It’s good to see more receiver makers debuting their first HD Radio products; and I was heartened to learn about the 50 or so HD-R-related products on the show floor, compared to around 20 new items last year.
Broadcast engineers tell me they see steady progress; I heard the phrase “slowly but surely,” more than once.
But it’s hard to gauge how far receiver makers will take the technology. Some are excited; but others feel the rollout is slower than expected. It’s notable that one, Boston Acoustics, doesn’t have a follow-on to its Recepter HD, the first IBOC tabletop.
We’ll have to see what other big automakers do now that Ford has committed to upgrading its HD-R support, from a dealer-installed option to standard (or a factory-installed option in some cases) in calendar 2009.
