Any News on BBC DASH internet radio service

Posted by: Mike-B on 18 November 2015

Anyone got any insider news on the proposed BBC MPEG-DASH internet radio service changes ??

Back in February & March  (when we had the HLS changes) BBC's "Audio Factory" said it would be introduced later this year.

Since then all info seems to have dried up, I have a recently produced BBC tech paper on what DASH is & why BBC want it,  but apart from that it seems Auntie Beeb is taking a nap. The last thing we want is another fiasco like the HLS introduction - but fair play to Naim on that one, they did get it implemented well ahead of the other players.     

 

MPEG-DASH = Motion Pictures Expert Group Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP.  This is an open source protocol (licence free) that is just starting to be adopted by content producers and client implementations.

Posted on: 18 November 2015 by PaulinPosset

There is movement on this as the BBC are currently trialling DASH streams for Listen Again. You can test this by searching for "BBC- HTML5 Player Beta" web page and opting in your browser.

Listen Again appears to be at 320Kbs for all stations.

 

Don't think they're taking a nap!

.

 

Posted on: 18 November 2015 by George F

This may explain, having followed your pointer, why listen again is finer than the live stream!

 

In fact listening to last night’s relay on VHF was less fine than the replay! The wind was high and the mains electricity was full of voltage dips that affected the light bulb and also the VHF badly! Might as well have been thundering ...

 

There is some hope for internet radio then!

 

ATB from George

Posted on: 18 November 2015 by Mike-B
Originally Posted by PaulinPosset:

Don't think they're taking a nap!

My quip about taking a nap is because the BBC voice on this is Audio Factory & in Feb/March said it would be available later this year - iRadio Blog said "By the summer"

Little or no other information - even to say its all moved back to 2016 - has been forthcoming. BBC don't do themselves any favours these days.   

Apart from the stuff mentioned so far,  it does seem to have lost impetuous & I am asking the forum if anyone knows something else. 

 

Thanks for info on the HTML5 beta test. 

Posted on: 18 November 2015 by Mike-B
Originally Posted by George Fredrik Fiske:

..........listening to last night’s relay on VHF was less fine than the replay! The wind was high and the mains electricity was full of voltage dips that affected the light bulb and also the VHF badly

Hi George,  this is easily explained:  

Terrestrial radio air waves get blown around by high the winds & they crash into trees & such like.

Internet radio is transmitted via satellite & there is no wind out in space.

Enjoy the TroughLine next time the wind dies down  ...........   

Posted on: 18 November 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Mike I smiled... Clearly terrestrial radio waves are not affected by wind at all, but satellite radio waves can be very much affected by solar wind....

Posted on: 18 November 2015 by Mike-B

Solar wind affects terrestrial as well,  it might not crash into trees but it causes windfalls off the Appleton layer   .......   

.......  enough,  "dash" back to the serious stuff .....  

Posted on: 18 November 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Originally Posted by Mike-B:

Solar wind affects terrestrial as well,  it might not crash into trees but it causes windfalls off the Appleton layer   .......   

.......  enough,  "dash" back to the serious stuff .....  

Only with ionospheric absorption to the extent of the visible Northern/Southern Lights or when a major CME spews over the earth .. sorry couldn't resist

Posted on: 22 November 2015 by PaulinPosset

For those with Squeezeboxes an updated BBCiplayer plugin appeared today that can play both Live and On Demand at 320kbs DASH. There's a thread running in the 3rd party software forum with more info.

Posted on: 22 November 2015 by Mike-B

interesting .........  not sure if this is a beta or not.

BBC & Audio factory are remarkable silent on update news with all this,  like I said they don't do themselves any favours

 

Posted on: 22 November 2015 by PaulinPosset

The plugin is definitely beta, and has been since the change to HLS so a bit more work is required to install. It is interesting that this is all appearing in good time so hopefully lessons were learnt at the BBC/Audio Factory from the earlier debacle and those 'in the know' are quietly being kept up to date.

 

Anyway on a practical note, the DASH streams all play well with no dropouts experienced so far, not like when the HLS streams appeared, so that bodes well!