BBC Sounds
Answered
The BBC have just launched a new service called Sounds which is the Radio station analogue to the Catch up I player service for TV
At the moment I am streaming it via my laptop and Bluetooth to my Node 2 and quality is good but could be improved. (FYI it should be accessible anywhere via VPN )
Are there any plans to make it a built-in Music source and if not why not ..
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I doubt the BBC sound integration is high on Bluesound's list. UK is rather a small market compared to the US, and using TuneIn makes more sense financially rather than spending time and money on developing a costly integration, including rights. Even if it comes with many flaws, limited access to the BBC content and upset BBC/UK listeners, the issue is containable, in the end we are all grouped in the very same conversation...
Apologies with the sarcasm and defying tone, but 6 years on and very little communication or progress, it is hard not to.
I have a couple of friends working at the BBC in London, will try to see who we can get in touch with.
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I’ve posted my message on the link provided by Andy Croucher, thanks! This is what I wrote…
I have a Bluesound Node Icon streamer which includes the TuneIn radio service. For the last five years the BBC radio services have been available. Starting last Saturday they are no longer available. When I select a station the following error is displayed. Error: 404 Not found. TuneIn: s83017. This is not acceptable. I’m a licence payer. I appreciate TuneIn and Bluesound are not British but surely you can come to an arrangement with one or both to allow your radio services to be available on Bluesound streamers. I anticipate you’re going to get a lot of unhappy owners writing to you over this. I look forward to your response.
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Why is my post above pending approval? What triggered that?
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same here
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last time this happened mine got deleted
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I already contacted the BBC and Blue Sound - but I made a complaint here too... ;)
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I’m wondering if the word complaint causes it.
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Ah yes, it does. Bluesound getting a bit sensitive when the issue isn’t directed at them.
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Well apart from my rant, I was saying that I know a couple of friends working at the BBC and will try to find out who to speak to.
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Why is my post above pending approval? What triggered that?
Ray/Nicholas et al
Thank you for your feedback and enthusiasm. Given the amount of cyber attacks, many forums such as ours use Automated AI Screening. Also why we introduced 2FA using an App code some time back.URLs often trigger it too.
That being said, thank you for your support in contacting the Music Service regarding your requests and we do ask you keep posts on subject.
We are very aware of what is happening and looking for answers behind the scenes.2 -
[Quote]We are very aware of what is happening and looking for answers behind the scenes.[/quote]
This is all very well but it mirrors similar platitudes going back years.
Other hardware companies have managed to resolve this issue which implies the BBC can be negotiated with. In turn this suggests the problem is with Bluesound........2 -
Thank you Tony for your return, brings a bit more confidence in the support. N
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I just called Sevenoaks, the UK distributor of Bluesound kit, on the premise that hassles with BBC Sounds are bad for their sales. They told me the current BBC Sounds issue affects many other smart-speaker systems, and that Bluesound have been in recent discussions with BBC with a solution expected "soon". Agreed that direct access to BBC Sounds from within BluOS is the way forward.
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Bluesound obviously spinning the same line to Sevenoaks as they are to us here.......
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For as long as we have to make do with AirPlay2 to use BBC Sounds, there's some consolation in having now discovered that my recent upgrade of home wi-fi network to a MeSH system makes AirPlay2 far more stable and reliable than before. I can group any speaker with the single speaker that's recent enough to support AirPlay2 to get tolerable-quality BBC Sounds in any room. Maybe others can benefit similarly by upgrading their wi-fi?
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Unless you are - as many are - reliant on Bluetooth. I don't think that most of us anticipated when we invested in our Bluesound hardware that all we were buying was a stupidly expensive Bluetooth receiver....
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There is a work around for the bbc stations that have gone missing yet again 😔
This is the post detailing how to set a custom favourite to a reliable source other than the one Tunin uses.
Alan Shepherd
27 days ago
I've just discovered I can add Radio 4 (and others) as a custom station on TuneIn which helps a bit. Here's a link to all the BBC stations: https://garfnet.org.uk/cms/tables/radio-frequencies/internet-radio-player/bbc-national-and-local-radio-hls-streams/
You can copy the URL and add it as a custom station in TuneIn. I've just tested it and it works. No idea why BluOs can't sort it out, although the web page I found does say BBC changes the streaming URLs a lot...but it was working fine for at least 3 years!
Alan
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"...expansive Bluetooth receiver" which can't show any information (text or image) from the playing source...as cheap and old devices other brands do
My feature request for NAD M33 wasn't successful
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BBC radio stations are available again on TuneIn. Either Bluesound did the quickest negotiation in history or TuneIn and the BBC have reached an agreement until the next disconnection. 🤣
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Nice one!!
It's working well here. I'm keeping the presets with the garfnet links as a backup though ;-)
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Still not Sounds.
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@Martin Butcher many thanks for posting the workaround URLs
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@nick beaumont is right: we're only back to where we were five days ago.
Still no integrated access to BBC Sounds.
Still precariously dependent on Tune-In.
Still using workarounds like obscure URLs and bluetooth casting.
6 years is a long time to be raising an issue and no satisfactory resolution being reached.
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100% this....
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It's coming up to 12 months since I binned Bluesound
I can get BBC radio just fine on Naim and Ruark streamers.
They have both been 'set & forget'.
They don't offer full BBC Sounds integration - eg access to my BBC Sounds account for downloads - but mostly I listen to live radio, so that's fine. If I want to listen to a download or archive programme, it's the work of moments to hook up Bluetooth
& while we're here, Tidal Connect is rock solid too on the Ruark1 -
There is one advantage with BBC Sounds app. You can pause a live broadcast. Not possible with TuneIn.
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BBC Sounds has many advantages such as listening to podcasts. Even a cheap Pure DAB radio can play BBC podcasts natively...
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Ray there are many more advantages to native BBC Sounds integration; the full programme of podcasts and historical (30 days) programming is also available via BBC Sounds and not available anywhere else.
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Chris, I’ve not really investigated podcasts. Perhaps I should.
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This drop and reinstate that has now happened twice. I can't help but wonder if the BBC are sabre-rattling about it. Reminding everyone it's closing but not too long an outage.
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