Disappeared off the grid yesterday , now back
Given that I (please don’t judge me harshly) could stream Classic FM , was this a BBC fault, was this a a V tuner fault not sure how it can be Naim .
I was able to at least rely on Sky 0103
not on my NDX2 in the last year anyway and possibly longer
It is a Naim fault. They choose their service supplier for the app. Whether you think choosing that app is a wise choice and are happy to live with the outages is up to you.
2 Likes
Last NDX2 update was to 3.8.4.5453 in July last year if that helps.
1 Like
thanks, yes just checked that now, so not exactly years to be fair but still, not regular innovation either
This issue highlights the main problem of systems which depend on only one aggregator.
Sonos & some open source systems offer a choice of radio aggregators, where total loss of services can be mitigated.
A high end system such as Naim should offer alternatives, eg. Audible.
3 Likes
Odd that it is just BBC, which doesn’t immediately point to Naim, or their iRadio supplier, as the root cause. Whether the iRadio supplier, Vtuner, is to blame, for example not acting fast enough to adapt to something new with the BBC streams, is unknown, but ic so it is their fault, not directly Naim’s.
Of course, given the loss of the service expected by some, and the dissatisfaction any outage may (and evidently does) cause to Naim’s customers, one would expect Naim to be very concerned. In the event - which is the case - of not just a one-off failure but recurrent, one would expect Naim to be actively reviewing the position and investigating options (if not already done). Assuming Vtuner is a commercial service one would expect Naim to have a contract with them, and in the short term it would seem likely that any alternative solution may depend on the terms of that contract.
1 Like
I agree with all that you say. Given the flaky nature of such aggregate services I would expect a fall over to be available. It is on other devices and I expect Naim to do the same. It is not an unknown problem.
In their defence, NAIM seemed to have fixed this (arguably first world) problem after about 24 hours, instead of the days it took last time.
Well done boys ‘n’ gals.
Steve has already confirmed on another thread that Naim are working on a contingency - it’ll most likely be part of a future firmware update.
2 Likes
If that is the case then Vtuner must be in breach of contract and therefore would have no leverage on that basis.
1 Like
As I indicated, that would depends on the terms of the contract!
1 Like
I suppose we should now call it Lyrion Media Server. I have a number of ChromeCast audio pucks, which I control through the ChromeCast plug-in.
Speaking of which, out of curiosity, I just told my Google Nest to play BBC Radio 3 on my Nova - and it worked. I assume the same could be done with the Google Assistant app.
I’m in the U.S.
I don’t and R4 is the only station I want to listen to on FM. R6 is where I do the majority of my radio listening. Beginning to wish I had had the Dab radio tuner fitted to the Star, which I think was an option when I bought mine.
Just purchase a puck of choice, wiim, logitech, chromecast, whatever. If you are listening to radio 4, it just does not matter. The bit rates are paltry anyway.
You just don’t need to use ‘aggregators’ they should be an assist, not a dependency, they simply act as a url directory for the web/online stations.
You should be able to use what ever online radio search engine provider you wish or simply enter or paste the URL.
The current approach feels far from optimal, it’s like not being able to use the web if google goes down which is ridiculous.
Now I agree it can be easier for a product to more seamlessly communicate with a particular online radio search engine… but then that becomes the dependency.
A good public domain search engine
https://www.radio-browser.info/users
(Select search and enter station name and you can select the web radio URLs for your online radio browser / player)
You can also use this service to see if the web radio is up and how busy the server or equivalent is (latency)
1 Like
Only Sonos & the open source Lyrion Music Server offer multiple radio aggregators. LMS also can use chromecast endpoints, so theoretically should work with the Muso.
I wonder if anybody here has used LMS? Some feedback would be useful.
I’m hesitant to shell out 800 currency units just to carry out a trial!
I personally prefer to steal clear of specific so called aggregators, unless I was exploring a new station.
Look up or store the station URLs, and store in favourites or ‘choice stations’ on a system that can resolve the url on the web natively.
I don’t think Naim support this native access at present, hopefully this will be coming. KIS.
I think there is a tendency of commercial online radio database providers to over complicate something which is very simple to perhaps justify their existence.
It’s a tradeoff between flexibility and ease of use. Most users like to see the station logo, at the very least, and not some grey generic disc/antenna icon!. Metadata such as track playing and album art is also neat to have.
I’ve been using LMS for over a decade - I started with Squeezeboxes.
It can certainly communicate with ChromeCast endpoints (using a plug-in). I use it with several ChromeCast audio pucks, but I’ve also tested it with my Naim streamers, and it worked. I run Qobuz through it. And have run Tidal in the past.
There’s also a UPnP plug-in (developed by the same guy who developed the ChromeCast Plug-in). I’ve never had cause to use it, but I understand it works well.
In the U.S. at least LMS doesn’t seem to be necessary for the BBC. As I mentioned above the Google Assistant appears to be able to access the BBC and direct it to ChromeCast renderers including my Nova. I just tell it to “Play BBC Radio 3 on Bedroom Nova.” It even turns my Nova on (but not off).