The World Space Team is back!!

[reubensm]

Dear all,

When worldspace shut shop in India, most of its Indian staff carried on with the aim of keeping the flag flying. After a couple of year's work, finally they are here, this time using Internet broadcasting instead. The programming is more or less the same at what worldspace aired.

By the way, the old UP COUNTRY channel is missing!! :sad:

http://www.timbremedia.in/Default.aspx

 

[venkatcr]

This is the most fantastic news I have heard in a long time. They have a magic, few few other stations have. I was just sampling their Radio Farishtha and, man, they are simply superb. I have already written to them for subscription.

I now have to get a reasonably high end Internet Radio

Cheers.

 

[ajay124]

I don't see either of the two stations, my wife and I used to listen to, almost 24x7. Maestro and Riff. If Timbre Media restarts those, then it would be time to pop a bottle of champagne

 

[Bobby]

Great news :clapping:

Thanks for sharing

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

... I now have to get a reasonably high end Internet Radio

No you don't: you just have to use your PC

On the other hand (or both hands, actually, as it interacts both with your PC and the internet directly) ... Logitech Squeezebox?

 

[GeorgeO]

Is it free?

 

[Audio Slave]

Dear all,

When worldspace shut shop in India, most of its Indian staff carried on with the aim of keeping the flag flying. After a couple of year's work, finally they are here, this time using Internet broadcasting instead. The programming is more or less the same at what worldspace aired.

By the way, the old UP COUNTRY channel is missing!! :sad:

Timbre Media - India's first multi-platform and multi-genre radio company

That's great news. It was one of the best musical revolutions that had happened in India and taken the country by storm a few years back. Then in 2009 suddenly they decided to wind up from India without notice. Most people owning their radio services, duly paid for, felt cheated. The content and quality of their satellite based radio were simply superb. My own World Space receiver has been lying silent now for years.

Please clarify their revised method / subscription etc. Where can I get all the details as I am very keen to subscribe again.

 

[ajay124]

Let me temper the enthu a little bit. World Space when it came out a decade back, was one of a kind. The FM and internet radio revolution had not really taken root.

My wife, who is a radio junkie, first mentioned and then vetted the four receivers which were available when World Space first came to India. World Space recommended models from Hitachi, Panasonic, Sanyo. Can't remember the fourth brand. We opted for the Hitachi model and paid 4500. Got two antennas. A room antenna and a more powerful rooftop, all weather one for that price. And free stations for many years. An extremely satisfactory experience!

But now there is a tsunami of fm and internet radio stations. Any new addition may have a brief honeymoon period, but will soon get lost in the crowd. I would love to listen to the Maestro station if it makes a comeback, but I would not pay for it. There are dozens of classical stations on iTunes/Live 365 etc. which are equally good and f-r-e-e.

When I mentioned the news to my wife, a die hard fan of World Space, I got a 'couldn't care less' reaction. She has literally dozens of western classical radio stations saved in her favorites on the SB Boom.

 

[venkatcr]

Ajay, there are thousands of radio stations available. But the knowledge of the RJs in World Space, at least as far as Indian music goes, is what sets them apart. I don't think any radio station would be equal to them. The only one I can think of for Hindi film music would be Binaca Geet Mala, and, for English, would be Forces Request, both of which are now dead.

Believe me, if they deliver even half of what they delivered in World Space, Timbre Media would go a long way.

Audio Slave, in terms of subscription, I think they have just entered the market. We have to see what they do. As I said in another thread, paying 2K a year to get the music they can deliver is peanuts.

Cheers

 

[ajay124]

Venkat

You are absolutely correct. Ultimately the 'face' of every good radio station is the radio jockey. There are too many anonymous stations beaming the same music, over and over again, without a jockey to enlighten or build a bond with the audience.

Amin Sayani was one of a kind! If any radio show could garner even a fraction of Binaca Geet Mala's cult following, they would be laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[reubensm]

when worldspace india closed shop, most of the employees continued and even got controlling rights over most of the worldspace content. they've kept the studios going and worked towards this. i got this news from one of the former worldspace technology employees who joined our organization after worldspace shut shop.

 

[stevieboy]

Let me temper the enthu a little bit. World Space when it came out a decade back, was one of a kind. The FM and internet radio revolution had not really taken root.

My wife, who is a radio junkie, first mentioned and then vetted the four receivers which were available when World Space first came to India. World Space recommended models from Hitachi, Panasonic, Sanyo. Can't remember the fourth brand. We opted for the Hitachi model and paid 4500. Got two antennas. A room antenna and a more powerful rooftop, all weather one for that price. And free stations for many years. An extremely satisfactory experience!

But now there is a tsunami of fm and internet radio stations. Any new addition may have a brief honeymoon period, but will soon get lost in the crowd. I would love to listen to the Maestro station if it makes a comeback, but I would not pay for it. There are dozens of classical stations on iTunes/Live 365 etc. which are equally good and f-r-e-e.

When I mentioned the news to my wife, a die hard fan of World Space, I got a 'couldn't care less' reaction. She has literally dozens of western classical radio stations saved in her favorites on the SB Boom.

