Arbitron, We Have a Question: Where Do They Wear the Thing?

While many elements of PPM are state of the art, one of the most critical components of PPM is as old as radio itself. PPM relies on a plain old analog microphone to detect the audio from a radio. PPM is often likened to a beeper, but functionally it is closer to an old hand-held dictation machine.

 

Radio stations broadcast an audio signature that PPM has to hear for the radio station to receive credit. So in the same way a station has to be loud enough for you to hear it, it has to be loud enough for PPM’s microphone to pick it up.

 

The problem is that we don’t know how loud is loud enough. Arbitron has assured us that if we can hear the station, PPM can hear the station, but Arbitron has never released details or offered a demonstration.

 

When we think of a PPM as a dictation machine, all sorts of issues come to mind. A dictation machine has to be close to the audio source to reliably record it. How close does PPM have to be? Ideally, the PPM would be on a desk or table so that its microphone is unobstructed. But that probably doesn’t happen very often.

 

More likely men wear it on their belt, but where do women wear it? They probably put it in their purse. What happens when the PPM is worn under a heavy coat or in a women’s purse? Since it is just a plain old microphone picking up the audio, then presumably a PPM buried in a purse or tucked in the pocket of a winter coat is going to be hard pressed to hear the station. Try it with a portable dictation machine and see what happens.

 

Then there’s the issue of noise. Ever try to figure out what radio station is playing at a noisy party? PPM has the same problem. Arbitron acknowledges that PPM may have a hard time detecting a station in a noisy environment. There’s even a crediting process whereby stations can receive credit for listening that was detected but the station couldn’t be identified, so it seems to be an issue.

 

No matter how sophisticated the system, PPM ultimately depends on a cheap simple microphone to make the whole thing work. Next time you’re in a noisy bar, have them put on your radio station, put a handbag over your head, and see if you can reliably hear the radio station. That is what we are expecting of PPM.

 

Here are the questions for Arbitron:

• At what audio level does PPM reliably identify the station? 

• At what ambient noise level does PPM have trouble reliably identifying the station?

• What kind of headroom do the microphone and amplifier have?

• At what excessive audio level does distortion prevent PPM from reliably identifying the station?

• And how have these specifications been determined?

 

Comments

[Rosemary]

This is a great question and one that I have been asking for some time. Being a woman, I would not wear the PPM on a belt because business women in Texas do not wear typically belts with their dresses or pantsuits (I have maybe three in my closet and they are decorative only). I would not wear it around my neck because no offense Arbitron, but it is too ugly to be construed as a necklace. However, I would leave it in my purse, or possibly place it on my desk (as I put my cell phone each morning) and it would immediately detect no motion and my listening (yes, all 10 hours of it) would not be counted. I can't think I am so extraordinary that this is a unique behavior. I think many if not most business women would exhibit the same behavior, which would indicate female listening is missing from the PPM device. Thanks for posting this. I really like the questions because all the high tech buzz comes down to an analog microphone.