Joining a crowded field of MP3 portable music players, Thomson Consumer Electronics launched its Lyra this week, the first such device with a security system designed to prevent music piracy.
To meet the preliminary goals of the Secure Digital Music Initiative, the RCA Lyra encrypts files on flash memory cards, which can neither be played nor copied to other devices, such as Diamond Multimedia's popular Rio player.
SDMI is a system currently under development by the Recording Industry Association of America and a variety of software and hardware companies. It's meant to create an interoperable system for securing copyrighted music as it's produced, distributed, and played.
The Lyra uses a software program to read, then encrypt, MP3 and/or Real Network's G2 files that are sent to CompactFlash memory cards. By encrypting music on flash memory cards, the RCA Lyra group has created a "secure" file, one of the two primary requirements of the SDMI portable specification. The recording industry's other goal is to develop a watermarking system that will be able to detect copyrighted music and play it only in devices that support SDMI technology.
Jeff Scott, a product developer with Thomson Consumer Electronics, said the Lyra meets the goal of SDMI and will be upgradable to include any future requirements, such as watermarking.
"There's no way we were going to miss Christmas to have this ready," Scott said, adding that the SDMI committee proposed a change to the SDMI portable specification just a few weeks ago and that's caused one more delay in an already lengthy process. "Adding to the confusion, they [SDMI] have numerous technology companies and hardware manufacturers trying to find a way to promote their technology [for use in SDMI]."
At 4.5 inches long and 3.3 ounces, the Lyra is slightly bigger than the Rio and other MP3 players, but still much smaller than a Walkman. One of its unique features is a five-band equalizer for adjusting bass and treble levels, which are programmed along with the song on the flash card.
The 32MB version of the Lyra retails for US$199.99, and the 64MB version $249.99.
