BBC Sounds

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170 comments

  • Official comment
    Andrew H.
    Brand Manager

    UPDATED OFFICIAL COMMENT

    Hi folks, thought to jump in here and discuss this as it is not straightforward and there is work being done on it.  So the BBC decided about a year ago to add HLS (adaptive bit rate transmission) to their streams and informed their partners about it.  You noticed the message "contact your provider as this will go away". As Tunein is our current source for those streams we were notified and we tested and we play and it's all good.  On March 9, 2023 Tunein transitioned to the HLS streams based on getting a thumbs up from their partners however a week later it seems that many partners could not properly decode the version of HLS being used and Tunein switched back.  So we are not-so-patiently waiting for the folks at Tunein to deliver the HLS streams back to us so initially we get the BBC without annoying messages.  On BBC Sounds this is not a clear cut process, we are in discussion with the BBC, they have interest in us as we do with them, and we are very hopeful we can see a solid long term partnership with them.  Our short term goal is to get the Tunein feeds secure and without messages, and continue building our relationship with the BBC.  Hope this helps.

  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Colin

    BBC is making a number of changes to their services. We are investigating this but as always, it is always helpful to let the Music Services know you want to hear them on Bluesound as well. 

    0
  • Mark

    I'm afraid I just don't understand this response. As a British company with a strong British following, surely it is obvious that we would want Bluesound to integrate with the music service provided by the leading British broadcasting service, BBC Sounds? The issue was the same with the forerunner to BBC Sounds, iplayer radio, which I seem to recall also had numerous users asking why it had not been integrated with Bluesounds (happy to be corrected, but I remember looking how to do it on various occasions to no avail).

    I have no idea about the technical complexity of integration of BBC Sounds vs. the other Music services which have been integrated, nor how stable/ unstable the BBC Sounds app is from a technical integration perspective, but for me it would be an amazing 'killer app' if Bluesound bit the bullet and did it.

    As context, I'm probably showing my age/ demographic, but I have no idea what many of the integrated music services are: Bugs, Calm Radio, Custom Channels, DMH, IDAGIO, KKBOX, nugs.net, etc. Nor how much overlap there is between subscribers of these services and Bluesounds' core customer segments (i.e. in terms of geography, demography, age etc.)?

    My point is not to seek answers to these questions, but rather, to understand the logic of why so many services I have never heard of HAVE been integrated, while the flagship BBC service (including access to all World Service content) has not?

    Moreover, I'd just like to wake up one day and discover that it works seamlessly with my Bluesound systems in my study, kitchen and living area, so my whole family can enjoy the experience.

    Is there any hope of this ever happening or should I just forget the silly idea.

     

     

    2
  • Wesley P.

    Hello Mark,

    I can not speak to the decisions made by our development team regarding which services are integrated into the BluOS app. However, we are only able to integrate services that have an available third-party API that the BluOS app can use to access their service.

    With that being said, until BBC Sounds creates a third-party API that BluOS can access, we will not be able to integrate it directly into the BluOS app.

    Taking this into consideration, I will pass your feedback forward to our Quality Assurance team as a feature request to see if we can work with BBC directly to provide support for their service in a future firmware update.

    Regards,
    Wesley P.

    0
  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Joe

    New Services take time - that being said, we have reached an agreement that you should still be able to listen to BBC stations in TuneIn using Bluesound and BluOS Players.

    1
  • Mark Everett

    I don't understand why you are comparing BBC Sounds to DAB?  Excellent quality live BBC radio transmissions are available via the TuneIn Service in BluOS. The only real advantage of being able to access BBC Sounds would be that of catch-up functionality.  Or have I misunderstood your problem?

    0
  • Colin Brewer

    Yes .. it is exactly the  availability of the catch up functionality  that makes BBC sounds so vital in the current environment. For instance most of this years BBC Proms concerts have been cancelled but to make up for it they have put loads of previous years concerts some of which are utterly brilliant.

    Is there no way of making this accessible without an API ?  .. it seems that Bluesound doesnt care about the Classical Music fraternity  compare with the continued absence of Primephonic ...

    1
  • Mark Everett

    All that's required is the much requested integration of Chromecast functionality into BluOS which would allow users to cast any streams from within the BBC Sounds app to a Bluesound device. Still no sign of this development materialising anytime soon though...

    0
  • Jerry Trigger

    I wish Sounds could be integrated. TuneIn does not have the excellent new BBC R1 Dance station, never mind the superb back catalogue. I am streaming using Bluetooth, but cannot then use multi room. Not really a good solution.

    1
  • Anthony Doyle

    Hi, new to this but Mark has articulated my own feelings exactly. must point out that, according to what I can find, TuneIn is no substitute for BBC sounds a priori since it appears to be encoded at 128 kbs, while BBC sounds can reach 320 Kbs  "if sufficient bandwidth exists" and signal processing is bypassed. This exceeds satellite, DAB and F quality ( which is digitised before processing back to analogue).

    We will continue to miss out until it is integrated and Bluesound should be proactive on this front, as with Primephonic. BTW mark, Idagio is very similar to Primephonic, being classical only, but is included, hence I may switch.

