BBC Radio 3 issues

Roon Core Machine Roon Rock running on a BMAx B2 mini PC

Networking Gear & Setup Details

I use Eero for networking. My core is connected by Ethernet to one of my Eeros.

Connected Audio Devices

Playback is wireless via a Raspberry Pi 3b running HiFiBerryOS, outputting via TOSLINK to a Chord Qutest DAC.

Number of Tracks in Library

Description of Issue

These issues relate to BBC Radio 3

    1. I was thrilled that the latest update of Roon was presenting metadata (at last). That now seems to have disappeared. Will it be making a return?
  1. My biggest issue (which has always happened) is that BBC radio 3 (which I listen to a lot) randomly stops. I don’t have this issue with Qobuz or with my library. There is no pattern to it. I rarely listen to other stations but I can’t say I’ve ever noticed this behaviour, apart from with BBC Radio 3.

I get this with BBC 6 Music, stops starts, but I can stream library music to the same sonos speaker without issue via roon.

If I use the Sonos app its fine.
Not sure if live radio uses the network different to normal streaming.

1 Like

It’s been a problem for me from day one and I’ve put up with it but, really, it’s not acceptable. Roon is a premium product.

I have this issues with BBC 6 since the update. I use Roon with B&W Wedge and when I connect via bluetooth or airplay the issue of random stopping still remains.

I have the exact same issue as @Phil_Ryan since the update with Radio 6, constant drop outs where I have to manually click play again to start (it doesn’t pick back up again and auto resume is my point). Using Radio 6 with the Sonos app works seamlessly. Google mesh connects all my devices with significant speeds reported so network seems fine combined with Sonos itself playing radio without dropouts seems to point to Roon?

Any chance of a response from the devs?

@support Anything?

I’m not a dev, but can you say what stream you are using for BBC Radio 3?

I wasn’t aware that any metadata was being supplied with the BBC streams. Certainly no metadata is available on the AAC 96kbps stream that I’m using, and no dropouts either. I am using a stream that is available worldwide - some streams are geofenced to the UK only.

On BBC 6 Music i’ve tried all of them, BBC Radio 2 is the same

I’m using the UK default 320 stream . As others have said, the dropouts occur no matter which stream one uses.

As to the metadata - with the 880 update, for the first time ever, the metadata was there in the bottom left hand corner. I was so pleased to see that, at last, I could see what was playing without having to open a browser window and navigate to the BBC website. With build 882 it disappeared again. Why?

I realise that BBC radio isn’t a big deal in Roonworld. But, for those of us who listen to it, this IS a big deal. And Roon is, supposedly, a high-end product.

It’s definitely Roon. Like others, I have no issues casting from my phone to Chromecast audio or listening to BBC radio with the multiple Alexa devices in our house.

@support

An acknowledgement, if not a solution, would be polite.

Again streams are cutting off, perfect on sonos app

I’ve done some more testing on my setup and BBC 6 Music does not cut out when I’m playing via Airplay to my B&W Wedge - it does keep cutting out when I link to my B&W Wedge when I link to it via Bluetooth.

There is no cut out problem when I am playing my own music via bluetooth or Airplay. I do have a speeding up problem on the playback though which I’ll raise in another thread.

Am I right in thinking this is a UK-only problem?

And why has nobody deigned to respond?

@support Is this being investigated?

@support @danny

Hello

Is anyone going to acknowledge this issue?
For me.
My MAC core is ethernet connected.

However to my Sonos One via Airplay Live Radio cuts off.
Streamed content from Tidal via Roon is fine.
Anything from the Sonos network and app is fine.

You know the saying, no win no fee?
In this case its no progress no subscription

The clock is ticking.

Thank you, Phil. This is unforgivably flakey of them.

I guess the question is:
If a wireless connection is expected why won’t Roon Live Radio work consistently on a wireless network and everything else does???

For all networks

No matter what your network setup is like, there are important factors to keep in mind to ensure you are getting the best out of your Roon experience:

  • Your Roon Core should always have a wired connection
  • If your library is stored elsewhere on the network, always ensure that both your Core and storage location are using a wired connection. Avoid WiFi between your Core and media storage at all costs.
  • Avoid connecting high resolution/high performance audio devices to Roon via WiFi to ensure optimal performance.
    *** A wireless connection from your remote device to your Core is perfectly acceptable and expected in most cases.**

From my somewhat haphazard observations this does seem to be a problem specific to UK users of the BBC stream. I do listen to non-UK radio streams and the issue doesn’t occur.

When we use Roon Radio are we going through Roon’s servers or are we plugged in directly to the BBC servers? My suspicion is that the glitch happens because we have UK ISPs and/or UK IP addresses.

And I cannot for the life of me think why the devs can’t even be bothered to acknowledge this question!