mailbox radio

The term mailbox radio originated from a project of the Institute for Broadcasting Technology (IRT), which, in cooperation with various broadcasters, combined the idea of podcasting with traditional broadcasting transmission techniques to create a value-added service for digital broadcasting.

Conceptually, a mailbox radio works like a normal radio and can directly play back the broadcasted programs. The mailbox radio function allows the individual program contributions, which are transmitted in compressed form in MP3 file format, to be stored and categorized in a memory. For storage, the mailbox radios must have memory or memory cards. Categorization is taken care of by the broadcaster, who tags each program contribution with a tag. These tags allow the user to store and manage their individual ones from the multitude of program contributions.

Calling up and playing the contributions from his program mailbox at different times is made possible by the tags. The additional information contained therein identifies the beginning and end of a program contribution, the title, artist, broadcasting station, etc. The compressed audio files and the additional information are transmitted in a separate data channel, the latter using Dynamic Label Service( DLS), which is also used in digital broadcasting( DAB).

Mailbox radio has the advantage for the user that he can filter his program contributions and save only those that are of interest to him.