News from BBC regarding BBC Sounds and Shoutcast streams

  • 3 November 2022
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64 replies

Multiculti
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Thanks @controlav. I’d never had the need to edit country of residence on Sonos, so as a time-optimizer, obviously I had not searched, nor paid any attention to such descriptions. 

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.

R
Userlevel 2
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Merry Christmas everyone
https://github.com/public-broadcasting/bbc-sounds-community-edition-for-sonos

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. 

controlav
Userlevel 7
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Just an update John, and to thank you for your tips.

I realise it doesn’t work for me getting Sounds on phone (that bit is easy, but not great sound) then to use bluetooth e to find Roam and then sync to other Sonos speakers.

It’s not what I bought 4 Sonos products for - BBC radio was one of the main reasons. 

I sincerely hope Sonos will find a way of providing BBC radio to the wider community.

 

Just add BBC Sounds to your Sonos system. It works fine in the USA, though you might need to temporarily switch your Sonos account to UK to add it.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
Airgetlam

And yes, while it would be nice to lose the BBC warning messages, that is content controlled by the BBC, so they’d need to stop including it in the stream that they provide to others. 

Bruce
U
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Thanks @John B that is what I was looking for.  I have been able to add BBC HLS (but not DASH) to TuneIn manually - I didn’t realise that you could do that.  I assume that this will get round the BBC messages, as I’ve understood that these only related to the Shoutcast service @Airgetlam.

My joy was shortlived however: I was then reminded that TuneIn doesn’t work with Sonos Voice Assistant, which I use a lot to switch stations.

So… it would still be nice to have the Sonos Radio service updated to non-obsolete BBC streams so I can have warning-message-free BBC content and voice control.

J

So… it would still be nice to have the Sonos Radio service updated to non-obsolete BBC streams so I can have warning-message-free BBC content and voice control.

You still don’t seem to have got it.  The BBC’s Shoutcast streams contain the message.  Their HLS streams don’t.  So if the radio service sends a Shoutcast stream to Sonos, the message will play.  There is nothing Sonos can do about this.  What needs to happen is that the radio service needs to start sending an HLS stream instead. If they do that now the message will disappear.

There is nothing Sonos can do about this,  So I beg you, PLEASE stop repeating your meaningless and impossible  request for Sonos to do something.

J

I was then reminded that TuneIn doesn’t work with Sonos Voice Assistant, which I use a lot to switch stations.

 

Even if it did work, it would not work with these manually added streams.

N

Reply from the BBC on 16.12 regarding the message that interrupts programmes shortly before the hour on BBC Radio on Tunein:

 

‘’Thanks for getting back to us.

When we say that BBC Sounds is only available on Sonos inside the UK, we mean the BBC Sounds service which you enable on Sonos similar to the BBC Skill on Alexa). You are listening to an entirely different service (possibly TuneIn or similar) but this message is specifically for Shoutcast and this is very likely the format used to the service you are listening to and this is why you are getting the message.’’

At some stage in 2023, the streams will no longer be available on Shoutcast. You can see more information on this here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/recent-changes-to-bbc-sounds/shoutcast-closure

‘’

I understand this to mean that Sonos uses similar to Shoutcast. Can Sonos change that?

Must I do something?

N

Not in the Uk John,

in mainland Europe.

N

Thank you for your reply John

No, I don’t understand. Sonos uses TuneIn, but could use the HLS Format - which if I understand that much would be ok for BBC Radio. So why are they still using TuneIn?

I already have a Roam - so I’ll use that when I’m in the UK.

BBC Sounds via Sonos is only available in the UK (Info from Sonos).

 

N

Thank you again.

I have BBC Sounds on my mobile. Not sure how I can get that over my Sonos SL speakers…… (...I know….nothing)

Multiculti
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@106rallye + @controlav it worked! it worked! You don’t know how happy this makes me and my family avid BBC6, BBC1 (+R, D, Extra) + BBC 4 (& Extra) listeners! Out of the box doing & patience, such are the lessons. Thanks for your help. 

N

And do I always have to have Bluetooth active on my phone in order to listen?

 

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