Ll IC IGAN STATE UNIVERSITY UBRARIES \\ ll lllllWill“ll‘ll'lllllllllll ll 3“ 1293 01688 7493 THESSS m I This is to certify that the thesis entitled NEILASTM vs. Bkeascfimmz TEE-E CASE OF THE Hearsay » presented by KYLE 5- TNT has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for ”I'm Mdegree in WmuN'C‘W @szK—* V Major professor ‘ Date 8' lb ' Y8 0-7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution LIBRARY Mlchlgan State Unlverslty PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. TO AVOID FINE return on or before date due. MTE DUE DUE DUE DATE DUE 1“ W14 NETCASTING VS. BROADCASTING THE CASE OF THE BEATBOX BY Kyle S. Tait A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Telecommunication 1998 ABSTRACT NETCASTING VS. BROADCASTING THE CASE OF THE BEATBOX BY Kyle S. Tait RealAudio is a technology enabling the streaming of audio over the Internet. By incorporating this technology into the creation of a web site, the Beatbox, a weekly netcast was carried out that was similar to a radio program. This thesis explores the similarities and differences between netcasting and traditional broadcasting techniques by highlighting my personal involvement as a netcaster. Dedicated to my father, who taught me to always finish what I’ve started. iii ACKNOWLEGMENTS All praise and glory is extended to my Heavenly Father who has laid upon my heart every word and idea expressed in this document. I can’t thank Carrie Heeter enough for her continued support, guidance, and counseling during this production. Without her encouragement and wisdom, many of the ideas represented here would not have bloomed properly. I would also like to thank Brian Winn for his leadership, expertise, and generosity for helping me through another project; “yeah dude!" Thanks to Jason Schreiber for his perpetual technical assistance and for allowing me free reign to turn the Beatbox into the best site on the net; I know we both agree on that. A special thanks to Brian Cors, who gave up his own time to help me hammer out the initial formatting of the show. Also, many thanks to all the deejays who came out to be on the Beatbox; “the scratch is our drum set.” And last, but never least, I thank my soul mate, Catherine, for her inspiration, patience and undying support from day one of this production. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................ 1 CHAPTER 1 BEATBOX CREATION Goals and Mission .................................. 4 Site Characteristics and Features .................. 4 Design Considerations .............................. 8 Live Production Process ............................ 9 Promotion ......................................... 11 CHAPTER 2 TECHNOLOGIES EMPLOYED RealAudio Choosing RealAudio ........................... 13 Components to deliver RealAudio files ........ 13 Web Server ................................... 14 Web Browser .................................. 14 RealServer ................................... 14 RealEncoder .................................. l4 RealPlayer ................................... 15 Delivering RealAudio files ................... 15 Choosing a Compression Ratio ................. l6 Bandwidth Negotiation ........................ 17 Other features of the RealSystem ............. 19 WebCamToo ......................................... 20 Chatbox Lite v. 1.0 ............................... 21 Cold Fusion ....................................... 22 CHAPTER 3 METHODS AND RESULTS The Sample ........................................ 24 The Questionnaire ................................. 26 The Results ....................................... 27 User Profile ...................................... 27 Listening Habits .................................. 28 Media Use ......................................... 29 Preference ........................................ 30 Site Features ..................................... 31 Open ended results ................................ 32 Summary ........................................... 32 CHAPTER 4 OUTSIDE EVALUATION The BetaLounge .................................... 34 Pseudo ............................................ 35 Sonic Net ......................................... 35 NPR Online ........................................ 36 Radio 1 FM ........................................ 37 Joy FM ............................................ 38 CHAPTER 5 NETCASTING VS. BROADCASTING Transmission Requirements ......................... 39 Delivery .......................................... 41 Fidelity .......................................... 41 Programming ....................................... 43 General Benefits .................................. 45 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS The Future of RealAudio ........................... 47 The Future of Netcasting .......................... 48 My experience ..................................... 48 APPENDICIES APPENDIX A Email Recruiting Survey Participants .............. 50 APPENDIX B Comparison of Netcasting Sites .................... 51 APPENDIX C Netcasting versus Broadcasting .................... 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................... 54 vi INTRODUCTION Who would have thought five years ago the world wide web would become what it is today. New technologies develop overnight, and the characteristics that make up the web change that fast as well. First started by the government, networking universities was a breakthrough in and of itself. Shortly after the web developed, the first generation websites began to emerge. Typically, these were characterized by grey backgrounds and text. Gradually, some web sites sported a few images, and they were considered cutting edge (Siegel, 1997). Today, it's hard to say what defines the web. But it is clear, that the web is changing. For better or worse, the web redefines itself everyday. Most obvious, though, are advances made in deliverable media. Types of new media today can include but are not limited to: streaming audio, streaming video, and other media types delivered across the Internet into web browsers. New deliverable media enables new experiences for web users. So much so, that people are now able to shop on—line, watch television type programs, and listen to radio transmissions over the Internet. One measure of the success of new web experiences for users and creators, is whether or not these experiences are as good as more traditional experiences, like, going to a store and buying something, watching television programs on the couch, or listening to the radio in the car. It is my hope, to shed some light on this issue, by explaining my experiences in creating an on—line music program called the Beatbox, using netcasting technology and compare the creation and use of it with broadcast radio. What is Netcasting? The Beatbox is a web site that hosts weekly netcasts and features guest deejays who play music which is encoded digitally and streamed over the Internet. Since netcasting is a new technology, the term is yet to be defined, although loose interpretations exist. For our purposes, netcasting will simply refer to streaming audio over the Internet. The Beatbox uses RealAudio streaming media. Before streaming media technology, sound could be hyperlinked on a web page, but before you could hear it, you had to download the whole file. Hour long audio files might take an hour to download. RealAudio is a technology that, simply put, sends bits of digital audio information (data) over time as needed, rather than