Battery powered, multi-channel FM transmitters (Radio Shack, ~$20) Battery
powered portable FM sport radio (yellow) in compact headset style, or
wristband belt clip. (Radio Shack, ~$20).
Going low tech because high tech is overkill: Priceless.
- billn
On Wed, 4 Dec 2002, Trent Shipley wrote:
Last week, being then employed and interested in social activity and exercise,
I took a free dance lesson from an acquaintance.
The main thing I learned was that music is a scarce and precious commodity in
a dance studio. You can only put one, or at most two, sets of music over the
loud speaker systems. Personal systems are *too* personal. A couple cannot
coordinate walkmen or even mp3 players.
WANTED: a wireless audio system for very local broadcasting -- to be used in
dance studios and dance departments. (Ideally, somebody already makes this.
If not, have Motorola give me a call.)
TARGET MARKETS:
Dance studios and dance departments or schools. Gymnastics coaches. Figure
skaters and coaches. Personal or small-group trainers who teach rythm
aerobics. Other markets for mini-cast audio.
COMPONENTS:
Information Appliances (2):
Personal headset unit with compact receiver and powersource.
Compact remote control unit.
Base unit (3 sub-components)
To be housed on PC, eventual migration to central info-appliance possible.
Wireless LAN.
Broadcaster software.
==
RECIEVER UNIT (RU):
Low bulk, low weight. Useable by serious amatuer and professional dancers,
gymnists, aerobicizers, and otherwise friendly to atheletes and interpretive
artists who need access to audio mini-cast to a small group. Note that when
I discussed this with my dancer friend she immediately thought it would be
good for personal use. Thus, a version of the reciever appliance will be
able to store audio in non-volitile memory. It will include the basic
command functions listed below. (That is, in addition to participating as a
reciever in a LAN mini-cast, some models of reciever unit *must* act exactly
like current Mp3 players.)
Reciver units shall have unique serial numbers (eg. MAC addresses) that can be
aliased by the broadcaster software. SNs will be used to assign reciever
appliances to broadcast groups.
*THE* reason for the mini-cast system is to provide synchronized music to
small groups in areas with high audio congestion. Therefore, users must be
able to configure RUs into mini-cast reception groups. All recivers in a
mini-cast group will get the same audio broadcast. Therefore, system
implementers will be *very* cautious about using cached data when as RU is a
member of a reception group that contains any other RUs as members.
An RU cannot be restricted by line-of-sight.
COMPACT REMOTE CONTROL UNIT (CRCU):
Used by coaches and instructors, the remote control units will provide basic
music control functions such as select song, make bookmark, goto
bookmark, pause, stop, fast forward, reverse, and--never to be
forgotten--play. The designer will *NOT* put excess function into the CRCU.
Each button shall have one, and *ONLY* one function.
The RU and CRCU may be integrated into a single assembly.
It is marginally desirable that a palm-top augmented with appropriate software
and hardware be able te emulate a CRCU.
A CRCU cannot be restricted by line-of-sight.
BASE UNIT (XMITer):
Early versions of the base unit will be implemented from an Intel or Apple
computer using mircrowave or RF wireless LAN (eg wireless ethernet).
Line-of-sight technologies are inappropriate for this application. The
wireless LAN must have sufficient bandwidth to support seamless, high quality
broadcast of at least 5 simultaneous audio programs.
The ability to add wireless LANs on slightly different frequencies, thereby
expanding the system, is moderately desirable.
Software will be included to manage the system (the App).
The Application Administrator will be able to control storage and access to
copywritten material, user access, where data is stored, and so on.
Approprate interfaces will be provided to the App Admin. A critical job for
the App Admin will be naming RU and CRCU appliances. *NOTE* that the App
Admin is likely to be one or several small business owners with limited legal
or computer expertise.
Power users (coaches, instructors, and so on) will be designated by the app
admin. They will need to manage their own music, access studio owned music,
assemble programming for a given class, and so on. Most importantly, power
users will need to define a group of RUs that will receive a mini-cast. They
will also need to designate the CRCU that will control the mini-cast.
The only domain expert consulted thus far seemed very interested in a personal
RU with storage capablity. While the intital prototype may require aliasing
a fixed set of RUs and CRCUs, the system will be designed to add and drop RU
and CRCU
