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With Reciva Dead, Internet Radio Manufacturers Manage the Fallout - Radio World
The impact of Qualcomm shutting down its Reciva internet radio aggregation platform earlier this year continues to reverberate through the internet .
The impact of Qualcomm shutting down its Reciva internet radio aggregation platform earlier this year continues to reverberate through the internet radio manufacturing industry. The loss of this platform means Reciva-enabled internet radios can no longer connect to audio streams on the web — rendering them effectively useless.
Sangean Electronics is one of the manufacturers left stranded by the Reciva shutdown.
“The official date was April 30, 2021,” Sangean Marketing Director Andrew Wu said. “The response we got [from Qualcomm] was, ‘We have decided to withdraw this discretionary service, for business reasons. We wish you well in finding alternative solutions’.”
“It’s not the first internet radio platform to shut down,” said Wu. “But it is the first time for a supplier to not offer any viable solutions.”
“The shutdown was difficult on both the brands and customers who used Reciva-based devices,” said Greg Fadul, CEO and cofounder of Grace Digital, another internet radio manufacturer. “For Grace Digital, it’s been very difficult. We are a family-run business and we were partners and friends with the Reciva team. However, over the years Reciva was sold twice and the companies that acquired them decided that they would no longer support the legacy servers.”
Why did Reciva shut down?
Qualcomm has not responded to Radio World’s requests for interviews about the Reciva shutdown. However, internet radio manufacturers who supported this platform have offered several reasons for its demise.
First is the complexity and cost of running the Reciva platform. “Back in 2003 the processors in internet radios were extremely slow and had little memory, so Reciva’s strategy was for its servers to perform the heavy lifting with the radio only performing the basic streaming function,” said Fadul. “Their server system was not simply an internet radio station aggregator, but a high-end global array of dozens of servers located in key cities around the world. The server network provided radio authentication, managed log-ins for premium services, and various settings and configurations for the radios, among many other functions.”
Fast-forward 18 years and quality internet radios perform all those functions on the radio itself without the costs of an intermediary array of servers.
To make matters worse, “there was no path to upgrade due to the age of the code and its incompatibility with new hardware,” said Bob Crane, president of radio equipment firm C. Crane. “In addition, there are no longer people who fundamentally understand the ins and outs of this proprietary code and programming. The original software was also burdensome and slower than new chips.”
Despite this, Crane said he believes the driving force behind Qualcomm’s Reciva shutdown was the cost of maintaining its global server system. With manufacturers having moved to newer and more self-contained internet radio-tuning systems, Qualcomm had to cover this cost without receiving any revenue to pay for it.
“The Reciva problem happened in part because there was no recurring income for the founders,” said Crane. “This is why every software developer on the planet — think Adobe, Microsoft, and Oracle — has switched primarily to subscription-based purchases because there has to be some way to fund ongoing maintenance and future development.”
As reported by Radio World in March 2021 (“Reciva Internet Radio Platform Shutting Down“), internet radio manufacturers are doing their best to assist Reciva-stranded listeners.
At C. Crane, “we accelerated our new CC WiFi 3 internet radio into production as quickly as possible based on Skytune.net,” said Crane. “We also developed a program to take care of our Reciva-based CC WiFi owners, offering them a graduated discount that took into consideration how recently they’d purchased their older sets. We tried ...
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By SMAdvancedForum-NewsThe impact of Qualcomm shutting down its Reciva internet radio aggregation platform earlier this year continues to reverberate through the internet .
The impact of Qualcomm shutting down its Reciva internet radio aggregation platform earlier this year continues to reverberate through the internet radio manufacturing industry. The loss of this platform means Reciva-enabled internet radios can no longer connect to audio streams on the web — rendering them effectively useless.
Sangean Electronics is one of the manufacturers left stranded by the Reciva shutdown.
“The official date was April 30, 2021,” Sangean Marketing Director Andrew Wu said. “The response we got [from Qualcomm] was, ‘We have decided to withdraw this discretionary service, for business reasons. We wish you well in finding alternative solutions’.”
“It’s not the first internet radio platform to shut down,” said Wu. “But it is the first time for a supplier to not offer any viable solutions.”
“The shutdown was difficult on both the brands and customers who used Reciva-based devices,” said Greg Fadul, CEO and cofounder of Grace Digital, another internet radio manufacturer. “For Grace Digital, it’s been very difficult. We are a family-run business and we were partners and friends with the Reciva team. However, over the years Reciva was sold twice and the companies that acquired them decided that they would no longer support the legacy servers.”
Why did Reciva shut down?
Qualcomm has not responded to Radio World’s requests for interviews about the Reciva shutdown. However, internet radio manufacturers who supported this platform have offered several reasons for its demise.
First is the complexity and cost of running the Reciva platform. “Back in 2003 the processors in internet radios were extremely slow and had little memory, so Reciva’s strategy was for its servers to perform the heavy lifting with the radio only performing the basic streaming function,” said Fadul. “Their server system was not simply an internet radio station aggregator, but a high-end global array of dozens of servers located in key cities around the world. The server network provided radio authentication, managed log-ins for premium services, and various settings and configurations for the radios, among many other functions.”
Fast-forward 18 years and quality internet radios perform all those functions on the radio itself without the costs of an intermediary array of servers.
To make matters worse, “there was no path to upgrade due to the age of the code and its incompatibility with new hardware,” said Bob Crane, president of radio equipment firm C. Crane. “In addition, there are no longer people who fundamentally understand the ins and outs of this proprietary code and programming. The original software was also burdensome and slower than new chips.”
Despite this, Crane said he believes the driving force behind Qualcomm’s Reciva shutdown was the cost of maintaining its global server system. With manufacturers having moved to newer and more self-contained internet radio-tuning systems, Qualcomm had to cover this cost without receiving any revenue to pay for it.
“The Reciva problem happened in part because there was no recurring income for the founders,” said Crane. “This is why every software developer on the planet — think Adobe, Microsoft, and Oracle — has switched primarily to subscription-based purchases because there has to be some way to fund ongoing maintenance and future development.”
As reported by Radio World in March 2021 (“Reciva Internet Radio Platform Shutting Down“), internet radio manufacturers are doing their best to assist Reciva-stranded listeners.
At C. Crane, “we accelerated our new CC WiFi 3 internet radio into production as quickly as possible based on Skytune.net,” said Crane. “We also developed a program to take care of our Reciva-based CC WiFi owners, offering them a graduated discount that took into consideration how recently they’d purchased their older sets. We tried ...