Last week I complained to BBC specifically about the botched withdrawal of the Radio 3 HD feed, while bemoaning the withdrawal of the other stations feeds too. Although the Squeezebox community has miraculously overcome the problems already, I thought it would be helpful to share the reply I received in case everything in the garden is not as rosy as it seems.
I thought I contacted the Radio 3 team rather than the iPlayer team, but anyway this reply seems to focus on international customers as a justification to reduce the stream for domestic and international customers. They are 'continuing to monitor' to see if the demand is more for a 192 or a (can you believe it) 48kbps stream! No mention of 320kpbs. Maybe we shouldn't assume the new HD streams will be around for long - unless we make the demand for it very clear to the BBC. The demand for non-HD by the majority is probably a self fulfilling prophesy as they will be using BBC iPlayer apps. "-Thank you for contacting the BBC iPlayer Support Team. I understand you are unable to receive a HD stream of BBC Radio 3. Following recent changes with how we deliver our radio streams, we would like to clarify the AAC bit rate for BBC Stations. The 128kbps was previously the maximum bit rate that Shoutcast provided on the AAC format for national stations with the exception of BBC Radio 3. We do provide a 128 kbps mp3 stream - this is the same bit rate as the AAC stream but it does constitute a reduction in quality. Its an international stream and one that forces us to consider internet connectivity around the world and our distribution costs. Some reaction has asked us to increase the bit rate to 192, whilst others have asked us to reduce this to 48. Were going to leave it where it is for now but continue to monitor. The BBC Radio 3 Shoutcast the new stream is international at 128 kbps, we did provide this briefly at 320 kbps but this stopped after the conclusion of 2014 Proms. We thought long and hard before deciding on the direction for Audio Factory. The system replaces, not just the online streaming systems for national radio, but also the systems for the nations and local radio. As such we had to make choices around standardisation. We have decided to use the http streaming formats HLS, HDS and DASH. We began communicating our plans to internet radio manufacturers over 12 months ago. HLS streams are now available to internet radios and aggregators that wish to use them. We have been working with various manufacturers to help them develop their products where possible to support our new streams. We are actively working on delivering our audio using the non-proprietary DASH delivery format to support other manufacturers and their devices going forward. Your feedback has also been included on reports that are available to the personnel responsible for maintaining and improving the BBC iPlayer service, including Dan Taylor Watt, the Head of BBC iPlayer. These reports are viewed as important documents that can help shape decisions on future aspects of BBC iPlayer. You can read more in the latest blog (published 12 Feb 2014) by Jim Simmons, Senior Product Manager for iPlayer Radio: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/977a1954-658f-4fb2-a23c-71680c49882f#comments I hope this information helped. Thanks for contacting us."- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ kingswindsor's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=61926 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=53229
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