The issue: I have been an extensive SONOS user for many many years (UK based) and used to get my BBC Radio service via the TuneIN service. It always worked fine. Recently the “old” TuneIN service became unsupported and the new service no longer has the BBC national radio stations (even with subscription). So I tried to use the SONOS radio app and whilst I can find BBC Radio 2, for example, it will not play. I now understand that due to licensing issues, the only way to get BBC national radio stations in the UK is via the BBC Sounds service. So I installed that and indeed can access the radio stations. BUT, the audio level on all of these stations is at such a low level compared to all other sources that it is almost inaudible. If I switch from my Apple Music service to the BBC radio station I have to increase the volume from 25% to 100% on the speakers and even then it can only just be heard, totally unacceptable and unusable in reality.
When I use the BBC sounds app on iPadOS or on SkyQ or use BBC radio streaming via the web, sound levels are fine, also via AirPlay to SONOS, although many of my speakers do not support AirPlay (I have several Play 3 gen 2, Connect gen 2, Play 1 speakers as well as Play 5 gen 2 and Five, these all run SONOS S2).
I do not want to use AirPlay anyhow, I just want the service to work properly as a native service.
Hope you can help, there must be an issue with the BBC Sounds service implementation with SONOS.
Just tried BBC Sounds:
On my system the sound level is okay.
That is strange, on my system BBC sounds is some 18db lower (using an averaging sound meter) than Apple Music which means that if I play Apple Music at say 30% then BBC Sounds needs to be 60% or more to be at a similar level. On my iPad Apple Music and BBC Sounds both play at a similar level and on Sky Q BBC Sounds plays at a slightly higher level than Sky TV programmes.
On the “old” Sonos TuneIn service the levels of the same BBC stations were fine, but that service has been withdrawn due to licensing issues with the BBC. The new TuneIn and Sonos Radio services will not allow the playing of BBC Radio stations if they see a UK based account.
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