Difference between revisions of "Radiobox"

Latest revision as of 09:51, 17 November 2009

Radiobox and Radiobox Pro

In France, the company Broadcast Associes offers an Instreamer-Exstreamer solution under the name "Radiobox". The encoder and decoder are standard Barix devices with original Barix firmware, however, Broadcast Associes has modified the HTML pages to be bi-langue (english/french) and did some changes to the configuration options (hidden some fields, renamed others) to improve the useability for Broadcasters. Broadcast Associes supports customers in the installation of the solution.

At IBC2008, Barix invited Broadcast Associes to the Barix booth, because they planned to use the Exstreamer 1000 PCB as the basis for a new product, "Radiobox Pro". A prototype has been shown at IBC 2008 at the Barix booth and Broadcast Associes were present at the Barix booth, being introduced to prospects and customers of Barix stopping at the booth. Subsequently, Barix did a press release with Broadcast Associes about the "Radiobox Pro" product, which Broadcast Associes told Barix will be finished after a couple of months/available in 2009.

The Exstreamer 1000, Barix' broadcast "pro" model, is designed using a space saving 1/2 width 19' case, which can easily be rack mounted. The Broadcast Associes Radiobox Pro approach was planned to take the PCB of the Exstreamer 1000, mounting it in a full size 19' box, adding a compact flash reader (interfacing to the Exstreamer 1000's USB port), an internal power supply, and XLR connectors instead of the standard space-saving DB9 connectors used by Barix. Other than that, the Radiobox Pro device at that time was based on the standard Barix Exstreamer 1000 with a modified UI and eventually custom written application (and a significantly higher price).

Unfortunately, the Radiobox Pro device never made it to the market. Barix still gets enquiries from the press releases done in 2008 for the product - fortunately, the Exstreamer 1000 is shipping and well received in the market for STL, brodcast and pro audio solutions. A special "STL" software for the Exstreamer 1000, designed to cover all requirements a Broadcaster may have, is available pre-loaded through the Barix distribution.

The existing Radiobox products are available from Braodcast Associes in France, and of course, the standard Barix products suitable for Broadcast applications, such as the Exstreamer 1000, Exstreamer 100 and Instreamer 100 can be ordered through the Barix Distributor Sphinx France.

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 '''Radiobox''' and '''Radiobox Pro'''
-In France, the company Broadcast Associes takes Exstreamer-100 and Instreamer-100 products and resells these under the name "Radiobox". These are the 100% same products as the originals, with the exception of a Sticker on them ... of course, if you call Broadcast Associes, they will not say so.
+In France, the company Broadcast Associes offers an Instreamer-Exstreamer solution under the name "Radiobox". The encoder and decoder are standard Barix devices with original Barix firmware, however, Broadcast Associes has modified the HTML pages to be bi-langue (english/french) and did some changes to the configuration options (hidden some fields, renamed others) to improve the useability for Broadcasters. Broadcast Associes supports customers in the installation of the solution.
-At IBC2008, Barix invited Broadcast Associes to the Barix booth, because they claimed they will use the Exstreamer 1000 PCB as the basis for a new product, "Radiobox Pro". They even showed a prototype and Barix was dumb enough to share the visitors with them and do a press release about the "Radiobox Pro" product, which Broadcast Associes promised to finish. The Exstreamer 1000, Barix' broadcast "flagship", is designed using a space saving 1/2 width 19'' case, which can easily be rack mounted. Broadcast Associes claims that broadcast customers can not live with a product which uses DB9 connectors and not space hungry XLR connectors for an STL and generic broadcast product - and that there must be a Compact Flash and not a USB memory for backup. That's the difference of the alledged "Radiobox Pro", besides the price (about 70% more of what Barix charges for the Exstreamer 1000.
+At IBC2008, Barix invited Broadcast Associes to the Barix booth, because they planned to use the Exstreamer 1000 PCB as the basis for a new product, "Radiobox Pro". A prototype has been shown at IBC 2008 at the Barix booth and Broadcast Associes were present at the Barix booth, being introduced to prospects and customers of Barix stopping at the booth. Subsequently, Barix did a press release with Broadcast Associes about the "Radiobox Pro" product, which Broadcast Associes told Barix will be finished after a couple of months/available in 2009.
-Well, seems there has not been much interest by customers for an overpriced Exstreamer-1000 with XLR connectors, so Broadcast Associes has decided to NOT build the Radiobox Pro as originally planned and showcased at IBC2008. It will be interesting to see if Sylvain Cavet and Fabrice Gauthier, the founders of Broadcast Associes, can continue with their strategy of using well priced Barix (and maybe other) products, obscuring the make of the products, and selling them at higher prices as "their" invention.
+The Exstreamer 1000, Barix' broadcast "pro" model, is designed using a space saving 1/2 width 19' case, which can easily be rack mounted. The Broadcast Associes Radiobox Pro approach was planned to take the PCB of the Exstreamer 1000, mounting it in a full size 19' box, adding a compact flash reader (interfacing to the Exstreamer 1000's USB port), an internal power supply, and XLR connectors instead of the standard space-saving DB9 connectors used by Barix. Other than that, the Radiobox Pro device at that time was based on the standard Barix Exstreamer 1000 with a modified UI and eventually custom written application (and a significantly higher price).
-And it will be interesting if Barix will run in such a trap again and believe wanna-be OEMs, providing marketing help with a well known brand for Vaporware ...
+Unfortunately, the Radiobox Pro device never made it to the market. Barix still gets enquiries from the press releases done in 2008 for the product - fortunately, the Exstreamer 1000 is shipping and well received in the market for STL, brodcast and pro audio solutions. A special "STL" software for the Exstreamer 1000, designed to cover all requirements a Broadcaster may have, is available pre-loaded through the Barix distribution.
-Radiobox Pro, definitely, is Broadcast-associes vaporware. The Exstreamer 1000 is providing the same functionality and is shipping, making Broadcasters happy around the world.
+The existing Radiobox products are available from Braodcast Associes in France, and of course, the standard Barix products suitable for Broadcast applications, such as the Exstreamer 1000, Exstreamer 100 and Instreamer 100 can be ordered through the Barix Distributor Sphinx France.