What is multicasting in terms of audio? I'm thinking of replacing my HU (since EVERYONE says to do that first). I'm seeing several HU mention it but none of the sites I've found say what it is.

If you can sum it up in a sentence or two or a link, I'll be more than happy to look. When I googled "Multicasting," I keep getting something pertaining to computer networking.

 

Never heard of this before in terms of audio, only in terms of computer networking.

Hopefully someone replies, I'm curious as well.

 

Just from a bit of quick reading, it sounds like multicast is basically a term for sending several (digital) signals at (about) the same frequency.

Kinda like (on a digital TV), you can watch channel 5.1 and 5.2 where one might be NBC regular programming, and the other might be a full-time weather update from NBC5.

You can do the same thing on your radio now, I suppose. So, you might have The Edge transmitting 2 or 3 channels: 102.1-1, 102.1-2, etc.

Links:
http://www.hidefradio.com/radio_moni...lticasting.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/radio/index.shtml

 

From Crutchfield:
Q: What is multicasting?
A: An HD Radio signal can be subdivided to send out two or more different kinds of programming simultaneously. When a station does this, it is multicasting.
http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/ISEO-rgb...adio_faq.html#8

That's very different from the computer networking concept of multicasting.

 

Ah, so probably in terms of the head unit I was considering, the multi-casting could be the music on one signal and then the song title, station call signs, etc on a second channel.. ? Sound good to everone else?

 

No, I don't think that's what they mean.

Visit the web page for The Edge (www.kdge.com). You'll see that they are webcasting more than one station... the KDGE that you hear on your regular FM radio, plus a station they call "Cutting Edge". It's likely that they are also broadcasting both of those stations over the air on seperate 102.1 sub-channels. For example, they might have:

102.1-1 : Your standard KDGE over-the-air music
102.1-2 : "Cutting Edge"

Make sense? They all basically share the same frequency, but since digital is more efficient than analog, you can squeeze more digital "channels" into the same amount of bandwidth that the old-fashioned analog signal was using.

 

When you get a scepter you have a %15 increased chance to Multicast with Ogre Mage.


Oh you meant audio.........