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David, taken a quick trawl through the Get-hub page but it looks like you have to open an account there to look at the article you mention about the BBC HLS streams and data grabbing.? If I am on the right track it looks like James Cridland has ferreted out this information.? He's a sort of radio tech critic for lack of a better description and has worked for the Beeb in his time.

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One obvious fear I have around all this is that it could well be part of an undeclared and covert operation to privatize all or parts of the BBC and so gather data on how we are listening and what we are listening to.? Legitimate enough to gather data on how the Beeb is performing as a public service broadcaster, quite another things to be subverting its mode and reason for existing.

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(Obviously the same wil go for TV as so many TVs are smart TVs now, like mine.)

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It would be interesting if you could post this piece privately or else a link to it if it is publically available via Get-hub.

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I'd add only as a tale piece that I am always on the lookout for ways of avoiding Tune-in or the free version of it as I do not want my listening interupted by adverts simply for the privilege of getting connected to a station I should be able to access for free.? Strangely Tune-in sometimes intervenes on one of my A devices preventing me from listening to stations I do in fact have direct a URL for on other devices.

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Ray.

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I found an article linked into the GitHub page hosting BBC HLS streams which details the vast amount of data grabbing that is being performed by the BBC Sounds app. Apparently the app is sending back analytics data? constantly. From his analysis the app is pinging back every single minute.

He goes into the data the BBC are trawling – location – listening habits etc. I am not sure I have found anything particularly ?sinister yet but I have not checked it all. I was surprised by the sheer amount of data that the app is collecting on us and sending back.

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I will try and find the link again.

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David Griffith

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From: daisyaudioplayersuk@groups.io <daisyaudioplayersuk@groups.io> On Behalf Of Rea Lists
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 12:40 PM
To: daisyaudioplayersuk@groups.io
Subject: [dap-uk] FW: [Tech-VI] For Subscribers in the United Kingdom: BBC Sounds enables multi-room playback on Alexa devices and other improvements

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As promised the post about the latest update to BBC Sounds.? I have not tried these features yet and I do not know if they work unproblematically on what I would call third party devices, i.e. Bose, Sonos, and others.

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It could well be BBC Sounds will work okay on the HIMS player but again I have no idea if all the Sounds features will work properly on the Sense player.

Ray.

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RadioToday - Friday, November 10, 2023 at 5:08?AM

BBC Sounds enables multi-room playback on Alexa devices and other improvements

Aniruddh Dimri, Head of Product, BBC Sounds provides an update on BBC Sounds as Alexa users can now enable multi-room audio for the skill.

“It’s been a record-breaking summer for BBC Sounds, with huge listening figures for classical music at the Proms and live sport at the Women’s World Cup and the Ashes, and hit new podcasts like The Banksy Story, Call Jonathan Pie, Yeti, The Crossbow Killer, and Intrigue: The Immortals.

And as the content on BBC Sounds goes from strength to strength, so too does the technology that underpins it. We’re always looking at ways we can improve the way you listen to Sounds – whether on the mobile app, web, TV app, or on your smart speaker, and if you fall into that final group, we have some news to share about some new functionality.

Listeners with Alexa-enabled smart speakers are now able to listen to BBC Sounds on multiple Alexa devices at once. We know that this is something our listeners have been wanting for a long time, and we’ve worked hard with Amazon to make it happen.

If you have a device group or speaker group set up in your Amazon Alexa app, you can use the group name when playing from the BBC Sounds skill, and the content will play on all devices within that group.

So, if you want the big pop bangers of Sara Cox’s Half Wower to turn every room of your house into a dancefloor, just say “Alexa, ask BBC Sounds to play Radio Two Everywhere” to get it playing on every device in that group.

Plus, we’ve been innovating over the last year to improve the BBC Sounds experience on Alexa, so now there are lots of things you can do with live radio on your Alexa-enabled devices.

The BBC Sounds skill is the only Alexa service in the UK which lets you restart the live radio show you’re listening to, so if you miss the beginning of The News Quiz you can easily go straight back to the beginning by saying, “Alexa, ask BBC Sounds to restart.”.

Also unique to the BBC Sounds skill is the ability to rewind live radio, either to a specific time, if for example you want to catch an 8am chat on Lauren Laverne’s breakfast show, you can say “Alexa, ask BBC Sounds to rewind to 8am”, or by a certain amount of time, so if you’ve missed the beginning of an interesting interview on the Today programme, you can say, “Alexa, ask BBC Sounds to rewind 15 minutes.”

You can also pause live radio and resume where you left off; and fast forward your rewound stream. We want you to enjoy your favourite radio shows in a way which fits in with what you’re doing.

And it’s not all about live radio on smart speakers, you can also now ask BBC Sounds for content which fits your mood or interests. By saying, “Alexa, ask BBC Sounds for Classical,” you might find a highlight from the Proms, or by saying, “Alexa, ask BBC Sounds for chill music,” you’ll find yourself listening to something relaxing, like 1Xtra’s R&B Chill, or Radio 1’s Chillout Anthems. Asking for “True Crime” will present you with one of our excellent true crime podcasts, such as The Missing Madonna, The Staircase, or Murder in Mayfair.

If you ask for an on-demand show, such as Fighting Talk, the BBC Sounds skill will tell you if it’s live on the radio at that moment, so you can choose how to listen. There’s more information about what listeners can do with the BBC Sounds Alexa skill here.

We’ll continue to develop features, and work closely with our partners at Amazon, to improve the experience for BBC Sounds listeners.”

<a href= target="_blank"></a>

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? ? ?David Goldfield

Assistive Technology Specialist

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