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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Has there been any progress on integrating BBC Sounds? I can listen to BBC stations through Tunein but I really want to use the play on demand aspect of BBC Sounds using my Bluesound Node
Music unfortunately is poor sound quality on my Samsung Smart TV so I'd really welcome this as alternative listening medium2 -
Would still love it - used a Sonos system the other day. The interface, useability and the exisitence of the BBC Sounds App is head and shoulders above this system. Please integrate it as my wife is fed up!
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Agree whole heartedly with the majority of the above. I’ve been using TuneIn to play the BBC on a daily basis for years. However, I’m now receiving messages saying that the BBC will stop being available via TuneIn next year (2023) which as things stand at the moment seems like a step back rather than a step forward? If Sonos has managed to resolve the issue with the Sounds App why can’t Bluesound?
Surely what’s good for the goose is good for the gander . . . ?
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Didn't realise that this was happening! That's a big deal as so many of us in the UK listen to BBC radio stations on our (Power)Nodes. And I really don't want to listen to them via Bluetooth.
Hopefully a solution can be found to this soon. I shall also drop the BBC Sounds a line on this and some social media. Although will need more than just little old me for them to listen.
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"Although will need more than just little old me for them to listen."
Perhaps some support here from the Bluesound Support Crew might help?
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We haven't had any interaction with their customer support for a long time, which is sad.
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Hi,
As Paul says, hopefully Bluesound will also engage with the BBC to resolve this issue, which is significant for those of us living in the UK, but I suspect we will also need to put pressure on the Beeb too. So I emailed them yesterday which on its own will have no impact, but if each of us could do the same then that may galvanise them into action. The address to email is radiofeedback@bbc.co.uk and here is my text which you can copy or adapt and use:
Hi,
There are many of us who listen to BBC sounds via our Bluesound streamers which uses TunedIn for BBC audio services. I gather that this is ending in 2023.
So can you and Bluesound get together and integrate BBC Sounds into the Bluesound app or come up with another solution. You've done this with Sonos, which is a direct competitor to Bluesound so it would be unfair if we were excluded and penalised.
I really don't want to listen to BBC music via Bluetooth on my Powernode. Bluesound have a user forum and many of us are asking for this, given the ending of your agreement with TunedIn.
Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
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Thanks Ali, I'll also email them👍
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Thanks Ali. I will also drop the BBC a line too. Cheers.
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Hi All
Thanks for your letter writing campaign - we appreciate it
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Thank you for your feedback. Bluesound is aware that BluOS users are receiving announcements about BBC broadcasts being removed. I have spoken with our Business Development Team on this matter. BluOS has been in contact with the BBC and have recently been approved for direct access to the list of playable radio stations. It is not the full BBC integration, but access to the radio channels. We are pursuing this work to be completed as soon as possible so as to avoid any service disruptions to you. We also will continue to work with the BBC regarding deeper full access to BBC Sounds.
Thanks for your patience and for #LivingHiFi.
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UPDATED OFFICIAL COMMENT
Thank you for your feedback. Bluesound is aware that BluOS users are receiving announcements about BBC broadcasts being removed. I have spoken with our Business Development Team on this matter. BluOS has been in contact with the BBC and have recently been approved for direct access to the list of playable radio stations. It is not the full BBC integration, but access to the radio channels. We are pursuing this work to be completed as soon as possible so as to avoid any service disruptions to you. We also will continue to work with the BBC regarding deeper full access to BBC Sounds.
Thanks for your patience and for #LivingHiFi.
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Thanks Tony! That's great news and a big relief as many of us listen to their music channels like 6Music, Radio 2 and 3. The key thing are the radio channels so at least we can retain the current status quo. And you've cracked that.
Thank you again as this is very important to many of us in the UK.
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Thanks Tony that's brilliant news!
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Reason for cautious optimism, thank you Ali for the avenue with the BBC. Not going to get properly excited until a BBC Sounds logo appears....
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Echo the above comments. This is positive news and the first proper feedback we've had. I look forward to seeing what BluOS comes up with ... and when! Thanks especially to Ali for the work in progressing this.