waiting to receive the full file before listening. With RealAudio, you are able to listen while the file downloads with the use of a decoder, the RealAudio player. The Internet was my delivery medium. By using it, I was able to stream audio to most any part of the world. What is Radio Broadcasting? Radio broadcasting is similar to netcasting, but instead of transmitting over wire, electromagnetic waves are used. A transmitter modulates sound waves into a carrier wave. The transmitter sends this modulated signal to an antenna, which radiates it into the earth's atmosphere as electromagnetic waves. A radio captures the carrier signal with it's own antenna and decodes the carrier wave sending the sound waves through and amplifier, and then the speakers (Oringel, 1989). More simply put, broadcasting is disseminating electromagnetic waves into the earth's atmosphere, the delivery medium, that are decoded by a radio. Chapter 1 BEATBOX CREATION Goals and Mission My goals with producing the Beatbox were threefold. I wanted to use netcasting to highlight talented individuals who would benefit from and deserved attention from a specialized audience of listeners. I wanted to provide interested listeners with an on-line community related to their musical interests. And I wanted to enrich the many choices web users have by offering up music that they may never have heard of if they hadn't visited the site. The mission of the Beatbox is to represent electronic dance music in its truest form. Dance music, and the people who listen to it, usually have a "do it yourself" ethic which goes against popular music and traditional commercial radio outlets. The Beatbox used the Internet to deliver specialized quality music without advertisement, agents, contracts, copyright or other trappings of the music industry today. site Characteristics and Features The Beatbox, residing at http://www.beatbox.com, is a web site highlighting the talents of deejays who spin dance music. Every week, the Beatbox encodes a different featured deejay's live mix into RealAudio format and makes them available on the web. These mixes last anywhere from one hour to twelve hours. The Beatbox was originally started by a man named Justin Ivey, who laid the foundation for what the site has become. In it's infancy, the Beatbox typically had long sets, and there was little on-line content devoted to deejay recognition. Most notably, since the time I've taken over the creation of the web site, I've condensed the sets to under three hours. I also took photos of each deejay so that their mix has a picture of them by it. I felt this would give more of a personal identity to each of the sets. Beatbox is divided into six major sections: Live, Archives, Messages, Chat, FAQ, and Links. The live section is where new deejays are featured each week. Live "netcasts" using RealNetworks streaming media technology begin at 6 p.m. on Sunday evenings. During this time, anyone visiting the site has an opportunity to hear the deejay live. Immediately following the set, I conduct an informal interview with the deejay, to let listeners get to know the personality behind the mix. On the live page, and only during "live transmissions", visitors have the option to see live video as well as listen to live audio. The audio and video are encoded separately and after the live transmission, the video perishes and is no longer available. The featured deejay continues to be listed on the live section for a full week after their live performance, until the next new deejay replaces him/her. During that week, visitors can listen to a recorded version of the live performance. At the end of the week, the previous live deejay's performance, interview and photo are rolled over into the Archives. The Archives are where all the old past performances are kept. I have hosted more than 20 shows, all of which are archived in this section. Users can listen to any past performance in the Archives. At any time during a visit to the site, users have the option to interact with others who may be visiting the site at the same time using either the Chat room or the Message Board. These interactive features were added to Beatbox, to try to create an on-line community. Chat is ephemeral - - conversations posted disappear as new conversations take their place. Chat is intended for multiple users all visiting the site at the same time. The Chat room was intended to be used during the live transmissions held on Sunday nights, to exchange comments with other visitors or to ask questions of the deejay while the deejay was present in the studio. The Message Board lets visitors post messages that remain visible over time. Messages were intended to be used at times when fewer people may be visiting the site. In case no other visitors were around to answer a question immediately through either the chat or the message board, Beatbox includes a "frequently asked questions (FAQ)" page. Here, users might find answers to problems they may be having with configuring their machines to work with RealAudio. Or they can learn what the site is all about. The last section of the site is the Links section. Like many other web sites, the Beatbox has a list of related, interesting links that visitors may also want to go to. The links were chosen on their relevance to the Beatbox content. The Beatbox links to other RealAudio sites, information on how to deejay, dance record labels, and other sites that pertain to dance music. Design Considerations The toughest design decision was determining how the interface was to look. I wanted to create an interface that would visually represent the music that was being featured. Since dance music is composed of sounds that are very futuristic, sparse and repetitive, I felt that the look of the site should reflect this same attitude. To achieve this, I choose to create what I feel looks like a futuristic radio. By using channel operations in Adobe Photoshop, I was able to give the new interface a very dimensional look without it actually being rendered in a 3d software package. All of the navigation was easily integrated into this unit, which acts like an audio remote control changing between all of the different sections of the Beatbox. This interface was laid on a black background, and important links where highlighted in green. Instead of users simply clicking on hyperlinks to take them into different sections of the site, they are encouraged to interact with the controller like they would if they were tuning in a radio. The most frequent complaint about the interface I received, was that the graphics were sometimes too dark when viewed on a Wintel (PC) computer as compared to a Macintosh computer. This was an issue that I overlooked at the time when I created the graphics on a Macintosh, and if there was anything I'd change about the interface, it would be to lighten up the images. Live Production Process The Beatbox under my supervision features only guest deejays. There is no resident deejay, so each show is unique to who is being featured. Guest deejays have three hours to mix. Some go the full three hours, others choose not to . Live shows are always on Sundays starting at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Preparations involved in putting together the show include: getting a picture of the deejay, setting up a hi—8 video camera used for the live video feed, setting up two Technics SL-12OO mk2 turntables and MTX mixer, preparing the RealAudio encoding computer, setting up the mixing board and