BBC 4.0 surround sound tests

I know this is a long and unlikely shot, but thought it at least worth asking… ! :-)

The BBC will be doing some test 4.0 surround sound streams of Proms. More details from

For Linux I think it means I’d have to install a new distro and use Chrome to deal with the methods employed. Sledgehammer needed. Particularly when I then want to capture the stream for examination, not just listen.

So is it at all feasible for someome to write a RO program that can take the relevant URL and use it to get and record the stream? The details are different to the established iplayer, etc, and I don’t understand the new system involved. So I have no idea how close to ‘impossible’ this would be. Hence I ask in wide-eyed innocence. 8-]

Failing that, you may be interested in listening if you have a suitable (non-RO) system.

Jim

The BBC will be doing some test 4.0 surround sound streams

You mean like quadraphonic sound that was popular back in the ’70s?

Why don’t they use 5.1 (or mux it up), a lot of stuff already supports that…

The view held by those involved in classical music broadcasts is that the Center channel simply makes decent results hard to obtain, and the LFE channel is best left for thuds and bangs in Terminator movies, etc. Hence they tend to go for 4.0.

In practice they may actually use 5.1 at times, but leave the center and lfe channels silent. Give the data bandwidth to the main 4 channels. Some of last year’s Proms on BBCTV were 5.1 (HDTV). For the music, the C and LFE use varied from prom to prom. I guess it was left to each producer to decide if they wanted to use them. I’m curious to see what they do this year on BBC4TV now it is on FreeView HDTV.

I’m agnostic on the above beyond seeing their point that – for live classical acoustic music – center and lfe are essentially redundant if you have a good setup. But then I don’t have any actual surround systems at all. Hard enough to get stereo working optimally!

…and quadraphonic wasn’t popular. It vanished. Personally, I haven’t missed it at all. :-)

And the problem in this case isn’t 4.0 versus 5.1. Its the transfer methods the BBC are using to stream the audio.

Jim

There was also Ambisonic production (unofficially) from Pebble Mill Drama in the 1980’s and 90’s !!

Although of absolutely no relevance to the current discussion, I remember the BBC’s first forays into the world of publically testing stereo. There was an announcement in the Radio Times that one channel could be heard through the TV and the other through The Third Programmme. Whether the latter had to be an FM broadcast or could be AM on the medium wave, I can’t recall at this distance. It was either in the late 1950s or the very early 60s. Anyone for asymmetry?

John

It was AM and TV – The only test I remember was a choir progressing down the aisle of what i believe was Westminster Abbey. As I remember, one channel was switched on before the other.

The sudden change in ambiance (a word I never knew at that time) was startling and totally enfolding to my teenage ears.

Since no-one is responding to my original question I’ll add:

R4extra ran a series a while ago of “The Friend in the Corner” about the history of BBC radio. One episode contained the announcers explaining how the stereo tests with a TV + radio were being done, advising listeners how to set up their receivers.

In those days a hot audio topic was if you needed two very similar speakers for stereo, or if two totally different ones were fine!

And I still recall sitting up late to hear the FM mpx test signals to check my tuner. In later years they ceased routine transmissions of these, but by then I had a stereo generator. :-)

Moving slightly closer to my original topic, the BBC also used paired FM stations for some surround sound test broadcasts back when Quadraphonic was the “next new thing”… that never really was.

However I conclude from the replies that no-one has any interest in my original point or thinks it feasible. Oh well, Chrome next week I suspect. 8-]

Jim

I don’t remember ever hearing the actual broadcast(s), just seeing the details in the RT. I was probably only just a teenager at that time.

And did I really mis-spell ‘publicly’? Ouch, how embarrasing!

And did I really mis-spell ‘publicly’? Ouch, how embarrasing!

Spell embarrass and then make it embarrassing :) oh, you did.

I claim a typo! I really do know how to spell embarrass. Honest, guv.