So I woke up this morning to the dreaded SONOS bong, as BBC Radio 4 through SONOS Radio was not working. I changed it to TuneIn and it played. Later BBC Radio 6 suffered the same problem, and was cured in the same way.
Is this a widespread problem? Is there a solution?
This has happened to all BBC Stations via Sonos Radio. I posted about it yesterday. I've tried to get a response for days from Sonos but it seems no one is working.
I’ve just tried several of the BBC stations, through Sonos radio and TuneIn, and all seem fine here.
Are you doing it from the app (phone or PC) or voice command? I was on the iPhone app.
One was an alarm, with S1 on Play:1, which plays a favourite saved SONOS Radio station. When that didn’t work I tried to start it from the iPhone; although it appears it refuses to play.
I have just tried again, this time using S1 on the PC, and again the stations appear but refuse to play.
When you say “here” where are you? I am in the UK.
Both the iPhone App & the Mac App.
It has happened before occasionally for an hour or so. But it's been days now. They still play via the app on Radioplayer & TuneIn & directly via airplay. I'm not alone in experiencing this.
I've tried deleting & reinstalling the App.
Yup. I'm in the UK
Same here - also in the UK. Station appears, but just refuses to play. Switched back to TuneIn and all working again.
Hello
I’ve never used SONOS Radio and cannot think it adds any benefit, but do occasionally use TuneIn for BBC radio and never really had any problem.
A while ago the BBC was moving from an ‘older’ (mpeg, I think) streaming system to a ‘newer and better system’ (HLS, which I think is was developed by Apple). You can read about these here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Live_Streaming and https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/f21e6a49-e53c-44f0-8b01-09890a8fed8f
While the BBC was going through this turmoil to move to newer technology I found other means to stream BBC Radio direct from the BBC rather than through any aggregator (e.g. TuneIn). This gave access to higher-quality streams albeit without some of the metadata. I used advice here: http://steveseear.org/high-quality-bbc-radio-streams/
These streams can be played into a URL part of a media player (such as MPC-HC or VLC) to prove that they work but they can also be saved as “Sonos Favourites” with the appropriate radio station label.
I don’t think these direct streams currently offer higher quality output than through TuneIn (though they used to), but you’ll always have access to the source rather than through a separate middle man and it’s not hard to set these up. The BBC has also had an uneasy relationship with aggregators sometimes adding, sometimes removing their services from various third-parties (https://www.engadget.com/2019-08-12-bbc-to-pull-all-radio-services-from-tunein-uk.html)
For setting up, I used to aggregate these direct streams myself though MinimServer (https://minimserver.com/) hosted on a NAS and pointed the Sonos program to the NAS but found this an unnecessary intermediary.
Sadly, the direct BBC streams have only minimal metadata, but full info is available via Sounds.
Things may change later this year when the BBC is, I believe, planning to release a new version of Sounds that might have added functionality for smart speakers. We’ll just have to wait and see.
HTH
Well obviously some of us see a benefit of sonos radio. As you haven't your answer while interesting to some doesn't actually address why these services have stopped. I've also found other UK but non BBC stations have also stopped working on sonos radio. LBC for one.
It seems that SONOS radio is, so far, the unreliable version as TuneIn continues to function.
Way before Sonos Radio started, when Tunein stopped being allowed to broadcast the BBC stations (the beeb wanted to push us to Sounds - which of course you have to register your details with), Sonos recommended using Radioplayer on their service. They have always been available there. I didn't know Tunein was back up till this happened.
Well obviously some of us see a benefit of sonos radio. As you haven't your answer while interesting to some doesn't actually address why these services have stopped. I've also found other UK but non BBC stations have also stopped working on sonos radio. LBC for one.
LBC is avalable via Global Player
+22
Way before Sonos Radio started, when Tunein stopped being allowed to broadcast the BBC stations (the beeb wanted to push us to Sounds - which of course you have to register your details with), Sonos recommended using Radioplayer on their service. They have always been available there. I didn't know Tunein was back up till this happened.
I listen to the BBC daily on Sonos and I can be certain that the BBC Radio stations never stopped working on TuneIn. There was some discussion 11 months ago that they were going to pull out of TuneIn but they did also say they would continue to be able to be played via legacy (ie TuneIn on Sonos) systems.
I believe the issue is around people logging in to be able to listen which is required for Sounds.
Getting back to the question: Why have the BBC stations & LBC stopped working on Sonos Radio?
Getting back to the question: Why have the BBC stations & LBC stopped working on Sonos Radio?
I’ve just tried BBC radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 on Sonos Radio. All work for me, as did the ones I checked this morning. Additionally, the Status for services is showing no faults. I think the problem is something local to you, rather than the service as a whole.
+22
I’m in the UK (PE9) And BBC Sonos Radio still not working for me
Interesting. It's at least two of us so far. If anyone was working at Sonos maybe they’d answer my tweets about it.
Odd. I’ve just tried again, and the SONOS BBC stations which are saved as favourites do not play.
However, if I go via SONOS radio and then search/find the station, then it does play. I added that station as a SONOS favourite and it plays, whereas the previously saved (but otherwise apparently identical) version still does not.
I imagine somebody at SONOS could explain what has become broken in the saved stations.
Edit: I have just noticed that the alarms are not set to SONOS favourites because that is not an option. So whatever was saved as a favourite was also saved for alarms and both were broken.
Odd. I’ve just tried again, and the SONOS BBC stations which are saved as favourites do not play.
However, if I go via SONOS radio and then search/find the station, then it does play. I added that station as a SONOS favourite and it plays, whereas the previously saved (but otherwise apparently identical) version still does not.
I imagine somebody at SONOS could explain what has become broken in the saved stations.
Ta. I'll try that.
+22
Odd. I’ve just tried again, and the SONOS BBC stations which are saved as favourites do not play.
However, if I go via SONOS radio and then search/find the station, then it does play. I added that station as a SONOS favourite and it plays, whereas the previously saved (but otherwise apparently identical) version still does not.
I imagine somebody at SONOS could explain what has become broken in the saved stations.
Ta. I'll try that.
Yes that does work.
Couldn't find Radio 3 and I hate using the Sonos Radio search because it is rubbish
Couldn't find Radio 3 and I hate using the Sonos Radio search because it is rubbish
It really is. To find BBC 6 Music I have to Browse: Local Radio: UK: London: then scroll past the alphabetic section to the random non-alphabetical ones at the end.
On the other hand, the PC controller does have a search within SONOS radio which works.
I had some stations (not BBC) as favorites via Sonos Radio, and they’ve stopped working. But they are still working via Tune In. Noticed this yesterday, but I don’t use those stations every day.
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