and managing software and security updates promptly) we know that if the best corporates in the US can be hacked then anyone can be, given the motivation to do so.
Therefore we took a very early decision not to be involved in managing and holding your bank and card data. We partner only with merchants that will provide this service for both of us so our store is never a location for stored card details.
Secondly, our server does not hold any of your business critical data. You only trust is with your user id, password and a given email address, all of which you can set up to be completely independent of any other related service you have. So for example, you can create an email account on your own system for only communicating with us.
Secure Purchasing & Account Management
SSL Certificate
Both registration with subscription ordering plus account access is achieved with Secure Sockets Layer certificates over Https transmissions (SSL).
Additional policies.
We will never email you asking for you to re register your details. You should always look at any link given to ensure the domain name is the same as the recipient and always keep your own virus software up to date on your own computers.
Additionally we will be introducing a regular security forum for all customers who want to talk and share their concerns and requirements around the storage of their data.
Melody Pods complies with the UK Data Protection Act.