DAT player, and adding new HTML pages to the web site that update it with the new information specific to the new deejay. When we go live at 6:00 p.m., the encoding begins, the DAT is in record, the video is streamed, and the HTML pages are updated. During encoding, I usually just sit back and enjoy the mix. Many times I would check out the chat room to see if anyone was hanging out, or see how many people were listing to the RealAudio file. I also took this time to prepare questions which were used in an interview at the end of the deejay's set. I chose to do interviews at the end of each set. Some of the deejays were record producers as well as deejays. My questions focused on the past, the present, and the future of each person's involvement with this music, either as a producer, a deejay, or both. I felt that these interviews personalized the deejay set, and helped answer 10 some common questions listeners may want to ask. These interviews became more fluid as I continued to do them. Eventually, I didn't write down questions but more naturally engaged in conversation. This production process was not without problems, and I learned as I went along. The hardest lesson was when I lost the first guest deejay's mix because I wasn't using any reliable back up method. I quickly realized that computers fail, and unless you have a back up plan, valuable data is lost. Soon after this realization, I started using a DAT recorder for backup. This saved about 5 mixes which would have been lost when the RealAudio server crashed. Promotion Once setting up the shows became easier, more systematic, and more routine, attracting listener's was the next obstacle. Links from other sites help out the most when gaining listeners, but I wanted to gain the participation and approbation of potential local listeners who lived in the vicinity. To do this, I started a paper promotional campaign. I created small hand bill flyers and passed them out at parties where there were deejays and 11 dancing. I also created a press packet for recruiting new talent. The press packet really helped getting new deejays to come to Lansing to participate. Since netcasting is a new phenomenon, many deejays didn't know what to think about it. Handing deejays detailed information with pictures and offering explanations helped make them more familiar with the web and more interested to appear on the Beatbox. I also made up business cards that I handed out with these packs, trying to give the Beatbox an identity. Another big help in gaining listeners and keeping them, was the creation of a mailing list that listeners could subscribe to. The list had about 100 people subscribed to it, and it was used as a tool to communicate who the next guest was going to be. I think this helped keep people informed who wanted to know when events were taking place, but who were less likely to visit the site often enough to notice all of the changes. For those not on the mailing list, upcoming event announcements were posted on the web site. 12 Chapter 2 TECHNOLOGIES EMPLOYED REALAUDIO Choosing RealAudio The Beatbox incorporated RealAudio into its framework for delivering audio over the Internet. RealAudio is a part of the RealSystem developed by RealNetworks Inc. RealAudio are files that are compressed, then streamed over the Internet. By streaming audio, the Beatbox was able to deliver real—time audio to users who were visiting the site. Real-time delivery means that you do not have to wait while a file first downloads; the clip plays as soon as your computer starts to receive it. Along with that, the user gains complete control over the clip by being able to pause, play, stop, and during an archived feed, move forward or back anywhere within the clip (RealAudio and RealVideo Content Creation Guide, 1998). Components to deliver RealAudio files RealAudio uses a client/server system. The server provides the content over the network, while the client receives and plays the content on the users computer. 13 The components used provide audio to Beatbox users are: web Server The web server is a program that delivers web pages. On these pages, are links to the RealAudio files. These links are referencing a metafile, which is simply an alias to where the RealAudio file is being stored on the RealAudio server. web Browser A web browser is another client program which enables Beatbox users to find all of our audio clips. RealAudio works with most popular web browsers. RealServer The RealServer delivers the audio clips over the Internet. One server can deliver hundreds of clips at the same time. RealEncoder The RealEncoder is used to create the RealAudio files. The encoder can encode a digital audio file into a RealAudio file, or as with our case, can encode a live 14 audio signal. The Beatbox used the RealEncoder on a Windows 95 machine, where I sent the live feed from the deejay into the audio input on the computer. The encoder in turn, sent the encoded file to the RealServer. RealPlayer The RealPlayer is the client program that users must have on their computer to listen to RealAudio files. The Beatbox provides a link to http://www.real.com (RealNetworks web site) where visitors can download the RealPlayer. The RealPlayer is licensed for free to anyone who downloads it. Delivering RealAudio files The process of how RealAudio files are delivered to users can be explained in this fashion: 1. The web browser displays a web page that contains a link to a metafile. 2. The user clicks the link. The web browser request the metafile from the web server. 3. The web server delivers the metafile to the web browser. 4. The web browser looks up the MIME type of the metafile. Based on the MIME type, the web browser starts the RealPlayer as a helper application and passes it to the metafile. 5. The RealPlayer reads the URL from the metafile (this is the alias to the RealAudio file) and requests it from the RealServer. 6. The RealServer begins streaming the requested RealAudio clip to the RealPlayer, upon which the 15 audio is heard through the speakers of the computer (RealAudio and RealVideo Content Creation Guide, 1998). Choosing a Compression Ratio The output of an encoded audio file using the RealEncoder is called a RealAudio clip. These files can be encoded differently depending on which compression ratios are applied to them during encoding. RealAudio formats are optimized for 14.4 and 28.8 modems, ISDN, T1 and LAN connections. You are also able to listen to RealAudio files locally on your computer (RealAudio and RealVideo Content Creation Guide, 1998). In creating RealAudio files, the hardest thing to determine, is what compression ratio to choose. This is usually determined by what type of connection your target audience will be using. As with many other compression technologies, the more compression applied to the original file, the worse the quality and fidelity of the output file. Ultimately, using the least amount of compression is desirable, but again, your target audience must be considered. If there is not enough compression applied to a RealAudio file, some computers will not be able to play back the audio as a result of not being able to receive the audio quick enough while being streamed over the Internet. 