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PaulWebster

Listed below are comments made by PaulWebster between Thursday, 6th August 2009 and Tuesday, 24th November 2009.

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The future of audio: the UK Radioplayer 6:58pm on 24 Nov 2009 Thanks for the positive feedback
Improvements to BBC Local Radio online 6:03pm on 23 Nov 2009 Looks like it is working - hurrah
BBC Local Radio On Demand content now available again to Reciva users.
The future of audio: the UK Radioplayer 1:30pm on 19 Nov 2009 Interesting development

Existing UK companies are providing directories of UK (and the world) stations - with access to On Demand content - e.g. Reciva, Frontier Silicon and Pure.
Do you see this as competetion to those existing offerings?
Will they get equal access to the content and descriptions (like they do today with the BBC XML that is closely tied to iPlayer)?
RealMedia - an update 4:25pm on 11 Oct 2009 @boilerplated

>>"Internet radio devices are not an old-fashioned technology."

>Yes it is if it uses a deprecated format and Real is one such codec/formate.

I don't know of any internet radio devices that support only RealAudio.

In general they support a wide variety of streaming technologies - but support for RTMP is very rare (given that the specification was only officially published mid-2009 this should not be a surprise and was certainly known by BBC).

Even if the radios had support for RTMP - that route is not endorsed by BBC for direct access (doesn't mean it can't be made to work - cf the 3rd-party add-on for Logitech Squeezebox users).

My point is not that BBC must keep Real for all time - but that the way that this has been implemented for BBC Local Radio has been bad. The updated RealAudio-based Listen Again content has been removed without making an alternate direct streaming version readily available.
It appears to have been an unplanned consequence of the decision to move - but once the side-effects were seen there was no switch back. So it means no content for 5 weeks already and no prospect of it before the end of October.
RealMedia - an update 11:29am on 09 Oct 2009 @Boilerplated

Your diatribe about MW/SW misses the point.
Internet radio devices are not an old-fashioned technology.
BBC has endorsed their use - with the raw XML feeds that were introduced long ago (so that vendors would no longer feel the need to scrape web pages).
The problem here is that the introduction of support for On Demand of BBC local radio was messed up. The Real content was turned off before the WMA was enabled. So - for over a month there has been no access through the official route for internet radio devices ... and despite an expectation set by BBC that it would be resolved by end of September ... it has now moved to sometime in November.

A specific comment in the blog referring to that community of users would have been welcomed.
It does (now?) have a link to
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/streaming_programmes/internet_radio_listen_live
which includes a "please note" at the end - that should really be at the start.
RealMedia - an update 10:10pm on 07 Oct 2009 Here is my usual refrain ... sorry Ian I know that you have heard it before and have replied elsewhere ... but ... please make explicit comments about the provisions being made for internet radio devices that cannot play Flash stuff.
We know that you have an XML feed that provides a look-up mechanism to then access the direct stream links for content (WMA, MP3 or AAC) - and I have no doubt that it will remain in place - but it would be much more comforting if you stated it.

Flash implies an interactive user with a mouse or keyboard - that is not the case with the vast vast majority of internet radios.
Improvements to BBC Local Radio online 4:39pm on 08 Sep 2009 @ianmyatt
thanks for the reply Ian.
Roll-on next week ;)
Improvements to BBC Local Radio online 07:31am on 08 Sep 2009 Any news on when the direct stream links (RealAudio, WMA or MP3 ... or even AAC) will be restored for Local Radio On Demand? The decision (or accident) that removed them at the start of September without warning and the lack of solid information afterwards has removed a highly used facility for thousands of internet radio device users.
Improvements to BBC Local Radio online 3:15pm on 04 Sep 2009 Has this been co-ordinated with the internet radio manufacturers?
Looks like it has not.
James Cridland is only just out of the door.
It's RAJAR day at Radio 4 1:35pm on 06 Aug 2009 The entry level found counting someone as a listener has always struck me as odd ... 15 minutes a week is hardly listening at all - indeed for Radio 4 it is unlikely to be a full programme.
The figures show average listening around 12 hours per week (1-2 hours per day).
So - how many of the 10 million are below the average (mean)?

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