Net radio targets broadband homes

Electronics firm Philips hopes its new hi-tech home stereo will free internet audio fans from their PCs.

Streamium MC-i200 boxes went on sale in the UK in January and they are designed for home users with fast broadband internet connections.

The internet radio sounds good and provides a living room friendly front end to the kind of playlist personalisation already offered to people who listen to music stations on their desktop computers.

But there are a number of limitations which give the box the feel of a technology demonstration rather than a mature product.

It requires users to have a router installed on their broadband connection, something which will add another Â£100 or so to the unit's Â£400 cost.

A new version supporting wireless networking is due out later in the year. The current version runs on a standard wired network, so it needs a network cable between it and the router.

Rather than give access to all the thousands of audio streams on the internet, the radio currently works only with a small range of stations who have done a deal with Philips.

They are prominent and experienced players in the world of internet audio, but full freedom of choice is out of the question right now.

View: The Philips internet radio