Radio cutting out.

Hello!

Which radio stations? The BBC had a problem last year which seemed to be resolved recently, but then this thread popped up:
https://en.community.sonos.com/ask-a-question-228987/bbc-working-fine-and-then-6738338

BBC. I will give other stations a go and see what happens.

Definitely the BBC. Other radio stations ok.

I'm having the same problem. BBC stations unuseable. Have sent a diagnostic (6399118) but have now been asked for loads of system information that I believe is not relevant ............ Nothing changed on my system but once again BBC have mucked about and caused issues

I have this same problem. It started mid week this week (approx July 27th 2016). I've also rebooted wifi router, restarted all SONOS units, called my ISP for support, but all's well with my home network. Other radio channels and streaming music work fine. Of the BBC's stations, I've only tested Radio 1 and 5, but both have same issue.

Sonos techical support said my diagnostic showed underflow errors (data not arriving fast enough), but believed it was a fault at my end, however this seems to have been resolved now and BBC radio is now playing OK without stuttering on my system (with no changes to my system, and unchanged braodband speeds).

I wouldn't get too excited...mine was working fine yesterday afternoon and this morning....cutting out again. I only have this problem with BBC. I have also logged a technical with the BBC. no response yet. Also submitted technical request with diagnostics with SONOS.

Does anyone know if there is a way to connect to other internet radio service providers apart from Tunein to give them a try. Perhaps something like http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/
This is a problem that raised its head in 2015 and Sonos released a firmware update to resolve.
Strange it has come back but Sonos do not know why especially when all other radio stations I have tried with Tunein are OK.

Here is a link I have found:-
http://www.whathifi.com/news/listeners-complain-about-changes-to-bbc-internet-radio-streaming

I Just got off the phone with SONOS tech support. It's been confirmed that the issue is specific to the BBC and I was told that there is a known issue but the nature of it is not yet understood. Diagnostics including a remote login to my network confirmed that my wireless network and the SONOS wireless connection is working just fine. It also confirmed that for BBC stations only, buffers are not filling and getting to perhaps 30%. It was speculated that there may be an issue with the SONOS firmware that needs an update to work with a BBC update. I explained that it would help to have some notification of such an issue to prevent the need for users like me to contact SONOS, Virgin Media and the BBC over a period of week...to now be told it's a known issue. I don't think my input that this would make SONOS a better company was well received, nor my input that this issue renders my SONOS useless as 99% of my usage is BBC and working from home I have it on all day...but not for the last week....apparently I'll be informed when the issue is identified and resolved.

Does anyone know if there is a way to connect to other internet radio service providers apart from Tunein to give them a try. Perhaps something like http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/
This is a problem that raised its head in 2015 and Sonos released a firmware update to resolve.
Strange it has come back but Sonos do not know why especially when all other radio stations I have tried with Tunein are OK.

Here is a link I have found:-
http://www.whathifi.com/news/listeners-complain-about-changes-to-bbc-internet-radio-streaming

You're probably wasting your time complaining to the Beeb - you'll just get a generic reply.

As Sonos haven't indicated where the problem lies (Sonos - BBC - Tunein) you could try adding the direct stream urls - depends on where you live (UK or non-UK)

Thanks for the responses.
I am in the UK. Any idea how you add direct streaming urls?

Thanks for the responses.
I am in the UK. Any idea how you add direct streaming urls?

Check this link https://en.community.sonos.com/ask-a-question-228987/bbc-working-fine-and-then-6738338?postid=16021499

Try with the stream there. If it works then you can get additional UK streams at http://minimstreamer.com/samples/BBC%20Radio.m3u.sample

OK.
So I deleted my existing Radio 2 link and provided a new onw using the URL provided in the link above.
Clicked on Radio 1 and the radio cut off after around 5 mins.
Clicked on Radio 2 (using the new link) and it did not cut off for 15 minutes.
Clicked on Radio 1 again and sure enough, it started to cut off again.

