Q. (2021) I can no longer seem to get any BBC live broadcasts?
Answer:
The Q2 Radio was developed over 12 years ago to take advantage of the plethora of internet radio stations using the simple Shoutcast streaming method. Shoutcast provides a constant audio stream via a specific port on a remote server with a permanent internet address (URL). Instead of needing a complex receiving device such as a computer or mobile phone, the stream can be decoded by a simple receiver IC of small size built into a convenient, but limited hardware platform such as the Q2 Radio. The problem with this delivery method for a popular provider (such as the BBC) is that it requires more and more bandwidth as greater numbers of devices try to connect to the same server port. Eventually the service provider is overwhelmed and the stream becomes interrupted when the server port becomes over subscribed. The user experience in these circumstances is a constant dropping and re-uptake of the stream every few minutes or seconds. The only solution to this is more servers (expensive) or to move to a more sophisticated delivery method.
In recent times, the BBC decided to do the second of these two things and moved to the HLS protocol to provide its streaming services. This chops up the stream into bite size chunks that must be requested, downloaded, buffered and reassembled by the receiving hardware. It does not rely on a constant stream and it doesn't matter which server each chunk comes from; in this way the whole internet can be used to provide the content, which means that a nearly unlimited number of clients can be supported. Unfortunately the basic hardware in the Q2 Radio is unable to implement the HLS protocol and although the actual audio stream provided is within its capability, it just cannot request and reassemble the dynamic list of separate audio files it is presented with. Because this is a hardware issue, there is no software update that we can provide to fix the problem. To put it simply, it’s a bit like putting a DVD in your CD player – it looks the same as a CD, but the player just lacks the hardware to do anything with it.
Fortunately, most radio stations continue to provide Shoutcast streams which can be decoded by the Q2 Radio so, it will continue to give users access to thousands of alternative and interesting radio stations for many years to come.