16 To help determine what compression technique to use (also referred to as a codec), the RealEncoder has a standard set of settings that you can apply when encoding. These settings simply allow you to specify bandwidth options for your content. Bandwidth, also known as bit rate, is the amount of data that can be received by your modem during a set period of time. Bandwidth is measured in kilobits per second (kbps). Standard modems are commonly referred to by the bit rate that they are able to receive, for example, 14.4, 28.8, and 56k (RealAudio and RealVideo Content Creation Guide, 1998). The Beatbox was determined to meet the demands of users who had at least a 28.8 connection. This being the case, the RealAudio files encoded for the Beatbox were encoded with an audio codec that met 16 kbps mono. This rate allowed enough fluctuation for any net congestion that may occur so that audio was fed continuously to listeners with 28.8 kbps modems or better with little interruption. Bandwidth Negotiation Halfway into the production of the Beatbox, there was a common understanding that some of the visitors had a much better connection than the 28.8 modem connection. These visitors were connecting from either universities or 17 workplaces with ISDN or better speeds. Because of this, there was a compelling interest to address these needs. Like mentioned earlier, the more compression added to a RealAudio clip, the less fidelity it retains. The audio codec used for users connecting with an ISDN connection or better, was 80 kbps. Delivering RealAudio encoded with this codec will allow for a clip that is much more rich in terms of fidelity and quality. This codec also allowed to offer stereo sound, something lacking in our 16 kbps clips. The Beatbox was able to provide two types of RealAudio clips through a means called Bandwidth Negotiation. Bandwidth negotiation simply allows files to be encoded with different compression rates. In order to do this, your computer will need to be equipped with more than one audio card, but other than that, it is a painless process. When encoding the audio, I set up the encoder to encoded two different files. There is an option that needs to be checked so that the RealServer knows you want two different compression rates for the same clip. Once this is checked, the RealEncoder will encoded both files into a folder containing both the high and low bandwidth file. These two files are renamed by the RealServe based upon what compression ratio was chosen. Bandwidth negotiation requires only one link on your web site to a particular 18 clip, the rest the RealPlayer determines (RealAudio and RealVideo Content Creation Guide, 1998). When users download the RealPlayer, they are initially asked to set a preference based upon their connection type. If they choose that they are using a 28.8 modem, the player would look for the clip that was encoded for that particular bit rate. Likewise, if users were connected using and ISDN connection or better, the RealPlayer would choose the appropriate file. By doing this, the Beatbox was able to cater to all users, whether they were listening at home on a modem, or while using a better connection at work or school. Other features of the RealSystem The RealSystem created by RealNetworks offers more than streaming audio techniques, but for use with the Beatbox, only the audio features were exploited. With the RealSystem, one is able to incorporate live video as well. Being that the focus was on audio for this production, more emphasis was put on that, and video was kept separate from the audio. Further, the RealSystem has many different codecs to choose from. The two listed above, were the ones found to be most beneficial to the needs at the time. It is very l9 possible to get high quality audio to stream over the Internet using this system, but under the current restraints, delivery of such audio is not feasible in every case due to bandwidth limitations. WBBCAMTOO WebCamToo v. 1.4 was selected to stream the live video during the live transmissions on Sunday evenings. The reason this was chosen over RealVideo was that by using WebCamToo, the audio and video could be kept separate. Video was then an option one could choose if they were interested in seeing what went on live. WebCamToo is a fully functional web server, as well as live video server. Though it was only used to stream video, not all of its features were utilized. WebCamToo capitalizes on a certain technology that can feed a live video signal continuously to you computer through a web browser. Some of the problems in using WebCamToo, is that currently, it does not work with any other browser other than Netscape Navigator. Other limitations are that it seems not to do that good of a job serving video when it is getting too many requests to stream video. Though there 20 are parameters that allow for different compression techniques, as a large scale video server, it doesn't seem to handle the stress too well. A nice feature that the software has, is that you can choose a logo that is a PICT file that will show up "on top" of the video. Using this feature along with using Alpha Channels, allowed a Beatbox logo to be keyed over the streaming video. I used this feature to not only give the video window the Beatbox identity, but to also include the name of the current deejay spinning. For a free streaming video solution, this was the best choice. CHATBOX LITE v. 1.0 ChatBox Lite was used for the chat room. ChatBox runs off of a Windows NT machine. At the time the Beatbox was using it, ChatBox was only compatible with Netscape Navigator. Version 2.0 addresses this problem so users visiting with Internet Explorer have a chance to participate in the chat. ChatBox works in a unique way. Users log in and input their remarks via a web form field. What they type appears in the chat window. Others see what they have typed, and 21 though it looks like ordinary text, it is really a GIF that is updating. I like this, because it's relatively simple to get going and maintain. Though there were some restrictions about what browser could display the chat, the benefits of having it operate without much programming was well worth it. COLD FUSION Cold Fusion, from Allaire, is a Web Application Development (WAD) platform for Windows NT and Windows 95 only. Cold Fusion can be used to create a wide variety of applications that integrate relational databases with the web (Cold Fusion, 1998). Using Cold Fusion, along with code written by Jason Schriber, the Beatbox was able to maintain a message board. Unlike the previous two technologies discussed, Cold Fusion runs on the server side, thus, not creating any compatibility issues between browser types. Unless you know Cold Fusion Markup Language, which I do not personally, this may be a hard feature to incorporate. The advantage to learning a server side 22 application like this, like I mentioned above, is that it is useable across all browser platforms. 23 Chapter 3 METHODS AND RESULTS The Sample An on-line survey was conducted to obtain user reactions to the Beatbox, asking about their interest in visiting the Beatbox web site, and how using Beatbox compared to their listening habits of broadcast radio. The sample was drawn from two sources: the Beatbox mailing list and visitors to the Beatbox web site. Visitors who signed up for the Beatbox e—mail mailing list were sent notices about upcoming events. An e-mail was sent to this list inviting the people on the Beatbox mailing list to participate in the survey and providing them with the URL where it was located. Approximately 100 people subscribe to the Beatbox mailing list and were invited to participate. Text of the invitation email appears in Appendix A. The second sample consisted of any visitor to the site who saw the announcement about the survey on the Beatbox home page and chose to participate in the survey. The survey was administered over the Internet using on-line forms combined with a Claris FileMaker Pro 4.0 database. 