News and New Products

PenguinRadio Demoing Prototypes

By Jessica Davis -- Electronic News, 1/5/2005

Just as the Internet brought the power of publishing to the masses nearly 10 years ago that has today evolved into blogs and other types of Web sites, now bandwidth has grown and technology has improved to such a degree that the Internet is starting to do the same for radio.

Many traditional radio stations are also offering their listeners a streaming media version that lets them listen on a PC whether they are 30 miles from the transmitter or 3000 miles away from it, because it’s all delivered digitally over the Internet.  And anyone with a PC can set up their own Internet radio station, offering content to the masses. The only limitation the little guys face is enough bandwidth to accommodate a growing audience if they are lucky enough to win one.

This geographically independent radio set up lets listeners hear the traffic reports in their home towns a continent away, or, as in the case of the founders of PenguinRadio, a soccer game in the U.K. from their offices in Washington D.C.

It was trying to listen to that soccer game that spurred a Capital Hill attorney and his colleagues to leave politics behind to start PenguinRadio in 1999, just before the height of the Internet boom.  The company’s goal was to create a stand-alone device that could receive Internet radio stations and play them.  PenguinRadio began with angel financing then venture financing, but the bubble burst before the company could build it’s prototype and its main venture capital partner went bankrupt.  By the time Sept. 11, 2001 arrived, PenguinRadio had exhausted its cash and “the market for new ideas went dry,” said CEO Andrew Leyden.   “We took our staff and started doing subcontracting work on homeland defense, along with every other technology company in Washington, D.C.”

Then about a year ago, PenguinRadio’s founders looked to resurrect the idea of Internet radio. “I lot of economies of scale have happened that have made Internet radio possible financially,” he said.  In addition, the company has raised enough capital to keep it going for another year, and it will be showing some prototypes at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.  The company hasn’t bought booth space, but it will be meeting with potential partners – it is now focusing on content providers -- at this show and the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this spring.

While it doesn’t have the cash to mass produce the devices, it is hoping to strike partnership deals that will help pay for the production.  Some of the content providers that have expressed interest include religious groups and ethnic groups.

“One of biggest content providers looking for new markets are religious broadcasters,” Leyden said. “I can’t tell you how many churches have contacted us.  They want a device so that a 65 year old shut in can operate it without advanced computer training.”

PenguinRadio has experimented with “everything from FPGAs to mini ITX boards.  Eventually we will spin our own boards with exactly what we need, but we are still figuring out what we can do with and what we can do without.”

But the device will include codecs for Real Audio and Windows Media Player, as well as 802.11 and Ethernet functionality. Leyden is still not sure if the devices will also include dial up capabilities. In addition, the company has not yet decided on a Palm-type display or an LCD screen.

Leyden said the company is also looking at eventually providing the capability to listen to “podcasts” or audio files or programs that users download onto MP3 players.

PenguinRadio is hoping to offer prototypes to users in Q1 of this year and take orders from and deliver to its existing client base this year.  The price is expected in the $150 to $200 range initially.