Serial Entrepreneur Michael Robertson’s “DVR for Radio” Service to Benefit from Enhanced Quality and Extreme Reliability Provided by AIS Network Connectivity

SAN DIEGO, Calif., January 29, 2013 – AIS (American Internet Services), a leading provider of enterprise-class data center, cloud, and connectivity services, today announced that DAR.fm, provider of premier web services that allow users to record, pause, and play radio content, has chosen to host its services in the flagship AIS Lightwave facility in San Diego, California.

Michael Robertson, a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of DAR.fm, indicated that AIS’ direct peering relationship with several subscriber networks including AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Sprint, and Verizon – thus providing a very short and extremely reliable network path between end-users and DAR.fm servers – was highly influential in his company’s decision to select AIS as their data center services provider. DAR.fm’s selection process took many months and included two other local data center operators as part of the firm’s evaluation.

“Our digital audio recorder service, which works a lot like TiVo for radio, enables users to record radio content, such as popular talk shows, and play them back on demand,” said Michael Robertson, founder and CEO of DAR.fm. “As you can imagine, sound quality and total reliability are ‘must-haves’ for a service like ours – which is why we turned to AIS, where connectivity is king.”

How AIS Direct Peering Helps DAR.fm

According to AIS chief technology officer Steve Wallace, streaming audio content needs to travel quickly and reliably from DAR.fm servers to the service’s end-users.  In general, networks can be categorized as either Subscriber or Backbone:

• Subscriber Networks consist of DSL, cable, and wireless services that people use to connect to the Internet.
• Backbone Networks provide connection to other networks – including subscriber networks – in the US and overseas.

AIS peers directly with several subscriber networks including AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Sprint, and Verizon. This direct connectivity provides a very short and extremely reliable network path between end-users and the audio content residing on servers in AIS data centers.  Additionally, AIS uses high performance routing equipment to further optimize traffic between client servers and end-users. The net result is an extremely reliable, high-performance service with low latency and fewer points of potential disruption.

For competing data centers with few direct subscriber network connections, audio content would need to traverse one or more backbone networks to eventually get to the end user. Those extra network hops not only increase the distance that audio content must travel, but would also typically introduce inconsistent throughput and increased unreliability due to many more points of potential failure.

“Michael Robertson has taken on the challenge of building a better distribution platform to keep radio relevant in this Internet age,” said Tim Caulfield, chief executive officer at AIS.  “We at AIS are already working closely with the DAR.fm team to ensure that quality and reliability of the user experience is so great that demand for his services will grow exponentially – doing for talk radio what Steve Jobs did for the music business.”

About DAR.fm

Founded by serial entrepreneur Michael Robertson, DAR.fm provides a free web service that lets users record radio shows and stations for playback whenever they like. Fans of talk shows need never miss their favorites, as all future shows are automatically recorded. DAR.fm also provides UberTalk, an easy-to-use guide to programming for thousands of radio shows sorted by popularity and categories such as politics and sports.  With DAR.fm’s library of 20,000 shows from more than 10,000 radio stations, users can quickly find and access shows as they are being played and record them for time-shifted listening. Prior to DAR.fm, Roberston founded digital music company MP3.com which brought online music to the mainstream by amassing the largest collection of digital music and introducing it to millions of consumers. He also launched Linspire, a Linux software company, to take on Microsoft in the desktop operating system business, and Gizmo5, a VOIP business enabling net users to make free or inexpensive calls over the Internet. More information about DAR.fm is available at www.dar.fm or www.ubertalk.com.

About AIS (American Internet Services)

AIS provides tailored data center and cloud service solutions to companies that require the best in security, compliance, connectivity, and customer service. AIS manages all aspects of IT infrastructure so that customers can focus on their core business. The company’s exclusive AIS Customer Advocacy™ service professionals have designed, implemented, and supported tailored packages for cloud, colocation, network connectivity, disaster recovery, managed storage, and managed security for more than 500 enterprises worldwide. Founded in 1989 and backed by private equity firms Seaport Capital, Viridian Investments, and DuPont Capital Management, AIS operates SSAE 16-compliant, SOC 1-, 2-, and 3-audited, redundant facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. For more information, visit aisdevsite.propelmg.com or call us at 1-866-971-2656.

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Media Contact:
Brian Wood, VP Marketing, AIS
(858) 576-4272 x110
bwood@aisdevsite.propelmg.com