24 Participation was voluntary. The first sample of potential participants were given the option to participate in the survey or not after they had read it. The second sample got to the survey by clicking on a link off on the splash page or the live page. Once the participants chose to take part in the survey, they were prompted with the following consent form: Please read carefully: This survey was created for a master's thesis project within the department of telecommunications at Michigan State University. This survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. There are no right answers. We are interested in how you use the Beatbox web site. Your responses are collected in a manner that provides complete protection of privacy, and you will not be asked to give out your name. Your consent will be needed to allow your questionnaire to be used in the research project. There are questions regarding the Internet, broadcast radio, and computer use. May this questionnaire be used in academic research? Yes / No If the user clicked on yes, they were sent to the survey. Users who clicked no, were thanked for their time. This survey was on line for exactly two weeks. 25 The Questionnaire The questionnaire asked how respondents heard about the Beatbox, how many times per month they visited the Beatbox, and how many minutes they stayed at Beatbox during a typical visit. Respondents were asked how frequently they listened to live netcasts and archived music. They were asked how often they used the chat room, whether they had ever used the live video feature of the live section, and, for the second sample, whether they were on the Beatbox mailing list. To have a basis for comparison to other media habits, respondents were asked how many hours per week they spend listening to music, how many hours they spend listening to the radio, watching television, and using the Internet. They were also asked what their Internet connection speed was. Three questions assessed Beatbox visitor's musical habits and interests. Visitors were asked how many concerts, RAVES or other musical performances they attend in a typical month. Preference for musical genre was assessed. And specific to the content of Beatbox, visitors were asked whether they had heard of any of the featured deejays before encountering them at the Beatbox. 26 To understand user reactions to the Beatbox, they were asked whether they would prefer to listen to Beatbox musical content over the Beatbox or over a radio station featuring the same content, and why they preferred the medium they choose. Respondents were also asked whether they would prefer to listen to the Beatbox content on the Beatbox web site off of on an audio CD, and why. Finally, respondents were asked open ended questions about what they like most about Beatbox and what they would like to see changed. Gender, city, state and country of residence, age and occupation were also assessed. The Results Overall, there were 80 participants. Only ten were from the mailing list (a 10% response rate), and the rest went to the survey from the site itself. The survey ran for two weeks as planned, from June 5th to June 19th of 1998. The two samples were combined. Eighty survey participants in two weeks to an on-line survey seems surprisingly high. User Profile Most of the respondents (84%), and perhaps most Beatbox visitors overall, were male. The average age was 27 19, with the youngest being 14, and the eldest being 65. Slightly more than 3/4ths were from the United States. Next most frequent country of residence was Canada at 6.8%, and the third highest location was Lativa at 4.1%. Of those that came from the United States, only 18% were from Michigan, the state where the show was put together. The majority of Michigan respondents were NOT from Lansing. Other countries that people were from included: Sweden, Colombia, Peru, Turkey, Japan, France, Australia, and Thailand. Thus, a local web site created and operated in East Lansing, Michigan attracted a national and even an international on—line audience. Listening Habits The Beatbox streams dance music -- mainly techno and house music. 73.8% of the listeners listen to techno. 47.5% listen to house. 38% listen to drum and bass. 21% listen to hip hop. 17% listen to ambient music. 12% listen to guitar rock, and 25% listen to some other type of music than the above mentioned. Most of the time users listened archived mixes rather than the live mix. 51% claimed to always listen to the archived mixes (on a scale from always to never), whereas only 19.5% always listen to the live mix. Those who visit 28 the Beatbox spend on average 40 minutes listening to the audio. On average, they visit the Beatbox 10 times a month. Beatbox has successfully attracted a loyal audience that returns often and stays at the site for a long period of time each visit. These visitations were made on various speeds of modem connection. A slight majority, 28% of respondents, connect to the Beatbox using a 28.8 modem. 56k modem and T1 each accounted for 24% of responses. Survey respondents were likely to have reached the Beatbox from a link from another site. 32.9% initially heard about the Beatbox by clicking off of a link from a different site. Word of mouth was the next most common way of learning about the Beatbox. 28.5% said that a friend had told them about the site initially. 20% found the site by accident the first time they visited, and 19% reached the site by way of a search engine. Media Use Respondents claim to listen to music 20 hours per week and listen to radio an average of 10 hours per week. They watch on average 7 hours per week of television. On average, respondents said they use the Internet 20 hours a 29 week. Television is certainly not the dominant mass medium for these respondents. TV is watched for perhaps one hour per day, while the Internet is used nearly 3 hours per day. Preference Of particular interest, was the question which compared the Beatbox to radio. The question simply asked users if they could get the same content that was showcased on the Beatbox, in a radio format, which would they prefer on a scale 1 to 10, with the Beatbox being nearest 1 and radio nearest 10. The most frequent response was 1, with nearly one third of respondents very strongly preferring the Beatbox over radio. Overall, participants who preferred the Beatbox over radio (1-4) totaled 42.9%, those neutral totaled 16.5%, and those preferring the radio (6- 10) totaled 40.6%. The most frequent open ended response about why they prefer the Beatbox was that as listeners they like the freedom from commercial interruptions that the Beatbox has to offer. Those users who preferred radio did so due to its high fidelity and crispness of sound. Another somewhat related question asked if users preferred the Beatbox over CDs. The most frequent response was tie between a rank of 5 and 10. Overall, participants 30 who preferred the Beatbox over CDs (1-4) totaled 32%, those neutral totaled 22.7%, and those preferring the CDs (6—10) totaled 45.3%. The most noted reason why one would prefer the Beatbox over CDs was because the Beatbox was free, whereas CDs you purchase. Again, contrary to that was the issue of fidelity and crispness of sound. Users felt that CD3 always deliver audio at a frequency far higher