Exactly my reaction Ajay. I used to love WorldSpace but with easy Internet radio now, paying is pointless. Though for someone like Venkat who's looking for Indian stuff, the choices might be limited I'm guessing so it would make great sense for those channels.

regards

 

[Audio Slave]

Let me temper the enthu a little bit. World Space when it came out a decade back, was one of a kind. The FM and internet radio revolution had not really taken root.

My wife, who is a radio junkie, first mentioned and then vetted the four receivers which were available when World Space first came to India. World Space recommended models from Hitachi, Panasonic, Sanyo. Can't remember the fourth brand. We opted for the Hitachi model and paid 4500. Got two antennas. A room antenna and a more powerful rooftop, all weather one for that price. And free stations for many years. An extremely satisfactory experience!

But now there is a tsunami of fm and internet radio stations. Any new addition may have a brief honeymoon period, but will soon get lost in the crowd. I would love to listen to the Maestro station if it makes a comeback, but I would not pay for it. There are dozens of classical stations on iTunes/Live 365 etc. which are equally good and f-r-e-e.

When I mentioned the news to my wife, a die hard fan of World Space, I got a 'couldn't care less' reaction. She has literally dozens of western classical radio stations saved in her favorites on the SB Boom.

ajay124

That's true. Having a good broadband connection with the Desktop / Laptops opens up a world of music through the thousands of Internet Radio Stations playing all kinds of music non-stop 24X7. But I do not think they can come anywhere close to what World Space Radio was able to do in terms of flawless dedicated service beamed for specific corss-section of world wide listeners. Can not think of any other Radio service (FM and Internet Radio included) which can replace it completetly for content and quality.

 

[Audio Slave]

Ajay, there are thousands of radio stations available. But the knowledge of the RJs in World Space, at least as far as Indian music goes, is what sets them apart. I don't think any radio station would be equal to them. The only one I can think of for Hindi film music would be Binaca Geet Mala, and, for English, would be Forces Request, both of which are now dead.

Believe me, if they deliver even half of what they delivered in World Space, Timbre Media would go a long way.

Audio Slave, in terms of subscription, I think they have just entered the market. We have to see what they do. As I said in another thread, paying 2K a year to get the music they can deliver is peanuts.

Cheers

venkatcr

Thanks. I was just wondering if any Intenet based Radio sets are abvailable in India at the moment. Such Radio sets are available in the UK and USA.
It would be interesting to know if some people in India are already using Internet Radio sets (which work independent of the Desktop etc) and if they can share their experience of using one here.

 

[anm]

I agree with Venkat. Blabbering of RJs and ads like "lal kitab amrit" turn me off so much that I have stopped listening to FM in my car, even though I drive 25km (45 min) each side. I prefer silence instead. So I can pay for a station if it is good. Just wondering how to get internet radio in my car - not too difficult maybe squeezebox receiver with an inverter and a 3G connection.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks. I was just wondering if any Intenet based Radio sets are abvailable in India at the moment. Such Radio sets are available in the UK and USA.
It would be interesting to know if some people in India are already using Internet Radio sets (which work independent of the Desktop etc) and if they can share their experience of using one here.

Yes! Do see the growing number of threads related to Logitech squeezebox.

I don't know how many independent, dedicated internet radio sets there are. A quick google seemed to suggest a few. UK has DAB, which is not internet, and continues to exist somehow, in the face of everything that says it shouldn't! (highly compressed audio; expensive sets; stuff available on the net for free...)

Of course, there is the question of the quality of internet broadcasts. A lot of them are compressed almost out of existence. I find that, listening to BBC drama/comedy via internet results in what I think to be compression fatigue. (Of course, I can't justify this technically) I wonder how much music our members with highly-practised hearing could take take like this?

 

[reubensm]

Regarding whether this is a paid service, well their website says that they have individual and corporate plans. When worldspace closed, a lot of retail outlets, showrooms, restaurants, etc got hit badly as they were using worldspace programming as piped music. I personally know a few retail outlets here who were hard hit and had to revert to playing mp3 files off a playlist. Timbre is requesting us to write to them for more details, guess its because they are yet to officially launch...my 2 cents would be that they may be priced lower than worldspace as they will have open competition from other free-to-air internet broadcasting...unlike worldspace satellite radio which was kind of a monopoly (as FM could not match them)

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

(Shops, restaurants, etc without piped music. That would be just wonderful!)

/offtopic

 

[venkatcr]

I have received the following reply from Timbre.

"We will be shortly launching a few weeks from now our individual channels.We shall get in touch with you for the same.

Meanwhile thankyou for your enquiry and support."

I will wait and see what they offer.

Cheers

 

[reubensm]

some of the key worldspace folks behind the Timbre media venture:

1) Giridhar Gowda (Head Content) Giridhar Gowda - India | LinkedIn
2) Sheetal Iyer (Head Programming) Seetal R Iyer | Facebook

it was Sheetal who told me on the worldspace forum, a long time ago (after worldspace closed down) that they're still at it and will launch in the future.