News from BBC regarding BBC Sounds and Shoutcast streams

  • 3 November 2022
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64 replies

J

There may be other radio consolidators on Sonos that already serve up an HLS stream for the BBC.

Another way is to add the HLS streaming URLs manually to Sonos.  The process is described here:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/add-an-internet-radio-station-to-sonos

The HLS streams are listed here:

https://gist.github.com/bpsib/67089b959e4fa898af69fea59ad74bc3

For example, for BBC Radio 1 add:

http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_med/ak/bbc_radio_one.m3u8

J

Hi. You should not have to set anything up. The BBC streams in HLS and Sonos happily plays it.

It would be nice to lose the frequent BBC warning messages in the short term.  So I guess this needs action in the Sonos Radio service by Sonos to switch to HLS.  Unless there are any other routes for the user to set up HLS streams manually.

I don’t think you have understood the situation here.  The service provider sends a stream.  If  if is in a format Sonos can play, Sonos will play it.  Sonos supports HLS and so will play a stream sent in HLS.  It cannot make an unplayable stream playable.  At the moment that also means it cannot make a stream sent with the warning into a stream without the warning.

Edit: by the time the change is actually implemented I imagine all the radio consolidators would be sending HLS streams or other compatible format to Sonos.

U
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Hi. You should not have to set anything up. The BBC streams in HLS and Sonos happily plays it.

It would be nice to lose the frequent BBC warning messages in the short term.  So I guess this needs action in the Sonos Radio service by Sonos to switch to HLS.  Unless there are any other routes for the user to set up HLS streams manually.

J

Hi. You should not have to set anything up. The BBC streams in HLS and Sonos happily plays it.

D
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This assistance, for which thank you, begs the question, how to set up HLS Streaming on SONOS?

 

I live in Hong Kong so need the BBC!

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +7

Thank you for confirming about HLS Streaming on SONOS.  I had hoped that it was in place already. 

As an avid USA resident listener of BBC Radio stations, this is very good news!  

Thanks for your reply 

 

Southern Gal
J

This is my understanding of the situation.  My understanding may be imperfect, so I am open to correction.

  1.  The BBC Sounds app is available and can be installed on computers and mobile devices worldwide.  (I don’t know if it is available to every country in the world, but ‘worldwide’ will do.  It is certainly available in the USA.)
  2. This means you have access to live BBC radio and to BBC Sounds’ on demand content, to play on your PC, mobile phone etc.
  3. So one consequence of the previous point is that if you have Sonos speakers that are Airplay or Bluetooth compatible you can already listen to all this on your Sonos speakers, wherever in the world you are.  No reason for that to change.
  4. Prior to 13 April 2022, it was possible to listen to live BBC radio on Sonos using TuneIn, Sonos Radio and other radio services.  From 13 April 2022 that stopped being possible in the UK, but remained the way to listen to live BBC Radio on Sonos outside the UK. 
  5. In the UK, we got an integration into Sonos of BBC Sounds - bringing a different way to listen to live BBC radio, and full access to the BBC Sounds on demand content for the first time.  (Previously you could pick up some shows by searching on Podcasts and Shows.) 
  6. Why just the UK?  I would stake my life savings on this being a BBC restriction, related to the BBC’s hunger for listening data and to data protection issues.  (This is the main driver for the BBC pulling out of the consolidator services’ apps and insisting that digital listening is through the BBC Sounds app.)

So what does the latest announcement mean for non-UK Sonos users who want to continue to listen to BBC Radio after the change just announced?  I don’t really know.  Possibly Sonos could agree with the BBC that the integrated Sonos BBC Sounds service could be made available in at least some other countries.  I suspect that might not be as easy as it sounds, for data reasons.

Or maybe it doesn’t matter, because there will be consolidator services not using Shoutcast, and Sonos already supports HLS.  If you are hearing that BBC message you may just need to use a different service.  I am not sure that Sonos will need to do anything.  Of course, that only relates to live BBC radio outside the UK, but that is not a change.

Anyone have a different view?

Edit: posted this before seeing @Corry P ‘s post.  Not sure all this background is really needed, but I’ll leave it now I’ve written it.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @southern gal & @Andyneouk1 

Ah - I understand now. Apologies for any confusion. To keep the thread marginally readable, I’ve removed my earlier posts.

The ShoutCast streaming protocol that the BBC are using on TuneIn (Sonos Radio get’s it’s radio URLs from TuneIn so is also affected) and myTuner will soon be changed to the HLS protocol instead. As we already support HLS streaming, this shouldn’t be a problem, though after the change-over you may need to refresh (delete and re-create) any favourites to BBC stations you’ve made in the My Sonos section of the app. You will not need to add a new service to your Sonos system to continue listening to BBC stations, as I previously stated. Many non-BBC stations available on Sonos already utilise the HLS streaming protocol.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J

i got this message during a song on BBC radio 2 this morning. i play via mytuner service on Sonos. What does this mean for me?

Do you live in the UK?  

B

I heard this message while listening to bbc radio 6 via tunein in Singapore. It would be a big shame if I am cut off from the bbc in this way. 

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Use BBC Sounds service instead of TuneIn?

 

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +7

Corry 

Please pass this information up the chain to a manager - 

It would seem that Sonos would be interested in researching this since it's extremely likely that there is a significant audience for BBC Radio stations OUTSIDE of the UK.   

Why wait to find out what is going to happen? 

Certainly someone at SONOS has a liaison with someone at the BBC? 

If not you should.  

Your company sells millions of units and thats millions of customers who potentially will not have access to the BBC.

There is plenty of time to be proactive 

 

Southern Gal
A

i got this message during a song on BBC radio 2 this morning. i play via mytuner service on Sonos. What does this mean for me?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @southern gal 

Thanks for sharing the info you found!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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