Has anyone ever carried an arbitron television radio monitor

[kster]

Invention of the year:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1678427_1678435,00.html

The company that pays the family to carry it:


http://www.arbitron.com/home/content.stm

I'm trying to get some thoughts on this because the company has called us to carry one for 90 days, then you can continue to carry it for 2 yrs, all the people in the house carry one, everyone gets paid to carry it, the kids want to do it, but every member of the family has to carry one, in order to do it.

Is this on the up and up?

[The Wielding Truth]

1. What is your compensation for your trouble?

[kster]

2. Up to a hundred bucks each

so long as you have it on your person all the time, if the girls were to put it in their purse, they said, the monitor would fall asleep. Not sure how it does that. I guess they have a reasonable amount of time that they expect you to have it on your person. I'm not sure of all the details yet.

[The Wielding Truth]

6. It is a nuisance, but if you need the money or want to be monitored.

and if you won't owe them anything if you want to quit. Good luck. I wouldn't do it because of the constant monitoring.:hi:

[vireo]

3. How are codes "embedded in the audio portion"?

Not that I expect you to know that.

[kster]

4. You would be correct, I do not know that

For all I know they could be setting me up as a pilot program to monitor the people and not the TV/Radio.

:shrug:

[vireo]

5. Do you have a local Air America affiliate?

If yes, I would say go for it!

I see it also detects web streaming audio.

Professor PPM Answers Your Questions


QUESTION ANSWER
Q. What happens when a person is exposed to multiple media simultaneously? What does the meter pick up? A. The PPM meter is capable of recognizing one and only one signal at a time. In the case of competing media, the PPM will pick up the dominant signal. However, because media signals vary in amplitude as they are transmitted, the PPM will generally oscillate among the competing media.
Q. How good does the media signal have to be for encoding to work? A. The PPM Encoding System works well with any type of signal, digital or analog, broadcast or cable network, AM, FM or UHF.
Q. Does the PPM encoding inhibit/interfere with any other commercial coding? A. The PPM encoding does not interfere with other encoding technologies. Most of the other encoding technologies utilize the VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval) in TV signals. The PPM utilizes a fundamentally different encoding method that does not use or interfere with other existing encoding approaches, including VBI.
Q. How far away from the radio or TV can you be and still have the PPM pick up the code? A. If a person of average hearing can hear the audio content, the PPM meter will pick up the code.
Q. Will the PPM work with the wireless Web? A. Yes. It will recognize those encoded Web channels that deliver streaming audio.
Q. What happens when people are using headsets? A. Arbitron provides an adapter for PPM panelists to use when they listen via headsets. It's similar to the plug-in hands-free adapters for cell phones.

[dbt]

7. Yes, it's legit.

It's a PPM (Portable People Meter) and Arbitron is the "bible" of the radio ratings industry. The PPM will be way more accurate than the diary method of determining listenership.