than RealAudio can over slow dialup speeds on the Internet. Site Features The most helpful knowledge gained from having distributed a survey for the design of the Beatbox was tracking which areas visitors felt useful. To my surprise, two third of users who filled out surveys never used the chat page. Another shock was that users didn't find the video option very appealing. This information is most helpful in gaining a better understanding about what users want from the Beatbox. I had expected users to find the chat room and live video features appealing. As a designer, I’ve learn that I don't always know what users want, and that sometimes I add features that I feel are useful, but indeed turn out to not to be used at all. 31 Open ended results Answers to the open ended questions shed light on areas yet not thought of before. From reading all of the responses, it seems that people like the amount of variety the Beatbox has to offer most. Also of widespread appeal was the freedom to chose what they listen to, rather than just tune into what we're playing. I think the archives really helped out in creating this general notion. Another surprising reason why people like the Beatbox was that it was free. This is something I've never really thought too much about, but to some, this was a reason to like what was offered. In general, users seemed to like having content updated every week. Some users though, said they would like to have had even more events happening. Another minor dislike was that the interface hasn't changed often enough. I was surprised not to hear many complaints about technology failures. Only one person wasn't sure if all the files worked. This makes me think that RealAudio is a technologically promising format. Summary Survey results overall indicate that the Beatbox was a highly successful attempt at netcasting. The Beatbox 32 managed to build a large enough international audience that 80 people volunteered to complete the survey over a two week period. In their responses, they claimed to be frequent visitors who used the Beatbox for long periods of time. The survey respondents liked Beatbox better than radio. Some even liked it better than CD. For a graduate production thesis and for a first attempt at my own web site, the Beatbox met and exceeded my goals. 33 Chapter 4 OUTSIDE EVALUATION It's unclear who was the first web site to do netcasting, but the Beatbox is not the only site to do so. There are a number of web sites that netcast, and each delivers its own unique content through streaming audio. The BetaLounge (wwwzbetalounge.com) The BetaLounge, like the Beatbox, features a similar type of music. Located in San Francisco, California, the BetaLounge transmits weekly on Thursday nights. Their sets are longer than the Beatbox sets, usually lasting around 4 hours. They usually have a guest deejay, and a resident deejay who fills in each week should a guest not be featured. Once affiliated with Hot Wired (www.hotwired.com), the on-line version of Wired Magazine, the BeatLounge had significant financial support. I've heard some of their shows, and they sound very similar to a radio program. The BetaLounge includes some of the same features that the Beatbox does: a section for archived mixes; a chat room; and a mailing list. The BetaLounge website also includes advertisements. 34 Pseudo (www.pseudo.com) The Pseudo Online Network netcasts up to 8 hours of live audio and video shows daily from New York City. Pseudo features over 40 different shows ranging from music to other bizarre talk forums. Pseudo produces live, original programming for a variety of niche audiences (Pseudo, 1998). The uniqueness of Pseudo lies in the fact that they only do netcasting, so their audience is global and programming is not constrained by local tastes as with radio. Because of this, they are able to offer a wide variety of programming that a radio station of it's caliber could not. Pseudo incorporates much of the same technologies that the Beatbox does by offering chat, a message board, archived shows, and membership privileges. The Pseudo Online Network has a show which features electronic dance music called Freq. Freq features top-name international guest deejays, artists, and interviews netcast live from midnight to 2 a.m. on Thursday evenings. Sonic net (www.sonicnet.com) Netcasting out of New York City, Sonic Net is more like the MTV of netcasting. Not only do they feature 35 continuous audio, they also feature live concerts, music news, chat events, and music videos. I continually have problems getting their RealAudio to stream since they call for the RealAudio plug—in rather than the player. This site incorporates some other technologies, which I find cumbersome to deal with. Their site relies on Flash, and as a result, users have to download a plug-in in order to navigate the site. Not quite the large scale production that Pseudo is, Sonic Net has teamed up with Yahoo, who they use to run their chat rooms. By teaming up with a bigger name on the net, it's more likely the chances for success. NPR Online (www.npr.org) National Public Radio, NPR, has secured their place on the web by being there early and sticking with it. At their web site, you'll find all of the same topics of conversation that you would have had you been listening to it on the radio. NPR catalogs their old programs so you can go listen at any point in time to a particular piece. They have been doing this since September of 1994. One nice feature, is that they give a brief description of the news story before you listen to it, eliminating unnecessary downloads. 36 A music program usually sounds best at higher bits per second. Since most of what is featured on NPR Online is talk based, they have the ability to stream their audio at a lower bits per second and still have it sound good, also reducing storage cost. Radio 1 PM (www.hbc.co.uk/radiol/) Radio 1 is a PM broadcasting station in London, England. Their site is a good example of what I think the next wave of radio is going to become. I think the site shows how easily it is to convert an existing broadcast structure into a web forum. Currently, they are not streaming their shows, but it appears that this was an option that they had in the past, including an archive of their past shows. They give program information along with track lists. With little effort, this broadcast radio station could become a netcast station as well. For now, it looks as though they are only providing their current shows to netcasting, but I'd be interested to know if they ever customize shows just for the Internet. 