Acoustic Energy Wi-Fi Internet Radio

10,000 radio stations at the touch of a button!

Acoustic Energy’s Wi-Fi radio is the world’s first radio capable of accessing over 99% of internet radio stations broadcast anywhere in the world. Compatibility with all three major streaming formats gives the AE Wi-Fi radio unrivalled choice of content from London’s BBC Radio1 to Sao Paolo’s Radio Calypso! No subscription to pay, no signal coverage problems and no international content boundaries.

This simple plug and play device links to any Wi-Fi network and broadband connection to stream both live and listen again internet radio content. Channels are listed alphabetically and the easy to use multi-function control knob makes choosing a station simpler than an FM radio! The AE Wi-Fi radio brings all the benefits of internet radio to the kitchen, bedroom or even the garden and can also play music stored on any Wi-Fi enabled PC in the home.

Of course AE’s acoustic excellence shines through making the Wi-Fi radio one of the best sounding radios on the market too.

• Immediate access to over 4,000 internet radio streams
• Search by country or genre
• Stereo sound from twin AE drivers
• Access to the BBC Listen Again services
• Real Media, MP3 and WMA compatible
• Play music stored on your PC or Mac

Press reviews 

Sunday Times - December 2005 Some day, all radios will be made this way

HiFi World - February 2006 A landmark portable radio, as much for its potential as what it does now.

Typical Questions As Supplied By Acoustic Energy

Q: I am having problems with my AE WiFi Radio
A: Reciva have put together a list of FAQs and radio error-message descriptions
under the 'help' section on the link: http://radio.reciva.com

Q: Can I check what stations the AE WiFi radio has on it?
A: Reciva have a great search facility containing all the stations currently on the AE WiFi Radio, cut and paste the link here: http://radio.reciva.com/cgi-bin/CustomerPortal.cgi?rm=mode13

Q: I am having problems finding media folders on my PC.
A: When the AE WiFi radio scans for PCs it sends a broadcast discovery message and needs to use a name service, otherwise the radio will not know which PCs are on the network. Your home network may not have a name service running hence the radio cannot see it. This will need to be turned on in your WiFi Router.

Try typing at the DOS prompt:

net view \bob

This is done to see if your PC or WiFi Radio can resolve the name for the PC called 'bob' for example.

Finally if you have noticed that the radio is sending a UDP message on ports 1075 to 137, then your network might be using some security software which is displaying this information and preventing the radio from accessing the shared folder.

Q: I am having problems entering my WEP key?
A: About the WEP keys: the user should configure their router to use ASCII (smaller and simpler key to enter but Hex will work also) WEP keys. For example, if they have 64-bit WEP encryption configured for their router, then, once they turn on their radio and scan for networks, they will be prompted for a key on the radio. At this point the user should enter in the 5 ASCII characters for the first key in the list - as seen on the router (e.g. '123AB'). Then they should enter in the 'END' character on the radio to tell it that this is the WEP key it should use.

For WPA encryption: the radio will currently only support WPA1 encryption, not WPA2. For WPA1, the user will enter a pass phrase for the encryption key on the router (e.g. 'hello_radio'), and this same case-sensitive phrase should be entered when the radio is prompts the user for a key i.e. after scanning for networks.

Q: What equipment do I need to use the WiFi Radio?
A: To use the AE WiFi Radio you will require 2 items for it to work. The first is broadband the other is wireless.

Broadband (ADSL) is high speed internet access (512k, 1mb, 2mb etc) this is provided by a number of companies such as BT, Wanadoo, AOL, NTL etc and works through your normal telephone line.
Wireless is a way of connecting computers/ equipment around the house without cables. The AE WiFi radio requires a standard Wireless router (802.11b or 802.11g) to work. Products from Belkin, 3Com, Netgear, Apple Airport etc should be a good starting point.
The AE Wifi radio has its own wireless technology built in and does not require a PC to work but needs to connect to the radio stations through the Wireless Router and broadband. 

Q: I live abroad and I am having trouble listening to BBC Radio 5 Live.
A: BBC Radio 5 live has two streams on the radio.

BBC Radio 5 Live - UK only WiFi Radio listeners
Radio 5 Live (International) - International WiFi Radio listeners
The UK stream will not work on IP addresses outside the UK, additionally the BBC only holds the rights to broadcast live commentary locally to the area covered by their radio transmitters so will block these transmissions on the internet.

Q: Can the media adaptor on the WiFi radio be used with Playlists?
A: If you want to play media files on the radio, you can bulk-add files to the queue by selecting add 'By Album' or 'By Artist'. If you have many media files all with different artists or from different albums, then the easiest and simplest way would be to create a play list for the media files - using Windows Media Player or Winamp - then place the playlist in the PC's shared directory. The playlist file needs to be in .m3u or .pls format for the radio to use it.

Q: I am having problems playing back media files on my WiFi Radio?
A: Please check the following:

Permissions: The radio (possibly logged in as Guest) doesn't have read permission to all the files
File Extensions: The radio will only recognise .mp3, .wma and .aac files (case insensitive).
DRM Protection: The radio will not play DRM / copy protected media (though it should include it in the albums list).
 
Q: How do I access presets 6 to 10?
A: Press the shift key on the radio and an arrow will appear on the screen. This means shift is on for the next key press and preset 1 to 5 will now be 6 to 10.

