Laylio was developed by your company, RADIOactive. Tell us a little bit about the company.
Personally, I'm a long time FM radio guy (formerly looking after Class95/987FM/Gold/Lush and a few international stations in the US over the last 15 years).
We set up RADIOactive to enable brands, telcos and media owners to either create their own radio stations or get their existing FM stations on mobile.
Our core business is actually our own streaming platform which now offers the world's best sounding audio at the lowest possible bitrate. On top of this we do every other format (mp3/aac/ogg/ and now wma). We can stream to every mobile handset (Nokia/Samsung/LG/Moto/BB/Android/iPhone) over either 3G or 2G because of this. We also do IPTV / Flash /Silverlight.
You have your own streaming platform? Does this mean you've developed your own protocol?
With our own platform, what we have focussed on is proprietary DSP which takes place before delivery. In essence, we refine the streams first in order to keep the bitrate as low as possible while delivering the best quality audio available. From there, we stream what is essentially standards compliant audio in any format on the planet. The great thing is, what we have now is the ability to stream to any and every mobile device on the market, not just iPhone and Android. We do Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Blackberry, you name it.
RADIOactive is not in the business of developing smartphone applications per se, we are not just tech guys, we're radio people. We're in the business of creating radio stations and providing existing broadcasters with a turnkey solution. The ability to broadcast at low data rates becomes vital when your talking about developing markets like Indonesia or the Philippines where 2G/Edge is the standard and everyone's living in a pre-paid world.
The funny thing is, Laylio started out as a weekend effort to get Windows Media streaming onto the iPhone and it kinda' exploded from there. Under the hood, Laylio supports all other streaming formats as well and we do offer a white-label version.
Not at all, not yet anyway. Laylio is at the moment is only transcoding the WMA streams straight from the local stations. Laylio is at the mercy of the capacity they've currently provisioned and we've seen their servers getting hammered lately. The problem for a lot of broadcasters is getting around the fact that the transmitter has changed.
Did it only take a weekend to make Laylio?
It took two days to get the transcoding happening, the rest of the app probably another two or three weeks, on and off. What we wanted to do was get something out that felt good for the users. We're still refining of course, adding basic things like UITableViews instead of the ugly dashcode thing that's there now, and will be adding some other features as we go along.
What was the hardest challenge you had to overcome in making Laylio?
The hardest challenge? App store approval! But completely my fault. We, (or should I say "I") made a couple of silly mistakes in the the UI implementation for iPod Touch users which in the end didn't adhere to Apple's guidelines. All fixed now though - the new version will support iPod touch and we've just submitted it. (Eds note: The new version is out now).
Let's change tack a little. This is a big change from what you were doing before with the Don and Drew show as well as your old job as a Creative Director at Mediacorp Radio. How did it happen?
I guess technically it's a big change for me, but fundamentally it isn't.
I've loved radio since I was a kid and when I got into this business almost 20 years ago it has always been, for me, about pushing the medium forward while still leveraging the beautifully simple but powerful elements that have made it the longest surviving broadcast medium. So that kind of ethos spills over into everything - whether it's hosting a show with Don or producing a radio spot.
The whole idea of radio on handsets made itself clear to me around 1999 when data started to make its way onto phones. I was actually laughed at when I first suggested it. But the idea never went away, so when it came to a point in late 2008 when circumstances and opportunity merged, I took the plunge.
What's it like being an entrepreneur in the mobile space?
Wow.. haha.. where does one start? Man, the learning curve over the last 12 months has been insane. The great thing is, I've learned that I'm happiest when I'm learning - and in the mobile space you never stop. The other wonderful thing is that I have been incredibly blessed (don't laugh.. I mean it) by the people I have met every step of the way. I never could have imagined the generosity of some of brilliant people who donated time and advice. It's made me realise that collaboration is the new economy.
Any plans to go back to being a voice on radio?
I'm actually still a voiceover talent for a bunch of stations. Locally I'm the voice for Class95, Channel 5, Okto, Bloomberg, Animax and few others. As for being a host on radio? Haha - Don and Drew have been kicked off air enough to know better. Well.. we should know better anyway. I gotta say we spend half our time laughing when we're together, so how productive can that be?
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