37 Joy PM (www.joy997fm~com.gh/) Joy FM 99.7 is a FM radio broadcasting station that netcasts their on air broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The station is only netcasting live and currently has no archives of past programs. I like this station, because it shows that you don't need to be a large station, nor come from a big city to accomplish a successful netcast. Since Joy FM is located in Accra, Ghana, I think this illustrates this point. For further detail in regards to the outside evaluation, please see Appendix B. 38 Chapter 5 NETCASTING VS. BROADCASTING Though rooted from broadcasting principles, there are many differences between netcasting and broadcasting. In some areas, it seems that one or the other technologies holds the upper hand. It will be interesting to see how the story unfolds in the near future, but for now, here is a listing of some of my observations. Transmission Requirements I think that I can attest to the fact that netcasting is a relatively easy operation. For the most part, I was responsible for making everything happen for the Beatbox. I did have technical help, but the most time consuming details were handled by myself. There are four basic ingredients needed to get a netcast started. The first is a fast Internet connection; the second, a RealAudio server, Progressive Networks is giving away free of charge a ten streams package; the third, at least one person technically capable of making necessary configurations to enable the netcast, and the fourth, a handful of computers to act out the different 39 rolls of encoder and server. In the most simplest form, this will work. The Internet is not subject to the same regulatory structure as broadcast radio, making it easier to start netcasting. Broadcast radio, on the other hand, requires more effort and thought, since ultimately, you'll be convincing the FCC to give you licenses to broadcast. As John Bittner describes: Broadcasting can be called a limited resource. Stations use electromagnetic waves to carry their signals to the public. Electromagnetic waves radiate from the electromagnetic spectrum, a yardstick of electromagnetic energy which is constantly present. Radio waves are only found along a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. All stations must share this space with each other. The FCC, using available space, assigns each station a certain place, called a frequency, on the electromagnetic spectrum (Bittner, 1980). Because of this limited resource, the FCC hands out licenses based on it's definition of the public interest. In order to receive a license for a commercial or noncommercial radio broadcasting station you must file application for a construction permit with the FCC. This is an application that says you have made an engineering study of the area where you wish the station to be located and have found a frequency within the broadcast band where your operation would not interfere with the transmission of an existing station (Hasling, 1980). 40 In order to broadcast, you need to obtain a license from the FCC, a radio transmitter, and a staff capable of running the operation of the station. Delivery Netcasting is a digital medium. It is delivered over the Internet where the signal is decoded by a computer. In order to listen to the transmission, one needs a computer with a sound card, which can cost in the area of a thousand dollars, and the proper software for decoding the signal. Broadcasting, on the other hand, is an analog medium, and uses electromagnetic waves as a part of it's transmission. In order to listen to broadcast radio, you simply need a radio, which can cost as little as ten dollars. Fidelity With netcasting, the fidelity of the audio is limited by the connection type of listeners and network congestion interference. Those on modems that receive data at 28.8 kbps, will obtain audio that is near or less to an analog signal carried by amplitude modulation. Since the audio is being streamed constantly, compression is added to the audio, thus deteriorating the overall fidelity. On the 41 other hand, with a faster connection like an ISDN line, the audio fidelity becomes increasingly better, allowing the delivery of stereo audio. Though it is possible to receive high fidelity stereo audio through netcasting, your computer will need to have a fast Internet connection, and the audio will also need to be encoded for that transmission rate. At the Beatbox, understanding that users were most likely using a 28.8 modem or a T—l connection, two different audio files were created to appease both users. As discussed in Chapter 2, through bandwidth negotiation, the Beatbox was able to deliver both types of files. Another problem in netcast fidelity can occur when there is network congestion and the computer you're using doesn't receive the streaming audio fast enough for it to decode. Usually in instances like this, the audio times out, leaving the listener with a silent gap in the transmission. Broadcasting can achieve very high fidelity by using frequency modulation as it's carrier signal. FM broadcasts also have the ability to transmit in stereo which can give the listener a more pleasurable listening experience. However since FM radio travels in "line-of—sight" paths, interference occurs when there is an obstacle in between 42 transmitter and receiver (Chester, 1978). This means performance is marginal in many areas, where mountains or atmospheric conditions impede reception (Hasling, 1980). Also, broadcasting is only so far reaching because electromagnetic waves are limited to a certain distance. Programming Programming for a netcast seems unconstrained. The Beatbox netcasted music I was personally interested in, and given the fact that delivery was over the Internet, the target audience was global. Therefore, the decision for what to netcast was primarily based on my tastes, rather than those in my local area. As the survey showed in Chapter 3, many people where listening from other parts of the world. Because netcasting is so far reaching, there is a lot of room for niche programming. As a radio broadcast, the Beatbox may not be successful, but when it is delivered over the Internet, the audience can be in any part of the world. A good example of niche programming are many of the programs offered by the Pseudo On-line Network which were discussed in Chapter 4. In broadcast radio, programming becomes more complex. First, the size of the listening market is very much 43 dependant on what is broadcast (Hasling, 1980). Since broadcast radio is largely driven by commercial means, meeting the needs of your local listeners is also important to advertisers who'd like to sell products to those listeners. The programming goal of a commercial radio station then is to provide on the air something that will attract audiences, which then can be "sold" to advertisers (Hausman, 1996). Therefore, if the size of your market is small, so will the revenues derived from advertisers buying time on your station. Secondly, with broadcast radio, you would not only need to be concerned with what a particular audience needs are, but also local competition. If someone else is already serving local listeners with programs they want to hear, there is little chance a new station will snatch up an already happy listener (Bittner, 1985). Lastly, regional preferences come into play in regards to programming in broadcast radio. Some parts of the country have strong preferences for certain kinds of music. For example, country and western music is probably more popular in Southwestern states than on the East or West coast (Hasling, 1980). General Benefits A clear benefit derived out of netcasting is greater choice of what to listen to. Also noted, is the fact that the reach of netcasting is global, the bandwidth for any number of sites is unlimited, and the cost of netcasting is relatively inexpensive. Another benefit of netcastings is the fact that transmissions do not need to be done at a certain point in time, they are asynchronous. As demonstrated with the Beatbox, users who missed a live performance had the opportunity to listen to it from in the archived section of the site. Also, many streaming Internet programs are netcast through a web interface, much of the advertisement is done on the web page leaving the audio free of commercials. In reviewing some of the open ended responses from the survey, users thought this to be an advantageous feature. Broadcasting has its advantages as well. Most notable is that the sound quality is very clear, in stereo, and of very high fidelity. Looking at some of the survey responses, this was probably the main thing people wish were different in regards to RealAudio. Hands down, broadcast radio sounds better than RealAudio. 