BBC Sounds
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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 wonder how many Bluesound owners are there in the UK?
I know it's different in different countries where the media is more spread out, but in the UK BBC radio is like a cultural foundation - both of our radio services, but also in terms of the new music ecosystem. I also suspect the demographic that would care enough about sound to choose blue sound over Sonos is more likely to listen to BBC radio.
From a UK perspective, a music system without BBC radio is kinda like a record player without a stylus. It does stuff and moves and everything- but it's kinda not working.Just for context for anyone outside the uk on this thread...
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To say we understand is a understatement. One of our senior architects is in the UK, several other developers are there, so there is a degree of outrage internally that mirrors the external. We are looking at any/all options and profiling things that may help
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Some engagement from Bluesound is great news, I find it hard to believe that a Global company with >$50million CAD revenue that has recently purchased and launched MQA audio in Cambridge, UK and spun off it's own content delivery business are having problems getting any engagement from the BBC 'for years' re. wanting to take their content. Especially when the BBC state that: 'We're also working on making as much BBC Sounds content available on as many devices as possible.'. I understand that this is primarily a UK issue and I also understand that it is probably not well understood how fundamental and engrained BBC radio stations are for UK residents. To market a smart speaker hardware and software ecosystem (which is powered by what is touted as 'the premium multi-room music management platform') in the UK with no access to BBC stations is like marketing a TV in the US that can't access ABC or NBC channels or content.
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Along with a number of others, I contacted the BBC about direct access for Bluesound during the previous BBC stream outage on TuneIn. I pretty much got a template response acknowledging my request and stating that all such requests are kept on file and mentioned at regular internal meetings. It certainly can't hurt if more requests are made.
Thinking outside the box for those of us in the UK, I noticed that there is an Amazon Alexa service listed in BluOS music services. How does that work? Is it a way to play Alexa content via the Node etc. or a way to control the Node through Alexa?
Just thinking that if it's the former, I could play BBC Sounds via Alexa through my Node.
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Just thinking that if it's the former, I could play BBC Sounds via Alexa through my Node.
No this will not work. All you are doing is asking Alexa to perform the API command to launch the radio station, which is the same as the App. Keep in mind, this is not just BluOS that has been removed. A number of manufacturers are affected within the UK and all manufacuters outside the UK.
You can however listen to any service, even those not embedded into BluOS, such as the BBC or other Audio Based Apps directly to the Bluesound Player using Airplay on your iPhone, iPad or macBook or Bluetooth for Android and PC users.0 -
Ah, that's a shame. Yes, I use Bluetooth occasionally to listen to catch up broadcasts. It's a bit of a faff and I find the sound quality isn't as good as streaming direct..
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@Phil 3100, I’m using the BBC Sounds app which can connect to my Node Icon. Quality depends on the station. Highest on R3, lowest on speech stations line R4 and R5. A bit more fiddly but it works.
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@Ray Proudfoot I must admit I've never installed the app. I just go to the website via my phone, play whatever I want to listen to and share via bluetooth to my Node. I've just installed the app and it's much better. Thanks.
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Seems to be working again this morning - not sure it it's connected to the firmware update I did on my Node 2i but the BBC presets are playing via TuneIn
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@Gethin Pearson. Not for me. Only the Extra ones plus 6 are playing. R1,2,3,4 and 5 all missing.
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I haven't been through the entire station list, but my TuneIn Radio 2 preset is working again this morning, and not that I normally listen to it, but I selected Radio 1 in the TuneIn station list and that's working too. I haven't applied the latest FW update yet, as I normally wait a few days to see if any problems are reported here first. Maybe it's a network caching issue @Ray Proudfoot if you're not seeing them back yet?
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@Phil 3100, I rebooted my iPhone and after selecting Country then Manchester the BBC stations have returned. Thanks! It makes you wonder what’s going on at TuneIn.
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Also working for me. The firmware update seems to be unrelated as they worked before I applied it and still do now. Maybe it was just an unintentional and now corrected mess-up by TuneIn or the BBC like I suggested in a previous post.
@Tony W and Andrew H - have a look at Bang & Olufsen as an example of a company that has their own branded internet radio platform now, having been TuneIn dependent previously. Their service works reliably for UK stations in my experience, including plenty that require me to be logged in to use via their official apps/web pages on a phone/tablet/computer. I doubt that B&O actually manage this list themselves - they presumably buy it in from a 3rd party. If BBC Sounds is still not possible to integrate, and GoogleCast is still not going to happen, please consider going this route for Europe if not beyond. Bluetooth is really not the answer and Android is the predominant mobile platform in the world, even if your user base might be comparatively IOS-weighted.
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B&O seem to use Airable:
https://www.airablenow.com/company/reference-clients/0 -
Bluetooth / AirPlay definitely isn’t the answer for radio. If I’ve got the radio on I’m quite likely to get up with the phone that “owns” the stream and walk around. As soon as I fall out of range the stream will stop. Annoying if there’s others in the room listening or just for me if I have to restart and reconnect.
Even just for UK based users, BBC is a sizeable producer of quality radio content. It needs to be properly supported via BluOS
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Gavin, the main issue I get with bluetooth is I have hearing aids connected via bluetooth. If I wander away leaving the phone behind, when I come back into range it reconnects to my hearing aids and puts the audio there!
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With the service having come back, the cynic in me wonders if this was a deliberate action by the BBC to say "we really mean it, we have been talking about this for a long time, here's a nudge to do something about it."
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For those of you old enough to have had a FM Tuner with a roof aerial I’m wondering how sound quality compares to streaming. Is 320kbps equivalent to what the analogue signal transmitted?
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I think I'm old enough. I remember getting our first FM tuner back in the 50s. 320kbs is a zillion times better than roof FM (when it works). The analogue way manages a 60db s/n whereas the digital somewhere approaching 120dB. Distortion is a lot less too. Analogue is 1% thd at best. This is all by design tradeoff. More quality requires more bandwidth and that is costly.
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All BBC stations are down (not working) for me today
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Same issue here, can't get any BBC stations to work today.
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Yep all gone
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This is getting a bit boring now.
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All BBC Stations gone again. When are we going to get a proper answer as to what is going on?
Time to get the old radio out again!1 -
The only BBC service available for me in BluOS is The World Service.
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Hi, BBC is at the moment generally not available with TuneIn. I got errors with the TunIn App and Website.
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I’m told by a user on AVForums it’s possible it’s down over the weekend but nay return on Monday morning London time. For now I’m using BBC Sounds app.
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The official BBC url is indeed down. I have the custom URL set on other speakers for the BBC radios and they work. Shame that we still ahve to DIY some dodgy links to get it working. When will it be sorted for good with BBC sounds integration, it's way overdue
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I've lost all the BBC stations over the weekend, too - adding significant injury to the insult that integrating BBC radio/BBCSounds has been going on for 6 years now without any visible progress.
@Nicolas or anyone else who can help: the post by Nicolas (above) says that his custom URLs still work. I don't know what the custom URLs are, can someone please share them in this thread?
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And what’s worse there’s no obvious way to contact the BBC or TuneIn to establish what the situation is. That’s a bloody disgrace.
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