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Visual Radio Coming to India 118

Posted by CowboyNeal from the tuning-in dept.
morpheus83 writes "India continues to march towards becoming an IT and economic super power. The Indian capital of New-Delhi will become the the third city in the world to have a commercial Visual Radio service after Singapore and Helsinki (Finland). The technology developed by Nokia allows audiences to interact with the radio programs. The audio is received via a regular analog FM radio whereas graphics and text are streamed over a data connection. It will be available to Hutch and Airtel subscribers who have compatible Nokia handsets."
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Visual Radio Coming to India More

Visual Radio Coming to India

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  • uh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by brickballs ( 839527 ) <brickballs@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:09AM (#15762948) Homepage
    "Visual Radio"

    Don't they normaly call that TV?

  • wow (Score:5, Funny)

    by joe 155 ( 937621 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:10AM (#15762950) Journal
    visual radio, I wonder what it would be like to have pictures along with audio... I can hardly imagine such a thing!

  • Visual Radio??? (Score:2, Informative)

    by steveo777 ( 183629 )
    How is this not television? I read TFA and there's really no information. So as far as I can tell, it's just radio that lets you watch their commercials? Can someone clarify if this isn't just radio plus advertisements you can see? Is there a /.er that has or has seen this?

    Otherwise it's just MTV without the 'V'.

    • Re:Visual Radio??? (Score:3, Informative)

      by justshawnf ( 866632 )
      FTA: "Visual radio offers the perfect way out by allowing users to download the song if they like it and also get additional information about the album / movie on the screen." Sounds similar to the display system that satellite radio already has. Show me the song and artist on the display while it's playing. This system is for your cell phone and allows more options.
    • It's not television, it's a little better. Use the handy formula below as a guide:

      Television + Marketing Drivel = "Visual Radio"

      Hope that clears it up for you.

  • Explanation (Score:4, Funny)

    by friedo ( 112163 ) * on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:14AM (#15762963) Homepage
    No, no, no! You fellas have got it all wrong! It's just like radio, but with pictures!

  • huh? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <aaaaaNO@SPAMSPAM.yahoo.com> on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:16AM (#15762968) Journal
    "India continues to march towards becoming an IT and economic super power. The Indian capital of New-Delhi will become the the third city in the world to have a commercial Visual Radio service after Singapore and Helsinki "

    Somehow i dont think the creation of visual radio (i thought it was called TV) will lead you to become a super power.

    Since the article has ZERO inso on what visual radio is here is a nokia link [visualradio.com]. To summarize, think proprietary TV with minimal interactivity from the creators of Ngage. You tune into a station and see a "web page" where you get more info and can provide feed back.

    Sounds like real superpower material to me.
    • "Somehow i dont think the creation of visual radio (i thought it was called TV) will lead you to become a super power."

      I was just thinking that... Japan is the gadget superpower of the world and they don't have this. California is an IT superpower, and they don't have this. The US, Japan, Germany, Great Britain - those are actual economic superpowers, and they don't have this. How is this in any way connected with being an IT or economic superpower? It's a stupid proprietary way to sell stuff.

    • Somehow i dont think the creation of visual radio (i thought it was called TV) will lead you to become a super power.

      What?! Are you telling me that Finland won't become a superpower with this?!
    • 1. Get "Visual Radio"
      2. ...
      3. Superpower!!!
    • > Since the article has ZERO inso on what visual radio is here is a nokia link. To summarize, think
      > proprietary TV with minimal interactivity from the creators of Ngage. You tune into a station and
      > see a "web page" where you get more info and can provide feed back.

      It's odd. I can get that with my Nokia phone. I don't get it. It's like they've gone "we've given them radio - how are we going to get any money out of them from that? Ah - charge them to find out which track they're listening to". Gre
    • After a long time we have Visual Radio in our country. I should thank all the hearts who have been keen to implement this in India. All the 3G mobile citizens of india get benefited. yoga

