User's Guide Part 1

6/25/2003 ©2003 TerraDigital Systems, LLC
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DRAF
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How it Works
The TerraPlayer system comes packaged with two units—a TerraPlayer Radio (TR-100
or CR-100) and a Base Transceiver (BT-100). The Base Transceiver, or Base, connects
to a single computer (via USB) or network of computers (via Ethernet). When powered
up, it checks all connected computers for available shared folders. If it finds digital audio
files in a shared folder, it stores the Music Information (ID3 tag, metadata), album cover,
and exact location (filepath) of each one. All of this information, but not the digital audio
files themselves, are stored in the Music Library on the Base Transceiver.
When a TerraPlayer Radio is powered up, it checks to see if it can communicate with the
Base. A TerraPlayer Radio and Base Transceiver must register/join to communicate with
each otehr. For packaged Base/Radio sets, this is done at the factory. This should be
done manually for TerraPlayer Radios purchased separately. You can also do this to re-
establish the wireless link when it goes down.
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Once they connect, the TerraPlayer Radio asks the Base for a download of the Music
Library. The Music Library is copied to internal memory on the TerraPlayer, where it is
displayed on the Radio’s touchscreen display. The TerraPlayer Radio uses the album
cover as an icon representing the audio file(s). The information is presented in various
ways to make it easy to locate and select music by Genre, Artist, Album, or Song Title.
The actual audio files stay on your computer(s). The only time music moves from your
computer to the TerraPlayer is when the Base Transceiver transmits audio files from the
computer to the Radio during playback.
In order for the TerraPlayer to work, the computer(s) must be on.
That way, the Base Transceiver can find the digital audio files on the
hard drive in order to transmit them to the TerraPlayer Radio.
Song.mp3
-Filepath
-Music Info
-Album
Cover
Request
-Looks for shared folders
-Looks for audio files
Response
-Filepath to Song.mp3
-Music Info
-Album Cove
r
Music
Library
-Filepath to
Song.mp3
-Music Info
Music
Library
-Filepath to
Song.mp3
-
Music Info
Song.mp3
-Filepath
-Music Info
-Album
Cove
r
Response
-Transmit
Song.mp3
Request
-Find Song.mp3
on
PC
Response
-Send Song.mp3
Request
-Find filepath to Song.mp3 in
Music Library
Base
Transceiver
Computer
Base
Transceiver
Computer
TerraPlaye
r
Radio