James, Thanks for the information. I'm always interested to hear about how the systems work.
I'm particularly pleased to hear that the encoding will happen from the full bitrate sources in the future. Aside from not having any service drop-outs and improved monitoring it can only hope that the sound quality will be notably better. Obviously I'm hoping that everything that's on the iPlayer Radio will come as MP3s and the existing podcasts will be better quality (I would personally prefer a VBR stereo "In Our Time" than the current mono one). It's probably way, way too late to ask for this, but how about having pre-compression (audio compression that is) versions of BBC Radio 3 and 1Xtra as, at least, an option. I can listen to my classical and drum n bass at home with their piano to forte range, would be great to have the same range from BBC radio. I understand why DAB and FM need to have the analogue audio compression, but a "clear" version online would be cheap and satisfy the audiophiles. I realise that backstage isn't the best way to report faults... it just seems every time you report a fault via the "correct" route you don't get a notification for (what seems like) ages. Also I'm pleased to hear that the word "open" is being used in BBC circles - and without being an expletive (I presume). Anyway, congratulations on bringing BBC online radio to the next level! 2008/6/3 James Cridland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > And to feed back to you (it's your BBC)... > > The issue here was a peculiar glitch in the signal received by the > satellite receiving units at Maidenhead. (At present, all our national > network online streams are re-encoded from satellite receivers by our > technology partner Siemens). > > For a while, we switched over to DAB as a backup source of audio, which > cured the issue on most stations. (I say 'most' - one of the DAB receivers > developed a fault, but that was soon overpatched. Marvel at the detail I'm > giving you here). This was successful, though made BBC Radio 1 slightly > distorted (since DAB processing is slightly 'louder' than that via > satellite); Radio 1 was switched back to satellite delivery on Monday > morning and others have since followed suit. > > Currently scheduled for next month, we'll switch to encoding national radio > (live, and on-demand) straight from the transmission chain within > Broadcasting House (using the same processing as the digital satellite feed, > which is the best-suited for the internet environment). You'll notice a slew > of changes to our audio online over the next few months - and, we hope, a > set of new, developer-friendly, formats. (I can reveal that our choices of > audio codec does not include Ogg Vorbis. Yes, I was the man who installed it > at another national station. No, it is not good value for money to attempt > the same at the BBC.) > > The BBC's FM&T team are committed to being as open as we can - indeed, > earlier today I escaped from an exciting conference which used the word > "Open" more times than is healthy - so I hope this is interesting to some. > However, I'd reiterate that our web form, as linked to by my friend and > colleague Alan Ogilvie, is the quickest way to alert us to an issue and get > it fixed - little mutes in audio may not get picked up by automated checking > systems, and we don't generally sit and watch Backstage (indeed, as you've > spotted, I rarely pop in here but am very vocal once I do). > > j (on behalf of his employer just this once) > > > > > > > On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Alan Ogilvie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> Brian - I have alerted our teams. Thank you. We are experiencing >> on-going problems with a few of our streams, you may notice issues on >> some listen again programmes (although I think we are down to the last >> few with a problem at the moment). >> >> In future the best way to contact us about streaming issues is via the >> contact pages: http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/ >> >> (there is a direct email address, but it's worth going through the web >> form as it will capture useful things like your IP address and things) >> >> Alan >> >> -- >> Alan Ogilvie >> >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> (IP) Interactive Platforms Producer >> Distribution Technologies | Audio & Music Interactive >> Room 818, BBC Henry Wood House, 3-6 Langham Place, London, W1B 3DF >> >> >> ________________________________ >> >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Butterworth >> Sent: 30 May 2008 18:26 >> To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk >> Subject: [backstage] Radio 4 on Realplayer >> >> >> Is it just me getting audio mutes every few seconds on the Real Audio >> stream of BBC Radio 4 FM. The LW feed is OK though... >> >> Who do you tell these days? >> >> -- >> >> Brian Butterworth >> >> http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover >> advice, since 2002 >> >> - >> Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, >> please visit >> http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. >> Unofficial list archive: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ >> > > > > -- > http://james.cridland.net/ | http://www.mediauk.com/ > > Media UK is a Not At All Bad Ltd production. > http://notatallbad.ltd.uk/legal_info/ -- Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002
