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've been wondering about the fallback position here. A spare phone adjacent to the Bluesound unit might work but would not be hardwired so would be subject to dropouts or buffering if wi fi is unstable. It would need frequent charging.
The Amazon Echo Show 5 first gen can be wired ( subsequent models lack any ports) but a converter from usb to optical would be needed ( expensive) and I understand the app can't be saved as it's a Fire device . Thev BBC Sounds website would be accessible online on it , as can You Tube. I presume it can be left plugged in.0 -
There are way easier solutions - check out www.bluesound.com/bluetooth for the fastest and easiest one...
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Hi, joining the conversation here.
Like Gavin & Martin the frequency of these messages interfering into our daily listening is really getting annoying, all the more alarming as the deadline looms closer. This is a daily reminder that Bluesound is yet to sort this situation, I'm afraid to say with little communication or development.
This is really bringing a soar taste: as a french citizen living in UK, I lost a few years ago the access to all RadioFrance live radios on Bluos (any chance of a comeback?). Not sure this is a TunIn issue, as relatives in UK have this service embed in their Sonos system. If Bluesound can't maintain accesses to State Live Radios or other services, however brilliant the hardware is, I don't know how long I will be faithful to them.
It's also a bit alarming to know by name the illustrious Tony. His expertise and insight is much valued, and appreciated… but is there anyone else in the support team?@Tony, hope to hear some good news from you soon.
Best, N.
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I have created a custom station in TuneIn, using the Radio 2 320 Kbps HLS stream URL given in the link below.
I'm no longer getting any of the service messages interrupting the broadcast, as occurs on the direct TuneIn station link. I haven't tried any of the links for the other BBC radio streams, but I imagine they should work as well.
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Hi Phil, thanks for that, will give it a go! Nice tip, I'll try to find the french ones as well. Ta, n.
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Just set up Phils suggestion. Thanks for that.
One wonders why that cant be added by Bluesound as a solution to this problem!-1 -
@Martin, it must be a legal/copyright issue, maybe... so it did work for you? Yet to do it back home. N
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Well, since Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 5 and Radio 6 already access the new HLS streams in BluOS TuneIn one can only speculate that this state of affairs is due to sloppy stream curation by TuneIn rather than any legal/copyright restrictions.
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In speaking with our Product Development Team, BBC's reasoning to move away from TuneIn Radio has more to do with HLS streams than with copyright issues.
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@Nicolas yes Phils work around works fine. Just set up a favourite and add it as a custom url for the 320 kbs hls stream. Only slight downside is no program info you get with the Tunein link
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_two.m3u8
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If it helps …my daughters Yoto player has managed the integrations with bbc 1-6
If a toy can do it I’m sure bluesound can!
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This gets my vote also
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Any update on the BBC Sounds compatibility?
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Yes, please can BBC Sounds soon be fully integrated into Bluos? Sonos already has it, so its clearly not a technical impossibility. I've been hoping for it to appear with every update for the last two years! Its continued absence is both increasingly inexplicable and damaging to user's confidence.
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Tried the 'favourites' suggestion above. Works for Radio 2 but not Radio 4........
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Ticking rapidly towards summer...
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When will we get intergrated BBC Sounds functionality?
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Can we please have an update regarding the timing for BBC Sounds to be available on BlueSound? If there is no plan to do this, can we please an explanation for any rational for this strange decision? Thank you.
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Like other questions we sadly are waiting for concrete answers also for other questions i
am not amused using an expansive M33
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@Gavin
Not reassured at all
It should be easy to reconfigure TuneIn but nothing’s happened in months
Going to buy a real radio0 -
I've got two Bluesound devices and I'm considering buying a third but the recent announcements on TuneIn that the BBC streams will be removed in the middle of this year has made me wonder if getting another Bluesound device would be a wise choice. I like the products but I do listen to a lot of BBC radio and the BBC's place on BluOS has been uncertain for quite some time now, as they have previously tried to remove their streams from TuneIn but relented at the last minute after seeing how unpopular it would be.
I'm sure everyone on this thread would be reassured if you could share a bit more detail about the proposed solution for BBC support, as it seems to me that Bluesound is currently mis-aligned with the BBC on two issues: Firstly, the BBC's strategy is to move as much listening to BBC Sounds as possible, and to have people log in with their BBC ID in order to listen - this was the root of the spat with TuneIn a couple of years ago. Secondly, my own experience is that the BBC is deprecating HLS and moving to DASH as much as possible, but Bluesound doesn't appear to support DASH.
So are we looking at:
- An integration between Sounds and the BluOS controller, a bit like the current Spotify integration
- Support for BBC DASH streams in the BluOS app (DASH did not appear to be supported when I tried them a few weeks ago)
- A long-term commitment on the BBC's side to support HLS
- A temporary stay of execution for the HLS streams a bit like the TuneIn climb-down a few years ago?
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Sad but the silence is deafening. This is likely to force me to sell my Bluesound devices and go somewhere else.
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BlueSound support crew…. Are you there?
Please update your loyal customers. It’s been a long time since you responded to this thread.
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We are always here and always listening; https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360034454474/comments/6420533708823
Which Says; https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360034454474/comments/6412828294551As best in these cases, please also feel free to contact the BBC about your concerns.
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Thank you for responding Tony. I have indeed reached out to the BBC. I am awaiting some kind of response. Can you kindly explain how it has been possible for Sonos to achieve full compatibility? What did they do which BlueSound cannot?
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“ As best in these cases, please also feel free to contact the BBC about your concerns.”
Interestingly the BBC’s advice is to ask the manufacturer! - so to integrate BBC service into blueOS you first need the BBC to do something for you that presumably they have done for Sonos, smart tvs and alexia smart speakers - what is it specifically that we need to ask for?5 -
Tony, can we therefore take your most recent response as an admission that BBC Radio stations won't be supported on Bluesound devices after all, contrary to some of your previous messages?
"BluOS has been in contact with the BBC and have recently been approved for direct access to the list of playable radio stations."
The only sensible workaround we currently have is manually adding station URLs via TuneIn. Will that continue to function post June deadline?
Can you please explain to us the reason for BBC Sounds not being properly integrated? Who is making this an obstacle? What is the reason given?
As Luke states, the BBC advise to go to the manufacturer. Why is BBC radio fully supported on my Roberts radio, but not on Bluesound? What have Roberts done that Bluesound cannot do?
A lot of the fragments you are providing on this thread do not add up. I think we are all owed a FULL, DETAILED explanation.
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Well said - completely agree!
The feedback from Bluesound has been very disappointing to say the least . . .2 -
Surely we should be patient and wait and see whether this is addressed in the new BluOs 4.0 release this Spring before we get too aggravated?
Spring runs till the end of May (or so), so there is still time as the BBC have said that they will not be switching us off until around the middle of the year. So let's wait and see?
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Ali you say we should be patient but some of us have been waiting over 3 years for action, in my opinion we have shown plenty of patience and that is now running out for many customers whom like myself have invested multiple thousands in the blue os eco system.
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