OT Live Streaming Radio 4 News

[Vangelis forthnet]

 On Tue May 26 10:11:05 BST 2015, Budgie wrote:

> I listen to Radio 4 using a networked Linn device
> The Linn device offers various radio channels directly
> On several occasions recently,
> the news stream has been interrupted and
> all I get is a recorded loop telling me that
> "due to rights restrictions
> the programme is not available."
> Is the problem with BBC or Linn?

 On Tue May 26 10:36:25 BST 2015, Derek Kaye wrote:

> but perhaps someone with a more detailed
> knowledge of how the streaming works can

 On Tue May 26 21:59:59 BST 2015, Christopher Woods wrote:

> Some highlights or clips from sporting events
> may not come with requisite rights to be broadcast online,
> even when part of a news bulletin

 Hello Budgie, Derek et al :-)

 Earlier this year (I think 't was the end of February),
the BBC killed off the Windows Media Audio (WMA)
streams both for Listen Live (Live Radio) and Audio-
on-Demand; this was an announced move, so no surprise there...
What wasn't foretold was they'd also switch off the
Listen Live "Shoutcast AAC" streams...
 Most Internet Radios and other networked devices
(especially if somewhat old) relied heavily upon those
discontinued streams; another important detail was
that those streams were available at two different "flavours":

1. UK-only, fed only to UK IPs; this version included
content (usually sports) with UK-only broadcast rights.
2. Overseas, served to the rest of the world.
That was offered in a significantly lower bandwidth
and all UK-only content was excluded, blanketed out
by the "due to rights restrictions... " loop you mentioned.

 The beeb and their "Audio Factory" department have
replaced the old streams with new ones, employing the
newer "AppleHLS" streaming methodology (chunked streaming
over HTTP). HOWEVER, in their infinite wisdom, by doing
so have effectively cut off all older devices with
firmware that doesn't support HLS. They claim they had
warned the main manufacturers of the scheduled changes
to HLS that would require firmware updates, but there's
a big controversy over who's to blame for the predicament
many Internet device owners found themselves into...
I haven't caught up on this, but at the time of the
change only some new models of the "Pure" brand were
HLS enabled...
 As an interim fix (backward compatibility) and only
for Live Radio, the BBC have generated Shoutcast MP3
streams, compatible with the majority of older devices.
HOWEVER, as a cost cutting measure, there exists only one
universal stream for each BBC Radio Station, @ 128kbps,
for both the UK & International listeners.
In a few words, the UK users receive the same stream as overseas
ones, i.e. the very stream which is devoid of UK-only
copyrighted content...
 After the intervention of the BBC Radio 3 controller,
a HD (UK-only) shoutcast AAC stream was reinstated,
but only until this year's Proms...
 No solution as yet for AOD for "older" devices.
Those "older" devices, after the cessation of WMA
and ShoutcastAAC, have fallen back automatically
(via stream aggregators) to the Shoutcast MP3
live streams.
 It is my gut feeling your Linn device is using this
"international" MP3 stream when connecting to Radio 4;
as Christopher said, content for which no int'l
streaming rights have been negotiated by the BBC
is excluded...
 The beeb have promised they'll introduce geo-filtered
versions of Shoutcast MP3 streams for the UK,
to anger down frustrated Radio 5 Live (& Sports Xtra)
listeners - nothing concrete has yet come to my knowledge...

What you can do until then:
1. Contact Linn and investigate whether a firmware update
for your device has been made available, that would
enable AppleHLS "reception" - the BBC's AppleHLS
new streams come in UK and non-UK varieties...
2. Use a different medium to listen to those AppleHLS
streams in the UK; obviously iDevices (by Apple)
are supported, but you can use software players
on your computer, too...
GiP 2.92 supports the streaming to MPlayer/VLC
of those streams (--type=liveradio --modes=hlsaac)

My summary above is based on the relevant BBC Internet
Blog entries:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/2ff95543-7547-4b2d-9305-563428
(169 comments)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/d031b300-721a-4df5-8506-723303f2887e
(316 comments)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/234a65f0-89c1-489c-b6e9-55d2de932e53
(341 comments)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/296ac283-54df-4c21-a38f-8cc1fa8731c8
(294 comments)

Regards,
Vangelis