About internet radio

Internet Radio is broadcast using the Internet as the connection to the radio rather than radio waves. Conventional radio is broadcast using transmitters at fixed locations. The further that the radio is from the transmitter, the weaker the signal becomes until beyond a certain distance, the station cannot be heard.

Internet Radio does not have this limitation. With your radio connecting to the internet, it becomes possible to listen to stations from all around the world, as well as those from broadcasters nearer home. For example, a Scot living and working in London could listen to a Scottish radio station; a Japanese working in France could listen to Japanese as well as French, Scottish or American radio.

That sounds like Shortwave Radio….Not really – shortwave radio can be difficult to receive and suffers from atmospheric effects. Internet Radio uses the power of the Internet to deliver the radio station without these problems. In addition, the radio is automatically updated with lists of radio stations, sorted by country or genre. As a consequence, selecting stations or discovering new ones is very simple.

The basic requirement to use Internet Radio is that you have a broadband Internet connection to your home (or wherever you use the radio). You may well have a PC, but it does not need to be switched on in order to listen to radio stations via the Internet.

You do need a broadband connection for Internet Radio. But if you are not interested in radio listening, and wish to use an internet radio such as the STREAM 63i to listen to your music collection (from your PC, for example) then broadband is not required. Broadband can still be useful if it is desired to be able to update the software in the radio to take advantage of any new features as they become available.

As well as a broadband connection you will need a modem (an ADSL modem if your broadband uses the telephone wiring, or a cable modem if you get your broadband access combined with cable TV). You will also need a router, but modern ADSL and cable modems generally include a router to allow several devices to be connected.