  • ewwww (Score:4, Insightful)

    by phreakv6 ( 760152 ) <phreakv6@gmCOLAail.com minus caffeine> on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:21AM (#15762984) Homepage
    i am an indian.. i wouldnt succumb for hutch's marketing tactics.. i would listen radio because its free.. why would i want a visual radio and spend Rs. 6 per interaction??... already there are a tons of services on hutch that i dont use like wallpaper/ringtone/callertune/music download etc etc etc.. its not a technological marvel either since it hasnt invented something out of the ordinary.. for people who dont understand how crappy this is.. a single local call to another hutch fone costs something like Rs 0.3 for me.. why would i spend about Rs 6 for some crap? its for the teeny boppers and its stupid that its on /.
    slownewsday or blech ?
    • Hutch is awesome (I loved it when I was in India). If you hate it so much then switch to providers such as BSNL, Reliance or Airtel. Or even better Idea. Stop ranting here about Hutch.
    • You seem to fall into the category of what I call *sane Indians*. If all Hutch/Airtel customers were as sane as you are, why the hell do you still receive those pesky SMS messages every day, all day? Thats because there are 'n' *in-sane* people for every 'm' sane people. Thats what gets spam to your inBox as well. And thats what Nokia/Hutch/Airtell are betting on too! And thats what outfits like Shopperstop, Pantaloons, Cookie Cart, Grammas F*rt, Cheeszy Bums et. al. are betting on too, by pushing their cra

  • Also comming to india... (Score:3, Funny)

    by mrkitty ( 584915 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:22AM (#15762989) Homepage
    Horse carriages driven by motors!
  • I forget the exact name of the protocol, but for years now, radio stations in my area have encoded a short message in the audiostream. It shows up on the receiver as a short message of a sort either advertising the station name and/or the current song that is playing. Quite handy at times.
    • That's RDS.

      It's been around here (the UK) for about 15 years if not more.

      It also provides services such as searching for stations based on genre, and automatic switch-over to channels when they broadcast travel news (road updates, etc). When the news about the travel finishes, the radio switches back to your previous station or (if you were listening to one) a CD -- all on standard FM. This is great for car radios, all of which have featured RDS for what seems like forever.

      I wonder if DAB Digital Radio ha
  • So while im talking on my wireless phone, watching the directors cut of "silence of the Lambs" on a tiny LCD, scarfing down a burger and a large soda, i can now look over and see a picture of a random slutty popstar? Guess i got no time left for stop signs and crosswalks.
  • radio mirchi is bringing the technology to the country ?
    i've had enough of this dumb radio station. they have a set of 100 crappy remixes that hog all their airtime..
    and now as if it isnt enough proof that they are a crappy commercial radio station, they try to make us buy their crappy remixes as well? i think these channels have a wrong presumption that indians have too much money and they dont know how to spend. post anything about india and you would get enough page impressions eh ?? why dint this co
  • This sounds like cable-tv-station G4's "Trek 2.0" with the main feed over traditional media and the enhanced content over alternative delivery.

    Some radio-talk-show hosts have been doing something like this for years:
    They have additional content, blogs, instant-messaging, incoming faxes, pager alerts, and other features that happen in sync with their talk show. "Today we are talking about the President's actions in Iraq. One of our viewers send me this video, we put it up on our web site. In 15 minutes I'

  • Visual Radio = dead consept (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I live in Helsinki. Visual Radio has been available here about one year.

    There is only one radio channel that provides the service and not many Nokia cells that supports it.

    And yes, just like N-Gage, nobody actually use it. Even Nokia has started to move towards podcasting.

  • Nice copy and paste job (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:50AM (#15763071)
    The submission is simply the first paragraph of the article. Is Slashdot now just an RSS aggregator?

  • I'd buy it... (Score:3, Funny)

    by docotron ( 799894 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @11:57AM (#15763087)
    ...if it allows me to electrocute the DJ every time they make a witty remark.

  • Superpower checklist (Score:5, Funny)

    by xmpcray ( 636203 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @12:06PM (#15763112)
    1. Nucelear weapons - check
    2. Launch satellites - check
    3. ICBM - check
    4. Supercomputers - check
    5. Visual Radio - check! ...and we are done...!

  • I'm Indian and all that, but can we drop those gratitious references to marches and being an "IT super power" or whatever shit? Propaganda has its uses, but only for totalitarian societies, not a free-thinking, or argumentative [timesonline.co.uk] society that I always thought my country was.

