Mass Media & Technology

Beeb

Currently in beta. (June 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
JA
Jake
Just received an email from the WIndows Insider Programme.
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ST
Stuart
I've just had this too. I might give it a try. Very Happy
BA
Bail Moderator
Does this do litterally anything that the current voice assistants doesnt do with Ok Google and Alexa? Whats the point?
JO
Jon
Bail posted:
Does this do litterally anything that the current voice assistants doesnt do with Ok Google and Alexa? Whats the point?

To simplify it a bit. Presumably at the moment if you ask it to ‘play Radio 1s’ it could give you a multitude of Radio 1s from all over the world. As I say that’s an over simplification as that request would almost certainly give you ‘BBC Radio 1’ but I hope you get the general gist.

At the moment if I ask Google to play a show from BBC Sounds and I just say ‘OK google play show name’ it’s unlikely to work so you have to ask ‘ok google open the BBC’ then make your request. So in that respect it would be much easier if BBC could have their own activation word on these services.

I guess an analogy would be the difference between having to search for something on Google that’s on the BBC website over their own search engine, only it’s a lot easier to find the content on a browser than a voice activated service where as a smart speaker only really has one chance to give you the right thing.
JO
Josh
So it's basically cutting the middle man out?
DV
DVB Cornwall
Previous, now archived discussion when this Voice Assistant was first announced .....

https://www.tvforum.co.uk/mediatech/beeb-new-bbc-voice-assistant-44796/
MD
mdtauk
Bail posted:
Does this do litterally anything that the current voice assistants doesnt do with Ok Google and Alexa? Whats the point?


Its an entry point into a platform and service the BBC can provide without advertising influences.

During Microsoft's Build conference this year, there was a UK developer working on Voice AI interviewed. There is an intention to develop a synthetic voice assistant that can read news stories with the correct tone and intonation to match the context of the story.

I guess Beeb is a bet on how people will want to access news and media beyond Television and Screen based devices. And investing now, is a good bet, instead of hitching their wagon to one particular US corporation, and have a dependency on one platform.

I would imagine the same content and delivery system would "plug in" to Alexa, Bixby, Cortana, Google, Siri, etc
CA
Capybara
I seem to remember a discussion that it would be accessible as a skill on multiple existing platforms, but it would time out after a while and you'd have to open it back up again. I don't see how this assistant is an improvement over Alexa for example. If I say "Alexa, play Radio 2" it directly opens it from the BBC Sounds skill. It can do jokes and tell you weird facts, it can already tell you the BBC News (although in a rather unintuitive way) and probably can do podcasts as well, although I haven't checked. And you don't need Amazon Music Unlimited to play these "music mixes", so I fail to see what this is adding at all really.
FL
flipps
it looks okay but its a bit weird even though it in beta
BA
Bail Moderator
If I ask "Alexa, Play Radio 2" I get BBC Radio 2. If I ask "Alexa, play flash news" I get the BBC News 60 second summary... I just don't see the need for all the "extra" apps (much like I don't use BBC Sounds but did use iPlayer Radio) that want me in a "BBC ecosystem" if I'm already in an iOS or Alexa one I don't want yet another.
GE
thegeek Founding member
It's not the first time they've used the 'beeb' brand name - BBC Worldwide had an ISP called beeb.net for most of the 2000s.

I can see some benefit in this - if only to cut down on the number of times my Google Home tries to offer me a Spotify playlist called "sex music" instead of the alternative digital music station that I'm after.
UKnews, TVMan and Alfie Mulcahy gave kudos
DA
davidhorman

I can see some benefit in this - if only to cut down on the number of times my Google Home tries to offer me a Spotify playlist called "sex music" instead of the alternative digital music station that I'm after.


That's your story and you're sticking to it.

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