Research and Development Platform for Multimedia Streaming of MP3 Audio Content

In the recent years, the MPEG Layer III (MP3) music compression format has become an extremely popular choice for digital audio compression. Its high compression ratio, and near CD quality sound make it a natural choice for storing and distributing music - especially over the internet, where space and bandwidth are important considerations. For example, using MPEG Layer-3 compression, 40 MBytes audio files have been compressed to approximately 3.5 MBytes. As a result of the MP3 popularity, a variety of portable MP3 players entered the market. We decided to design and implement a Hard Disk based MP3 player similar to products currently available (e.g. Creative Labs Nomad, Archos Jukebox 6000, Apple Ipod, etc.). Our goal was to design the player with minimal cost and to implement a FM Stereo Radio Transmitter module for ease of connectivity. This module resolves the compatibility problems with the current available car audio systems. In the same time system flexibility and scalability as well as system evolution to more advanced architectures were the main principles that drove the development of this platform. The primary enhancement of the platform will be to switch the communication module from a analogical FM radio transmitter to digital wired or wireless communication solutions.