Readme and default updates (#18)

bo-jofr · kristianhentschelbbc · web-flow · commit 21557eef6aab · 2026-01-09T17:00:23.000Z
* Change default sync service; readme updates

* Credits update

* Do not flag an empty cloud-sync hostname as an error if cloud-sync is not used

* update release date and package-lock

* Update package.json

Co-authored-by: Jon Francombe &lt;104007149+bo-jofr@users.noreply.github.com&gt;

---------

Co-authored-by: Kristian Hentschel &lt;Kristian.Hentschel@bbc.co.uk&gt;
diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@
 This changelog summarises changes for minor and major version bumps that end users might need to be aware of. The commit log should provide a more detailed list of changes for developers; most changes to internal systems are not discussed here.
 
 ---
+# `0.23.3` (public release)
+  _2026-01-09_
+  * Remove the default reference to the decomissioned BBC cloud-sync server, and default to PeerJS sync. Minor updates to readme.
+
 # `0.23.2` (public release)
   _2025-01-29_
   * Update application template, removes BBC logo from footer and updates the "made with Audio Orchestrator" link.
diff --git a/Readme.md b/Readme.md
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Create a project, import audio files, and author metadata for audio objects, seq
 
 _Audio Orchestrator_ requires `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` to be available in the system path or a specific location in your home directory. For a manual installation, place the binaries in `~/audio-orchestrator-ffmpeg/bin` on macOS and `%HOME%\audio-orchestrator-ffmpeg\bin` on Windows. See the [installation instructions](https://bbc.github.io/audio-orchestrator/installation/) for more details.
 
-**NB** _Audio Orchestrator_ by default uses a synchronisation server [cloud-sync](https://github.com/2-IMMERSE/cloud-sync) hosted by the BBC, which may go away without warning in the future. We recommend replacing this with your own server by setting its URL in the advanced export settings. There are [some notes on running a self-hosted cloud-sync server](https://github.com/bbc/audio-orchestration/issues/64).
+**NB** _Audio Orchestrator_ needs to use a synchronisation server, for example, an instance of [cloud-sync](https://github.com/2-IMMERSE/cloud-sync). A cloud-sync instance was previously hosted by the BBC but has been decomissioned and is no longer active as of December 2025. This should be replaced with your own server by setting its URL in the advanced export settings. There are [some notes on running a self-hosted cloud-sync server](https://github.com/bbc/audio-orchestration/issues/64). You could also explore the experimental and unsupported PeerJS synchronisation service, again in the advanced export settings.
 
 # Architecture overview
 
@@ -23,13 +23,13 @@ Development requires a macOS (or possibly Linux) environment. The instructions h
 
 ## Getting started
 
-1. Ensure you have [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/) version 20.x+ installed.
+1. Ensure you have [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/) version 22.x+ installed.
 
 ```
-node -v # e.g., v20.9.0
+node -v # e.g., v22.21.1
 ```
 
-2. Log in to the GitHub packages NPM registry. Create a [personal access token (classic)](https://github.com/settings/tokens) with only the `read:packages` permission, then log in using your GitHub username and the token as the password:
+2. Log in to the GitHub packages NPM registry. To do this, first create a [personal access token (classic)](https://github.com/settings/tokens) with only the `read:packages` permission. Then, log in using your GitHub username and the token as the password:
 
 ```
 npm login --registry https://npm.pkg.github.com --scope @bbc
diff --git a/electron-app/credits.html b/electron-app/credits.html
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
   </head>
   <body>
     <h1>About Audio Orchestrator</h1>
-    <p>Version 0.23.2</p>
+    <p>Version 0.23.3</p>
     <p>Copyright BBC R&amp;D</p>
     <p>User guide: https://bbc.github.io/audio-orchestrator</p>
     <p>Source code: https://github.com/bbc/audio-orchestrator</p>
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 {
   "name": "@bbc/audio-orchestrator",
   "productName": "Audio Orchestrator",
-  "description": "Audio Orchestrator is an production tool for prototyping multi-device audio experiences.",
+  "description": "Audio Orchestrator is a production tool for prototyping multi-device audio experiences.",
   "repository": "https://github.com/bbc/audio-orchestrator",
-  "version": "0.23.2",
+  "version": "0.23.3",
   "author": "BBC R&D",
   "license": "GPL-3.0-or-later",
   "private": true,
diff --git a/react-frontend/src/lib/Project.js b/react-frontend/src/lib/Project.js
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ const DEFAULT_SETTINGS = {
   accentColour: '#006def',
   enableDebugUI: true,
   enableCalibration: false,
-  syncEndpointType: 'cloud-sync',
-  cloudSyncHostname: 'cloudsync.virt.ch.bbc.co.uk',
+  syncEndpointType: 'peerjs',
+  cloudSyncHostname: '', // Previously cloudsync.virt.ch.bbc.co.uk, but this is no longer available
   customTemplatePath: undefined,
 };
 
@@ -619,9 +619,10 @@ class Project {
     const {
       joiningLink,
       cloudSyncHostname,
+      syncEndpointType,
     } = settings;
     const joiningLinkValid = !joiningLink || isUrl(joiningLink);
-    const cloudSyncHostnameValid = isHostname(cloudSyncHostname);
+    const cloudSyncHostnameValid = isHostname(cloudSyncHostname) || syncEndpointType !== 'cloud-sync';
     const valid = joiningLinkValid && cloudSyncHostnameValid;
 
     let message = null;