45 Another great benefit of broadcast radio is that it is transmitted through the airwaves. Of course the disadvantage to this is that one must be within the coverage to tune in (Brant, 1981), but being that it is airwave transmission however, radio is then portable (Bittner, 1981). The portability of radio is an attractive feature of broadcast radio. One then doesn't have to be at a computer to receive transmission, and they can take it with them in the car or wherever they wish to go. Lastly, the cost to receive a broadcast transmission is low. A radio receiver is no where near the cost of a personal computer. Even though the price of personal computers comes down each day, the price at which one can buy a radio receiver as compared to a computer is enormous. Many of the differences and similarities between netcasting and broadcasting are also illustrated in Appendix C. 46 Chapter 6 CONCLUSIONS Many of the issues, problems, and concerns regarding netcasting outlined in this paper will most likely be reinvented or become obsolete in a couple of years. As mentioned when the paper began, many of the new web technologies change so rapidly that what once was a problem now has become a feature that the web has embraced. Despite the current limitations that we as creators face when developing web experiences, a project such as the Beatbox hopefully sheds positive light under such binding circumstances. The Future of RealAudio The future holds many exciting developments for RealAudio. At the time I was working on the Beatbox, the ability to stream video with the RealSystem was capable. Recently, the RealSystem has been modified to include other media types beyond just audio and video. RealAudio has teamed up with Macromedia to deliver Flash content over the Internet that is streamable, and most likely, the future of the RealSystem will incorporate other streaming media types as well. New advancements with the audio streaming 47 capabilities are already being with the new "Generation 2" RealPlayer and Encoder, so that the audio delivered will become continuous and sound much better than older versions. The Future of Netcasting I believe that most likely netcasting and broadcasting will converge. As mentioned, netcasting is a relative simple process. Underlying it with the structure that has built broadcast radio, and I believe that to be the recipe for the future of radio. Many radio stations already are realizing this, and it's no wonder why there are stations already streaming their broadcasts. In order for netcasting to become a media contender though, I believe it is going to have to find a way to become profitable. Many of the Beatbox listeners liked the fact that the Beatbox was free to use. While it was enjoyable to be able to offer such a service, I'm not sure that where netcasting is headed, that it can continue on this type of path. My experience I would rate my experience as being a successful one. I've been able to learn first hand about a new technology 48 that many have never heard of. The hardest thing to do, is trying to figure out what users want. The easiest way to find out is to simply ask them. When redesigning the Beatbox site, I was pretty certain that what was included, were the necessary features to make the site a success. To my surprise, many claimed to not ever use things like the chat, video, or message board. This type of feedback has been an invaluable lesson for me, and it has helped me with the new challenges I face. 49 APP-.ICES APPENDIX A Email Recruiting Survey Participants Greetings yo@beatbox.com subscribers: I am currently doing my master's production thesis on the Beatbox web site, as some of you may know. Currently, I'm looking to do an evaluation on the site, and I'm interested in what your insights are on having used it. Of particular interest, are your listening habits in regard to the Beatbox RealAudio files, and those of broadcast radio. As a Beatbox frequent listener, your insight is vital my thesis research. I have created a web survey that will be used in gathering data for this project. All participants will remain anonymous, and your responses will be held in strict confidentiality. Upon arriving to the website listed below, you see an informed consent form which is required in order to participate in the survey. After agreeing, the survey will be displayed on a web page. You will be asked questions regarding: Internet usage, broadcast radio usage, and computer usage. This survey will be on line for two weeks, after that, no more data will be collected. Please DO NOT pass this invitation on to others outside this list. Others wishing to participate in this survey can do so by clicking a link made available off of the splash page and live page. The web site provided below is for use by those subscribed to the Beatbox mailing list, and anyone submitting information who is not a member of this list will risk the consistency of the data collected. If you are willing to participate in this survey, please visit: http://davinci.commtechlab.msu.edu:303/thesis/yo/ Username: yo Password: @beatbox Thanks for your time and interest, Sincerely, Kyle Tait 50 APPIIEIX 3 Comparison of Netcasting Sites APPENDIX C Netcasting versus Broadcasting NW “ungff'm. whit - k ' . 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY BetaLounge. [Online] Available http://www.betalounge.com, June 11, 1998. Bittner, John R., Professional Broadcasting; A Brief Introduction (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice- Hall, Inc., 1981) Bittner, John R., Broadcasting and Telecommunication (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985) Brant, Billy G., The College Radio Handbook (Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books Inc., 1981) Carl Hausman, Philip Benoit, Lewis B. O'Donnell. Modern Radio Production (Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1996) Chatbox Lite. [Online] Available http://www.chatbox.com/, June 11, 1998. Chester, Giraud; Garrison, Garnet R.; Willis, Edgar E., Television and Radio (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978) Cold Fusion. [Online] Available http://gopher.utexas.edu/cc/dbms/sw/cfusion/cfusion2.h tml, June 11, 1998. Hasling, John, Fundamentals of Radio Broadcasting (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1980) Joy FM. [Online] Available http://www.joy997fm.com.gh/, June 11, 1998. 53 NPR Online. [Online] Available http://www.npr.org, June 11, 1998. Oringel, Robert 8., Audio Control Handbook (Stoneham, MA: Butterworth Publishers, 1989) Pseudo. [Online] Available http://www.pseudo.com, June 11, 1998. Radio 1 FM. [Online] Available http://www.bbc.co.uk/radiol/, June 11, 1998. RealAudio and RealVideo Content Creation Guide. [Online] Available http://www.real.com/devzone/, June 11, 1998. Siegel, David, Creating Killer Web Sites (Indianapolis, IN: Hayden Books, 1997) Sonic Net. [Online] Available http://www.sonicnet.com, June 11, 1998. WebCamToo. [Online] Available http://www.eclipse.net/~sbern/WebCamToo/, June 11, 1998. Whetmore, Edward Jay, The Magic Medium : An Introduction to Radio in America (Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1981) 54 "‘villivilli“