Re: [Swprograms] Changes to BBC Radio streaming, future impact on World Service formats?

["Rob de Santos" <rdesantos@xxxxxxxxx>]

The BBC has decided that HLS/HDS/DASH are all they want to support in the
future. MP3 streams at 128k will be provided for some unannounced short time
frame (probably less than a year) and it will also be shut off. There is no
guarantee that On-demand or Podcasts will be supported going forward in any
other format either. It's bizarre and the explanations are incomplete and
contradictory.  Based on public comments from various aggregators and device
manufacturers the BBC failed to properly liaise with them. The public
announcements of this change were limited to the BBC's "Internet blog" and other
than a few of us in the tech and radio communities that read and commented on it
(to no avail) it was never seen.  The decision to drop Windows Media (WMA)
support was announced in the blog but they never announced they were completely
dropping AAC support. We were led to believe some AAC+ support will continue but
it too, is being shut down. 

Admirably, a number of users have stepped forward to provide some relief to
users of Logitech products but most others including Reciva, Frontier, and
vTuner based products are going to get MP3 streams only and probably not for
long.  Reciva and vTuner have been scrambling to update their portals with new
streams with varying degrees of success. This has broken streaming on many
Windows and Linux/Android devices if they are not of very recent vintage. Most
blind and visually impaired device makers are struggling to figure out what has
happened. To make it worse, the BBC will not publish the stream URLs and only
through the ingenuity of some users have any been made public.

So, if you don't have an Apple or Adobe Flash based device or a browser based
HTML5 compliant device, you are not going to get the BBC streams for much longer
even if you get them now.  Pity those in the Third World trying to listen on an
older mobile phone they will be cutoff. They better be within range of a
broadcast signal. This should serve as a warning to anyone who thinks that the
newer technologies are different. The newer technologies are just as vulnerable
to the whims of a clueless government or broadcaster. 

The complaints from the public are legion but the BBC doesn't seem to be
listening.  I've complained but now have been blocked from posting to most BBC
sites because they didn't like my pointed (but polite) criticism. 

--
-Rob de Santos

-----Original Message-----
From: Swprograms [mailto:swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Richard Cuff
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 10:31 AM
To: Shortwave programming discussion
Subject: Re: [Swprograms] Changes to BBC Radio streaming, future impact on World
Service formats?

It appears that MP3 is regarded as a fallback, which for someone who manipulates
audio via a PC via any OS (Mac, Windows, Linux) is a good thing...certainly less
bang for the bandwidth but certainly the most universal format... am I reading
that correctly?  I would agree that
AAC+ works the best for audio vs bandwidth, but most of the PC
software I use to manipulate streams would rather work with MP3.

Rich Cuff

On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 7:29 PM, Steven Clift <1radionewstech@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
.>
> In terms of global access to BBC domestic stations, the big loss is 
> lower bandwidth AAC+ which works great on mobiles via the right apps.
>
.>
> My take is that for the broadest access you want low bandwidth options 
> for news radio in particular and AAC+ gives you the best quality at 
> lower bit rates.

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