    It is ridiculous to treat a global broadcasting company exactly the same a a small streaming company. It would be a major coup for Bluesound to be first to the table here. they have made little progress with primephonic in the past 9 months.

    Meanwhile we must persevere with Bluetooth and consider connecting laptops to ethernet to mimic the functionalty of an integrated service.

    1
  • Will Rowan

    Any update on this? 

    BBC Sounds does now have APIs

    2
  • Simon Parsons

    Like requests for Audible support, access to BBC Sounds within BlueOS is something people have been asking about repeatedly for many years. It's surprising there's been no action.

    3
  • Paul M

    Another vote for BBC sounds within Bluos!

    1
  • Simon C.

    & mine!

    0
  • Gavin Howard

    Just turned away from Sonos as so annoyed with having so much obsolete, fairly recent kit, in favour of Bluos. Annoyingly, they have BBC Sounds now and the Bluos still has no sign. Why not?

    2
  • JoeBed

    @TONY W. - PRODUCT SUPPORT MANAGER

    You told me over 2 years ago services take time ... don't you think this is enough time now

    From a services / application perspective there is very little noticeable improvements to the app in the time I have owned my units and that's over 3 years, are we actually going to see anything.

    3
  • Colin Brewer

    I am another two year veteran of this post which is repeatedly ignored by Bluesound which is proving itself another NorthAmericanCentric  tech outfit.  Whoever is making these choices inside Bluesound needs a rocket up the proverbial for ignoring a loyal high spending client base. I will be dead by the time they get round to it.

    4
  • Gregory Roberts

    Is BBC Sounds functionality being investigated? I am a long term Bluesound user and desperate to have catch up functionality, as achieved by BBC Sounds.

    Come on team, what's the latest?

    Thanks

     

     

    3
  • Paul M

    Is this the normal level of support provided by the 'Support Team?' ie none

    3
  • Mark Smith

    I'm looking to purchase Bluesound to replace a 15 year old Bang and Olufsen multi-room system. BBC Sounds app is an absolute must for me, it's my most used streaming service by far. I won't be buying into any ecosystem that doesn't have it.

    3
  • Gavin Howard

    Good luck, Mark, this company is not listening nor responding.

    3
  • Brian
    Lossless

    Even though you accuse the company of not listening, what you're requesting isn't possible without cooperation from BBC.

    BBC initially made BBC Sounds available only through iPlayer (UK only) and then through their app. At the moment your only option for Bluesound to play BBC Sounds is to use Airplay as I am now to listen to the News Quiz or alternatively via Bluetooth.

    I used the BBC Sounds App to select an Airplay device.

    0
  • Gavin Howard

    Thanks Braino, just would like the company to join conversation.  That's helpful but please can you talk us through it as I can't work out how to do this in the Sounds app?  I have an Android phone. Thanks

    1
  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Gavin - we are here...   Braino is a frequent poster to this site and did a wonderful job of explaining it...

    1
  • Simon C.

    I listen to BBC stations through TuneIn on my Bluesound Node

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  • Paul M

    Gavin, if you haven't already done so download the BBC Sounds app from the Play Store. Then when listening to a show activate Bluetooth. The Node should be listed within settings as one of the available devices - in my case its 'Node 2i-EE21 BT'

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  • Gavin Howard

    Thank you, all, have now got BBC Sounds playing through my system - great.

    1
  • Anthony Doyle

    I'm a bit baffled. It seems some like Gavin are thankful for small mercies and allowing themselves to be fobbed off by Bluetooth, chrome cast or Airplay connectivity to a smartphone which was recognised of course as an option at the outset. All of these methods add am extra potentially unstable with fi link to the proceedings. With Bluetooth one must remember to set " do not disturb" and undo thereafter to prevent notification and call sounds contaminating the soundfield, at higher volumes than ever before.
    Bbc sounds was available via reciva donkey's years ago, live and catch up.
    I don't know whether Airplay is any better than chromecast, ( which at least avoids the cross contamination of phone noises), but I get plenty of instability with buffering and dropouts . I would be interested to know if anyone has compared the two in view of the TOTAL lack of progress since this thread was initiated by Colin years ago.

    2
  • Gavin Howard

    I'm just grateful that this is possible at all having made the expensive switch from Sonos and the tremendous difficulty we have had from Richer Sounds (another story). Of course I would like BBC Sounds to be freely available/compatible and am pathetically grateful that the company itself started to respond.  Bluetooth shouldn't be the end game....

    1
  • James Brownlie

    New to this thread and someone who is still operating Sonos in one room and BluOS in another. Sonos now has integration of BBC Sounds, which works well for me. It would be excellent to have BBC and BlueSound working together. Two other services I'd like to suggest, also available on Sonos, are RadioPlayer and Pocket Casts. The former does what TuneIn used to do before it ran into licensing issues with non-UK broadcasters. The latter is a simpler and easier way of accessing all your favourite podcasts than via Spotify (or Amazon). I'll post this request elsewhere on community.

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