I received the wireless (WiFi) version of the IRIS Internet radio by Solutions Radio today. This is supposed to provide a highly accessible solution to the blind and physically handicapped, for Internet radio listening. Well, let’s see what it actually provides…
What’s In The Box
They packed the thing very well; perhaps too well in fact. They used fibrous shipping tape, which my dull scissors could not easily cut. But a sharp utility knife worked much better.
They shipped the radio in its own box, and that box, they put inside another box and surrounded it with bubble rap.
Upon opening the inner carton, I noticed the following:
- A remote control and batteries for it.
- A power cord.
- An Ethernet cable.
- A dual RCA to RCA audio cable, for playing the radio through a component stereo system.
- The radio itself, which was wrapped in a soft bubble wrap, that had those very little bubbles.
I did not find the following:
- No users manual was included. I would have liked to have seen at least a printed ‘Getting Started’ guide. Their web site says that there is a manual however.
Trying Out The WebRadio
I was eager to plug it in and go. So as soon as it warmed up a little, I turned it on. It beeped repeatedly as it attempted to connect to my security-enabled wireless network. It failed to connect however, as I have not yet configured it with my network password. It’s not clear at this point how to do this. Hopefully, the radio supports WEP or WPA networks.
After a minute, an error appeared on its green backlit LCD display: No DHCP, or something to that effect. So I turned it off. By the way, when the radio cannot find a network to which to connect, it beeps rapidly and shuts itself off in fifteen seconds. You can stop the auto shutdown by pressing one of the arrow keys.
The Spoken Menus
The male-voice speech was clear and speaks with accurate inflections, though it resembles no speech I’ve ever heard before. You can mute the voice by pressing the volume control; a round, prominent black knob located on the right side of the control panel.
The Control Panel
All controls are located on the top and front panel of the radio and consist of the following:
- The backlit LCD display, found on the left front area of the control panel.
- The UP and DOWN arrow buttons, immediately to the right of the LCD display.
- The OK button, just beneath and to the right of the arrow keys.
- The volume knob, just to the right of the arrow keys, and above the OK and BACK buttons.
- The BACK button, just below the volume knob.
- The power button, found in the lower right-hand corner of the control panel.
- Power light, immediately to the left of the power button.
- Line Light, immediately above the power button. Lights when the radio has successfully connected to the Internet.
- Error Light, immediately above the line light.
The Connections
I found all jacks and other connectors on the back of the WebRadio. These include the following, in order, from left to right as the back of the radio faces you:
- Two RJ11 telephone connectors, for when you’re listening to the radio via a dialup connection.
- One 3.5mm stereo headphone female connector, into which you can plug a set of headphones.
- Two RCA line-out connectors,
- One RJ45 Ethernet connector, for when you want to run the radio over your local Ethernet.
- The mains power connector
The Pre-Programmed Stations List
You can scroll through the stations list with the UP and DOWN arrow keys, located in the center of the control panel, just to the right of the LCD display. Each press of these buttons triggers the unit to speak the next or previous station in the list. It tells you the stations call letters, if any, a description of the content that the station carries, and the format (such as spoken-word, music, talk, Etc.).
When it speaks a station you want to listen to, just press the okay button, located at the bottom center of the control panel, just below and to the right of the arrow keys. If you do not press an arrow key within three seconds after it finishes announcing the station, the radio begins the connection process. It beeps with 1-second interval pulses while it’s connecting. It usually connects to a station within five to ten seconds.
If you’re bored listening to the current station, you can go back to the stations list by pressing either of the arrow keys. It starts you off at the position in the list of the station you were just playing.
How It Sounds
The radio has a good, fairly full-range tone; tabletop radio quality. It’s built-in speaker has a crisp high-end and a surprising amount of bass for its small size. You get stereo sound when listening through headphones that sounds incredibly good; particularly when you’re listening to a high bit-rate station.
However, I found no bass, treble, or other sound equalization controls.
Setting Your Favorite Stations
My radio did not come with the web site URL. However, the URL they gave me in email is:
http://www.stationlist.net/
You’ll need your radio’s serial number and an assigned password, which the vendor also supplied me in this morning’s email exchange. For other sites relevant to operation of this radio, click here.
Setting Up The WiFi
The instructions I received for configuring this radio’s WiFi access can be viewed here. I experienced some difficulty with getting the WiFi working. But after some email and telephone help from the WebRadio’s manufacturer, it’s working now.
Usability And Other Problems
Poor Handling of Lost Connections
When the connection to the current station being played is lost, the radio takes you back to the station list menu. To re connect, the user must again find the station in that list and press OK to resume listening to it. This gets rather tedious during periods of high Internet traffic, which tends to cause dropped connections to happen frequently. Each drop requires user intervention to fix.
I’d prefer that the radio try re establishing connection repeatedly, until either it regains the connection, or the user presses the arrow keys to get back to the stations list.
The Configuration Menus Are Inaccessible
The radio does not appear to speak any of its menus until it’s actually connected to a network, and it never speaks the configuration menus. However if you’re using ethernet, you may not need to adjust these anyhow if you’re network has a fairly standard configuration.
Unreliable WiFi Operation
When using the radio in WiFi mode, I get much more frequent dropped connections. This is true regardless of how far away I position the radio from the WiFi access point. It works much better when employing its Ethernet interface.
Also, I get significantly more failed connection attempts when first turning on the radio, when using its built-in WiFi capability. On average, I must power down the radio and then turn it on again, two out of every three times I sit down to listen, before I get a usable WiFi connection. It appears that, at least the WiFi section of this unit, is not quite ready for prime time yet. Hopefully, they’ll come out with firmware revisions that address these difficulties.
Tom Hesley
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