Today my Mytek Brooklyn Bridge started displaying a bouncy green up-arrow alternating with the network icon on its front panel. The Windows control panel app didn’t say anything nor could I find any explanation about such an alert in the manual. It occurred to me that it could be a firmware update so I navigated to that section of the software (on the device) and there it was… version 1.51 waiting to be installed (previous version was 1.44).
As a precaution I went to their website to read any release notes but there’s nothing on the page. Not even an acknowledgement of the new version. Figured I’d take a leap of faith so I upgraded. Everything went smoothly but I have no idea what’s different
Hoping for some release notes this week… if not I may open a support ticket to ask.
Did you find any release notes anywhere? I opened a support ticket asking for this, so far no reply. I wonder if it’s related to the release of 1.8 in some way.
No I haven’t found anything yet. Hopefully something will be published soon.
Edit - actually I was just wondering if it was something to do with the Intellectual Property dispute with HEM, the former manufacturing partner. Maybe locking them out of the product software or something, but that’s pure speculation.
In fact I’m now a little worried. It may be that this update should not have been done? It looks like it has in fact come from HEM, the now discarded partner of Mytek, but who supplied the original firmware. The details are on what is the old Mytek website here. It contains a ‘no regression’ update, presumably to stop Mytek taking control? I hope we are not caught in a war here https://mytek-europe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/BrooklynBridge_firmware_readme.txt
Ugh - I didn’t know anything of this back story. I saved the 1.44 file so hopefully we could go back to it using the desktop control app, if needed? Let’s wait to see how they respond to my support ticket. FWIW I used the bridge with no issues for several hours after updating yesterday.
In looking at the release notes (thanks Paul!) there was a 1.50 update in between which in fact adds a great feature - the ability to toggle input sources using the front panel buttons. Very useful to me since I often toggle between USB and Network and had to fire up the control app or go deep into the menus to do it.
The contact info on the “Device/Info” screen now says to go to Mytek Europe for further updates - don’t remember it saying that before.
Yes that’s new. I believe the ‘Mytek-Europe’ might be one of the things that Mytek USA are in dispute with HEM about. I think it’s basically a HEM website, not Mytek now.
Frankly, I find this rather worrisome. Roon 1.8 has been out for days now, and this JUST happened to all of us. That implies that there is some “sleeper” functionality in our BB’s that just reached out to somewhere, and found an indicator to wake up. All we’re seeing is the arrow right now. Hopefully that’s it. I’m just glad I saw this thread and didn’t download anything.
Whatever is going on, the abject lack online versions of the user manual speaks of some pretty contentious stuff going on at Mytek.
For one, I’m holding off on this update until it’s more clear about what’s really going on.
The update ‘arrow’ has been standard behaviour for some time now. I’ve done several updates that way. Nothing unusual there. But hanging on might be wise for now.
I wonder if they took it down. I still haven’t heard back on my support ticket but now my BB says “server error” when it tries to verify the firmware version. There is also a legend in red font saying to visit Mytek Europe’s website to get latest updates. It’s all pretty weird.
So far my BB is working great with 1.51 and I’m using the new feature to change sources, so I’ll stay on it, however I saved my 1.44 firmware files just in case. I hope the desktop app is able to downgrade if need be.
The registrant data for both the HEM and Mytek Europe domains is “redacted for privacy” (I didn’t think that was allowed for businesses?), but the registrar for both is the same, and they are both hosted in the same place (or at least the nameservers are the same) so I would guess it is a HEM owned site. The registrars for mytek.audio and mytekdigital.com are the same as each other too, but different to the first two I mentioned.
Interesting. You prompted me to look, and mine now says 1.51 as being up to date, and the server error plus the notice in red are gone. I followed up on my support ticket with Mytek to get release notes, still nothing. Pretty disappointed if you ask me, not to get a response in a reasonable timeframe given that this is a relatively high-end piece of equipment…
I also emailed Wojtek, who was dealing with my Bridge warranty repair, about this specific issue,but I’ve had no reply.
One thing I just realised is that it looks like the repair was done by HEM, even though it’s now long after the ‘split’. Therefore, I wonder if Mytek (USA) don’t have the ability to directly support the existing products. Certainly, HEM trading as Mytek-Europe, claim on their Contact page that they are the ones to go still, to for purchase and support of all the existing products. What a mess. https://mytek-europe.com/contact/