Now I could have just been lucky, who knows.
The proof of the pudding as they say................................ 🙂

OK.
So I deleted my existing Radio 2 link and provided a new onw using the URL provided in the link above.
Clicked on Radio 1 and the radio cut off after around 5 mins.
Clicked on Radio 2 (using the new link) and it did not cut off for 15 minutes.
Clicked on Radio 1 again and sure enough, it started to cut off again.

Now I could have just been lucky, who knows.
The proof of the pudding as they say................................ :)

Not really sure what you did - as the stream url is for Radio 5 !

Under Manage in the PC Sonos app there's an option to add a radio station. You can easily set up direct BBC stations using the stream urls in the minimserver link.

I see from the other thread that Sonos are claiming it's a Virgin Media problem ....

I did use the minimserver link to get the radio 2 url.
And yes, I'm a Virgin Media customer also.

I did use the minimserver link to get the radio 2 url.
And yes, I'm a Virgin Media customer also.

Ah, okay - I suppose the test is to play for a couple of hours ....

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know in here that we are working on an issue with BBC stations cutting out. There isn't a timeline right now as we're collecting data and working with the BBC to find where the exact problem. As Castalla mentioned above, there seems to be a correlation with VirginMedia customers, but we're still working on the investigation. The main thread for this issue is going to be the one linked here. So if you have trouble still, please make sure you're following this thread.

Warning, the title and it's location will be changing shortly, but the link will still work.

Having recently reconnected the sonos after having some work done on the house I am having the same problem. I am also a virgin customer.

Hi Greenteam, welcome to the community. We are monitoring an issue which is affecting some BBC customers right now, especially those on Virgin. What we know is that the BBC uses two load balancing servers and one of these seems to have some kind of problem. This is why adding a manual link can work, as you can specify to use the other server. This article describes how to add a radio station manually.

Here are the URLs for BBC stations which avoid the bad server:

BBC Radio 1
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_one.m3u8

BBC Radio 1Xtra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_1xtra.m3u8

BBC Radio 2
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_two.m3u8

BBC Radio 3
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_three.m3u8

BBC Radio 4
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_fourfm.m3u8

BBC Radio 4LW
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_fourlw.m3u8

BBC Radio 4 Extra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_four_extra.m3u8

BBC Radio 5 Live
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_five_live.m3u8

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_five_live_sports_extra.m3u8

BBC Radio 6 Music
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_6music.m3u8

BBC Asian Network
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_asian_network.m3u8

The BBC will fix this at some point, so remember this is a workaround.

Hi Greenteam, welcome to the community. We are monitoring an issue which is affecting some BBC customers right now, especially those on Virgin. What we know is that the BBC uses two load balancing servers and one of these seems to have some kind of problem. This is why adding a manual link can work, as you can specify to use the other server. This article describes how to add a radio station manually.

Here are the URLs for BBC stations which avoid the bad server:

BBC Radio 1
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_one.m3u8

BBC Radio 1Xtra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_1xtra.m3u8

BBC Radio 2
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_two.m3u8

BBC Radio 3
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_three.m3u8

BBC Radio 4
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_fourfm.m3u8

BBC Radio 4LW
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_fourlw.m3u8

BBC Radio 4 Extra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_four_extra.m3u8

BBC Radio 5 Live
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_five_live.m3u8

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_five_live_sports_extra.m3u8

BBC Radio 6 Music
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_6music.m3u8

BBC Asian Network
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_asian_network.m3u8

The BBC will fix this at some point, so remember this is a workaround.

Thanks, this has worked for me. PS I'm on Talk Talk not Virgin Media

I've been having issues with BBC Radio sporadically cutting out for years.

I'm now trying the direct URLs posted by Tom B.
So far so good, but its only been a couple of hours.

One thing I'm noting with these direct URLs is nothing shows under "On Now" in the "Now Playing" pane (desktop controller). This is a bit annoying (although probably less annoying than streams cutting out). Is this unavoidable when using direct URLs?

Thanks

Radio player music service is now available and appears to have better BBC streams.
So far no dropouts here with the new radio player service on sonos, you have to add it like you would add apple music, etc. its free.