RCA's 'LYRA' PERSONAL DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER MANAGES MUSIC USING REALJUKEBOX

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, May 17, 1999

Thomson Multimedia, a manufacturer and marketer of RCA-brand home electronics products, is rolling out a new personal digital audio player called the RCA LYRA that will be seamlessly integrated with RealNetworks Inc.'s RealJukebox and will support the playback of RealAudio G2 programming.

The LYRA is smaller than a cellphone and able to decode digital music files in multiple music compression formats, including MP3 and RealAudio.

Delivering digital-quality music from a palm-sized electronic device that reads data from a solid-state CompactFlash card, the new LYRA plays compressed music files organized by PCs. And, unlike similar digital music players, Thomson says the LYRA features a multi-purpose digital signal processor that allows upgradeable software that can support future compression formats. This means consumers can choose the music management software and compression format that best meets their needs.

The LYRA is 4.5 inches long by 2.5 inches wide, and only seven-eighth's of an inch thick -- about the same size as a deck of playing cards. Including twin "AA" batteries that provide 20 hours of playback time, the lightweight LYRA player weighs 5.2 ounces.

The basic LYRA model will come equipped with headphones, Music Manager software on CD-ROM, a CompactFlash reader/writer attachment for the PC, a 32 megabyte CompactFlash removable memory card, and two "AA" batteries.

The unit's backlit 6-line alphanumeric display includes a table of contents for all of the songs stored on the CompactFlash memory card and also shows song title, artist, and elapsed time when in playback mode.