Q: How do I add stations?
A: We currently have over 4,000 (Feb '06) radio streams, this total is growing every day. Any station can be added to the radio by going online to the Reciva website and registering.

Reciva will then check the station and add it to the list. When your radio is next turned on the updated list will be downloaded and the station will be available to listen too on all the radios.

Q: I am having problems connecting my WiFi Radio?
A: If problems occur when connecting the radio to the wireless network, these steps may help to resolve them:

Confirm that a Wi-Fi connected PC can access the Internet (i.e. can browse the web) using the same network.
The Internet Radio does support WPA1 encryption, but, at present, does not support WPA2 encryption. Also, if you are running WAP1-PSK, then the router / access point needs to be configured to be using TKIP on all keys.
The router / access point needs to be running in mode B, G or B/G (i.e. physical layer). If the router is not running in one of these modes then the radio will not be able to use the router's frequency correctly, which could explain why the radio is having trouble with the connection.
Mac users will face sometimes a problem when they enter their password and are told it's invalid. Go to:

Applications > Utilities > Airport Admin Utility >Configure

Next click on the Password icon and you will be told what the password is for non-Mac devices. The password is NOT the same as they use for other devices connected to their Airport network.

There could be interference from other (neighbouring) wireless networks. Interference could cause problems with wireless connection, so, to be sure your network is avoiding any interference, please configure the router to be using different channel; preferably a channel number very different from the current one. available, or that a static IP address is configured on the radio.
Check that a firewall is not blocking any outgoing ports. As a minimum the radio needs access to UDP and TCP ports 80, 554, 1755, 5000 and 7070.
Check the access point does not restrict connections to particular MAC addresses. The radio’s MAC address can be viewed using the menu item Configure -> Network Config -> View Config -> MAC address.
If the network is encrypted check that the correct password has been entered into the radio. Remember that the password is case sensitive.
If the radio connects to the network successfully, but is unable to play a particular station (or stations), this may be due to one or more of the following:
The station is not broadcasting (remember it may be located in a different time zone).
The station has reached the maximum allowed number of simultaneous listeners.
The station is not broadcasting anymore.
The link held by the radio to the station is out of date.
The Internet connection between the server and the radio is too slow.
Check the radio is in range, wireless will have a range of 100m unobstructed but this will be less inside a house/ flat as the walls/ doors reduce the signal strength.
 
Q: Is the AE Wifi radio Stereo?
A: Yes, the WiFi Radio uses two special AE drivers to give a stereo output.

Q: Does it support WPA encryption?
A: WPA-PSK/TKIP, which is the most commonly-used variant of WPA, is supported.

Q: Will it work with audio files held on Mac OS X
A: The radio uses Windows file sharing protocols to retrieve the audio files. Mac OS X supports Windows sharing, so this should work fine.

Q: Will the radio work with the Apple Airport Extreme etc
A: Yes. The radio will work with any IEEE 802.11b/g access point.

Q: Will it support multicast broadcast
A: Not at the moment. Only unicast connections are supported.

Q: Will it support Shoutcast streams
A: Yes, Shoutcast should be fine.

Q: Will it support Ogg-Vorbis files
A: We don't have support for Vorbis today, but we plan to introduce this as a (free) software upgrade in the future.

Q: Will it support AAC/ iTunes files~
A: ACC support will be available from launch. However, music purchased online from the iTunes store is digitally encrypted by Apple and will not be playable on the AE WiFi radio.

Q: Will it be able to utilise Slimeserver software
A: We don't support that at present, but we are investigating that possibility.

Q: Will it be able to get Live365 stations?
A: Yes, Live365 should be fine.

Q: How will this affect usage limits on broadband? ie 1gb limits on downloads etc.
A: This would depend on the particular ISP. As far as the network is concerned, using the radio is just the same as listening to Internet radio from a PC.

Q: Will it support WMA V9.1
A: Yes, WMA 9.1 will be supported.

Q: Can I have a brief description on how the radio picks up the new stations and software.
A: Whenever the radio starts up, it downloads the latest station information from our gateway servers.

Q: If subscribed to a streaming audio service that provides programs on line but is not a radio broadcaster per se. Will it be able to add them to the list of stations it can get on the radio.
A: We don't currently have any support for subscription services, although we are investigating that right now.

Q: Will the radio work on my broadband connection I am with etc etc
A: The radio will work with any Wireless broadband connection.

Q: Can I link the radio to my HiFi system.
A: The AE Wifi radio will have a standard 3.5mm jack on the rear that can be connected to a hifi or a pair of headphones.

Q: Does the LCD Light up.
A: Yes the LCD with be backlit in Blue.

Q: Does the Radio have presets.
A: Yes the radio will have 10 presets for your favourite stations.

Q: Does the radio have an FM or DAB tuner built in.
A: No, as the radio can pick up more stations than either FM or DAB and do a lot more there is no need for one.

Q: Does the product run on batteries?
A: The radio runs on the mains only.

Q: Does the radio have an Ethernet connection on it?
A: The radio is a wireless only product.

Q: What are the dimensions of the WiFi Radio?
A: Width = 125mm, Depth = 125mm, Height = 180mm