Radiobox

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 standard 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). With a Radiobox "solution", which consists of one Instreamer and one Exstreamer, loaded with the modified UI, a USB stick is bundled and the package is offered at a higher price than the Barix suggested list price. 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". 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 from Braodcast Associes (which are in fact re-branded Barix standard products with standard firmware and a customized UI) continue to be available from Broadcast 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.

Barix sincerely apologizes to all customers, prospects and broadcasters for releasing a press statement about an OEM product (Radiobox Pro) which turned out to not be available. We will be more careful in the future about doing press releases with partners who announce solutions and do not have them ready for shipping.