Here are details about the Sync test (see earlier story) excerpted from the text of the press release from TheRadio.Com.
“The test involved two receiver devices in order to determine which software and hardware performed better with the Sync system, and also to identify which one would deliver higher audio quality and technical reliability. The test began with a Pantech cell phone running the Windows Mobile operating system and intermittently playing both 32 kbps and 64 kbps wma streams using the built-in Windows Media Player. Midway during the experiment the Pantech phone was switched out with the Dell laptop, which runs on the Windows Vista operating system, and which was used to test the 64 kbps wma using Windows Media Player as well as a 64 kbps aacPlus stream using both the Windows Media Player with the free Orban aacPlus plugin and Winamp.
“Both the phone and the laptop were connected wirelessly through the Sync’s built-in Bluetooth connection, which is made possible by the inclusion of the A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) within the Sync system. A2DP is important because not all Bluetooth devices support this profile. Throughout the test there was only one period of drop-out, when the cell phone reception momentarily disappeared near the Medical University of South Carolina in downtown Charleston. Despite intense efforts to overload the cell phone system, as well as deliberate attempts to tie up two separate streams (64 kbps and 128 kbps) in order to crash the cell system, it never went down. The laptop performed consistently well, and all participants in the test judged the 64 kbps aacPlus stream to be better than both FM and satellite radio reception, and roughly the equivalent to a CD.
“TheRadio.Com research team members involved in the test included Edward F. Seeger, chairman of American Media Services; Andrew Guest, AMS vice chairman; and Laramie Guest, TheRadio.Com vice president of engineering. Driving the vehicle was Palmetto Ford Customer Care Specialist Marueen Troescher. The pre-arranged test route took the research team through downtown Charleston, across the Ashley River south to Kiawah Island, then north across the new Cooper River Bridge, back to the Ford dealership. Two individual channels of audio produced by TheRadio.Com — Beach Music and Southern Fried Rock — were streamed during the demonstration.”