  • a better article for the same story http://www.mobilepundit.com/2006/07/15/radio-mirch i-to-launch-visual-radio-in-india/ [mobilepundit.com] and a little bit of googling for lazy fellow ./ers http://www.visualradio.com/ [visualradio.com]
  • I just came across a similar service a few days ago that has some promise. Talkshoe.com [talkshoe.com] combines a radio talk show with voice, podcasts, and Internet participation.
  • The concept of Visual Radio is already invented and fairly popular, it's called television.

  • Lame... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gorimek ( 61128 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @12:34PM (#15763211) Homepage
    I don't think this will be much of a hit.

    If they could produce pictureless television, it would be a very different matter. But that will probably just remain a dream for many years.
  • Somehow I fail to see how visual radio is going to help 30% of India's population living below poverty line and millions suffering from AIDS and malnutrition. India is no doubt doing well on IT outsourcing and in the long term may well become a economic power; but for now lets outsource the non-sensical chest thumping over radio technology to banglore.
  • I'm right in the epicenter of the whole radio revolution in India. My town just got FM radio that broadcasts the latest music for 'FREE!!'. Everyone's going crazy over FM radio sets because this is a cheap and excellent form of entertainment here. Hell, I don't touch iTunes when I have access to an FM player because they always play good music. Since there's a general lack of genres in Indian music, this works fine because good music is mostly good, and bad music and mostly bad. It's just like the iPod revo

    • I'm right in the epicenter of the whole radio revolution in India. My town just got FM radio that broadcasts the latest music for 'FREE!!'.

      Welcome to the 1960's.

  • someone has to say it ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by 0WaitState ( 231806 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @12:48PM (#15763267)
    Wi nøt trei a høliday in India this yer?

        See the løveli lakes

        The wonderful visual radiø
  • A convoluted setup like that sounds like a feature on The Daily WTF [slashdot.org].

  • This is about try #4 for this concept (Score:3, Informative)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Saturday July 22, 2006 @01:26PM (#15763403) Homepage

    This is about try #4 for this concept. In the 1980s, there was "Silent Radio", which drove LED signs with text messages. These used to show up in bars and restaurants, so you could watch the news and sports scores scroll by. Then there was sending song info on FM subcarriers of broadcast stations, which many car radios understand. XM satellite radio has a fancier system for doing the same thing, as does the on-band-in-channel digital broadcast system.

    The main feature of this new system seems to be ads. Yawn.

  • Audible TV... Now thats real superpower stuff, I don't think any country except india will be able to invent it.
  • Capitalism, with Indian characteristics.

    There was a very interesting piece on BBC Radio's "From Our Own Correspondent", by a journalist who lived in Beijing for four years, then found himself in Delhi for six months. At the end of the six months he's on a flight back to Beijing. The flight leaves at 3am, the ticket agent tells him "Yes, it really is 3am - the airport's too small, so many flights leave at night." Sure enough he arrives to find Delhi airport a heaving mass of people, with that implies in In

  • 'Visual Radio' just isn't catchy, what we need is a hybrid word...perhaps if we use a buzzworld, like the prefix 'tele' from the newfangled telephone...so it's 'tele-visual entertainment'...hmm...kinda long though... I know! We can replace visual with vision! Tele-vision! I predict with this catchy new name, the technology will really go places. I perhaps, within ten years, every home in the first world will have one of these 'tele-vision's!
  • "Radio is simply television with a tube burned out."
  • See http://www.drm.org/ [drm.org] There's a GNU Radio module for it. Apparently there are no DRM stations in the US, but since it's already digital the bitstream (or stored segments of it) for some sources may be online.

    TFA is very light on data, so it's hard to say what exactly "interactive" means? Does it just send URLs, or is it a real two-way medium? The Nokia logo on the device is a hint this may just be a layer over a cellular network.

    DRM can send data or audio. The data might be video, a transcript of the s
  • Radio I belive is for Listening should be enjoyed that way . These services are Invented by Companies to bring out money from the Pockets of Cunsumers . And above all what Radio has nothing to do with being a Super power ( What a thought ?) . People out there who hail this Country as a force to reckon with dont realise that this Country is still a Struggle . Struggle for Basics in the Life . Try to Buy a House , try to get Safe Drinking water , Power , Affordable Education, Job everything is a Struggle out

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