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I keep reading that Bbc radio 2 will be supported but that just isn't true in practice. For the last couple of weeks l have been getting a message every hour or so that the service is being discontinued on bluesound etc and to use bbc sounds. Today the moment I selected bbc2 from Tumein it gave me the same message and stopped playing any sound completely.
Other Tunein channels are fine.
Come on guys get this sorted you have known about it for years.1 -
Hi Martin - we are still receiving the announcement too but BBC is coming in here at The Support Crew.
As mentioned above we continue to talk with the BBC about the matter to prevent any service disruptions.
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I rebooted my nad 33, router, and pulse. Now bbc 2 plays approximately 50 seconds of whatever is on when l first turn it on then loops continuously playing the same 50 seconds over and over. This happens both on the nad m33 and the pulse. Other bbc stations work perfectly.
I should add that up until today l had been getting the message just as an interruption and bbc2 continued to play.
Normally we have bbc2 on for most of the day so this is really annoying!0 -
Latest update? BBC due to disappear this year unless connectivity with BBC Sounds established
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Hi Tony,
Any update on integration with BBC Radio 4? The warnings from the BBC seem to come more often now.
Best wishes
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I have fully immersed myself in the bluesound eco system over the past 4 or 5 years. It’s not all been plain sailing and I’ve found the Wi-Fi connectivity to be an issue to the point where I now have Ethernet cables to all 11 of my bluesound devices. I’ve been monitoring this thread for a while now in the hope that bluesound will share their plan to integrate BBC Sounds onto the platform. I too listen through tuned in radio and am sick of hearing the BBC’s recorded message telling me that I’ll soon no longer be able to tune in to BBC radio. I cannot handle the faff of streaming from my phone. Feels like a massive step backwards from primitive FM broadcasts from 50 years ago. So please, bluesound pull your finger out and fix this issue. You’ve known about it for years. If it doesn’t get resolved then this will be the final nail in the coffin for me. I’ll EBay the lot and jump ship to Sonos / another competitor that can offer simple interaction with UK radio stations. Im sure I’m not the only one. Thank you.
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Thanks Matt. Very timely and helpful. My guess is, as America does not have a national broadcaster in the same vein as the BBC, Bluesound don't understand that many Brits live their lives with BBC Radio as a backdrop. They have replied occasionally but can they prove that they have taken any steps at all towards BBC Sounds integration? I doubt it, sadly.
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To be fair to Bluesound, Tony W said on an earlier post on page 1 of this thread that they have been in contact with the Beeb and are working on a solution, so we should take that at face value - especially as the TunedIn service isn't due to end for some months still. I think they do know that not being able to stream BBC radio via the app would be a showstopper for us Brits.
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Ali, bless you for your trusting nature.
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Judging by previous bluesound feature request performance its all promise and no action 😢
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It should be a trivial matter to resolve the current issues regarding the ending of service provision of some of the available BBC radio stations as this is simply due to poor curation of the TuneIn streams visible in BluOS. As the legacy Shoutcast streams are being discontinued the URLs of the BBC radio streams should instead be those of the replacement HLS (or DASH) ones.
Indeed, this is the case for Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 5 and Radio 6 which all access the new HLS streams (and which don't give the end of service announcements). Unfortunately, Radio 2, Radio 4 and most of the local stations in TuneIn still point to the old Shoutcast streams whilst Radio 3 is the old 320 kbps HQ AAC stream which is due for discontinuation also.
So, even if BBC Sounds functionality cannot be built into BluOS in the near future there's no good reason why the current TuneIn library inconsistencies couldn't be fixed almost immediately to eliminate those annoying notifications.2 -
Thanks, but, put simply, if the company doesn't show us any action many customers will be lost to them.
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@Ali is mostly correct in his assessment. Our development team in the UK is very aware of the BBC and its popularity not just in The UK but worldwide. We are continuing to work with both The BBC and TuneIn regarding BBC switching their streaming codec format to one not supported by TuneIn. BluOS players have reached yet another extension in TuneIn as we continue to find a long term solution for all.
Thanks for your patience.
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Thanks Tony, that's very reassuring.
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