While vehicle manufacturers work tirelessly to develop an engine sound that best suits the brand and the performance expectations of a particular model, the sound most drivers really hear when they start their car – and for the majority of their journey – is probably the music or spoken word playing on their car audio system.
In-car audio has been through many stages of development, from simple AM/FM radio to music streamed from a Bluetooth-connected portable device, via 8-track, cassette, single and multi-disc CD players and even, for a short while, Minidisc. Currently, over-the-air (OTA) broadcasting is being delivered by AM/FM (still), DAB/DAB+ (much of Europe, China, Australia), and satellite (North America).
The ubiquity of the smartphone has created an opportunity for another means of content delivery – smart audio, as developed by Rivet Radio. Established in 2012 by former Navteq EVP John MacLeod, Rivet was first launched on iOS one year later, and can now also be downloaded by Android and Amazon Fire users.
The aim of Rivet is to deliver interactive, on-demand, location-based audio content, MacLeod explains to Megatrends. The content in this case is spoken word content – news, current affairs, sport – in fact, any spoken word selected by the user. The automotive industry is buzzing with discussions about the possibilities of over-the-air software updates for ECUs. What Rivet offers is effectively an OTA update for the driver, keeping them informed and up-to-date while on the move.
There’s nothing new about broadcasting spoken word-only content, but Rivet has been developed specifically to keep users listening, wherever they are – at home, on foot or in the car. And they way its services are delivered means it has been developed with the connected car in mind. “We have designed our business and our apps, our applications and our services, to fully take advantage of the connected car,” says MacLeod.
“We see Rivet as a smart audio solution, enabling people to consume content on any device or through any kind of mobile application, or even embedded application. We have integrated our app experience into the Jaguar Land Rover platform with Bosch, and that’s in the market today. And we’ve created an automotive API that allows system vendors and car companies to directly access our content through the Cloud, and then play it on their own software and embedded experiences in the car – and we’re working with a couple of car companies to do that.”
It’s all about on-demand content, continues MacLeod. “The old TV and radio model has moved to cable and then to Internet delivery of content. The irony is that audio, which was the first of the modern media, is the last to move to the Internet. Audio is highly engaging, because whatever you’re doing, the audio is talking to you, it’s inside your head. So for us, helping deliver compelling personalised audio content while you’re on the go is a huge opportunity. And I think what we’ve done is a lot closer to how we’re all going to be consuming audio in the next five to ten years.”
Rivet enables users to decide what categories they do and don’t want to listen to; users can pause and play, skip to the next story or back to the previous one. If a phone call comes in, the story pauses and picks up after the call is over. “Once you consume audio where you have control and power over it, you don’t want to go back to just being pushed stuff that you may not want to listen to, and where your only choice is to change channels.”
While AM/FM radio is predominantly advertising-funded, and satellite is largely subscription-based, Rivet Radio supports advertising, subscription and licencing models. Of particular interest to automotive OEMs is the embedded approach, suggests MacLeod. “If it is an API embedded integration where a system vendor or an OEM is writing their own software and interfacing to our content, then we would support either an advertising model, if we’re able to send and track ads through it, or a licence model, where we would basically get a licence for our content.” Rivet has been developed in this way, explains MacLeod, because industry, particularly the car industry, wants the option of having more control over what content comes in and how it’s consumed. “We’ve created, through our Cloud access, the ability for a car company to come in and grab our content and integrate it into their embedded experience.”
As far as Rivet is concerned, audio is metadata; once tagged and categorised, it can be personalised and targeted as appropriate by Rivet’s customers and users. “We have a very rigorous data format, with rules and rights surrounding what we produce ourselves and what we source from partners or from the community. The key idea is that once it’s created, the metadata allows consumers, or car companies, or businesses to say they want a certain type of content playing on their device in their service.”
Being online means Rivet potentially has global reach. Does MacLeod plan to take the location-based service beyond the US? “The OEMs are looking for global solutions for their car platforms, and we see ourselves as a global solution,” he responds. “The Internet is global and the Cloud creates unlimited potential for content. Taking the lessons and the knowhow that we’ve assembled on producing and sourcing, which predominantly today is US news and information, we see that moving to international content coverage, and multiple language content. It really then becomes a content sourcing opportunity for us,” says MacLeod. “That may be a little way off” he concedes, adding that from a technology and architecture perspective, “it’s all in place today. It’s really just about us growing and scaling our business to other content and other languages.”
Martin Kahl
