[access-uk] New BBC Streams: Response from BBC
- From: Pele West <pele.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Access UK <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, BCAB Discussion List <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Uk Radio Listeners <uk-radio-listeners@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 09:04:08 GMT
Hi Everyone
Apologies for cross-posting. Below is the response from the BBC about
the deletion of the Windows Media streams and the new streams.
I spoke to someone on the phone to lodge a complaint, so my initial
message is not available. I have pasted the message in as I did not use
this e-mail account.
Once again, I expressed concern about the County Cricket, but I don't
think the BBC person understood as the reply says "country cricket".
Pele West
Message from BBC
Dear Mrs West
Reference CAS-3156059-1RHCJT
Thank you for contacting the BBC iPlayer Support Team.
I understand you are unhappy with decision over Audio format closures.
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.
The Shoutcast AAC streams we provided for network radio only, relied on very
old hardware and unsupported software. They had a very high support overhead.
We have kept a single shoutcast stream of every live service to support devices
that will never be able to play HLS, HDS or DASH streams. Whist we cannot
promise to support shoutcast for more than 1 to 2 years, we will monitor the
number of users and the quality of our service and base our decision making on
the impact to the audience.
Our new ShoutCast streams are unrestricted which means that we can make them
available both in the UK and globally, this significantly simplifies how they
are served, but does mean that users whose devices can only receive the
ShoutCast stream and not one of the new HTTP streaming formats will hear a
version of the stream which will blank sport where the BBC does not hold
international rights. The new HTTP streams are available in both UK and
international variants, which allows those in the UK to continue to enjoy the
Sport that we broadcast as usual. We are investigating to see whether there is
anything we can do to return access to the UK streams for those who are
affected by this, we are working hard to get this resolved before big occasions
like the Country Cricket.
I hope that manufacturers will be able to support our new streams or upgrade
existing devices as time goes on, and we will do our best to support them as
the technology continues to evolve.
Weve published a new blog that addresses some of these points and is also
worth reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/977a1954-658f-4fb2-a23c-71680c49882f#comments
I hope this information helped.
Thanks for contacting us.
Kind regards
Harry O'Hagan
BBC Audience Services
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You
cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our
webform quoting any case number we provided.
webform quoting any case number we provided.
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