Multi room audio setup with Apple bits

Multi room audio setup with Apple bits

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Discussion

Wadeski

Original Poster:

8,132 posts

212 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
OK - so I've just moved into a new larger apartment with my wife and (soon to be) baby. I'm not sure if this is an audio question or a computer forum question but i figured there are many on PH who have techno joy smile

Somewhere on the list of changes, comes getting the multi-room music setup properly. The apartment has two rooms (master bedroom and room for the nipper) and a lounge.

What I woulld like to have is the ability to stream my iTunes library into different rooms. If possible, even different music into different rooms at the same time (e.g. baby sleep sounds into one room, music into the bedroom or lounge).

Kit i have is:

Denon amp and speakers in the lounge.
2 x Airport Express base stations with the speaker jack for Airplay
1 x Apple TV (black)
2 x MacBooks
Lots of iPads / iPhones.

I was planning on having:

1: the Apple TV set up in the lounge with the speakers using one iPad as a Remote
2: 1 x Airport Express in the babies room hooked up to small hifi, controlled by the Remote
3: An ipad base station with wifi in the master bedroom to act as a clock radio / listen to the radio quietly in the bedroom

It seems as if Apple always wants your macbook to be the "centre" of the ecosystem vs a media hub with storage for some reason. Is this correct? And is there a smart way to control switch between mine and my wives iTunes libraries on the fly?


NorthDave

2,355 posts

231 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
I'm not very Apple centric so someone else may offer different advice but if it were me I would ditch most of the kit and go with Sonos and a NAS (to store both of your itunes libraries). It just works.

talkssense

1,336 posts

201 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
When playing the same music into all rooms, you will almost certainly have an audio delay through the Apple TV and amp which will result in a nice Echo effect.

brickwall

5,192 posts

209 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
I've got a setup similar to this in my house, an honestly I'm not that happy with it.

Reliability is terrible. Typical problems include:
a) Devices (Airports/Apple TVs) not being 'discovered' by iTunes, you're unable to play through them
b) Devices appearing and disappearing from iTunes
c) Devices dropping off mid-playback

Echo isn't a problem I've encountered, but frankly the reliability issues mean next time round I'll go for Sonos.


BalhamBadger

1,159 posts

172 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
talkssense said:
When playing the same music into all rooms, you will almost certainly have an audio delay through the Apple TV and amp which will result in a nice Echo effect.
Not true. I have three airplay devices - an Apple TV, an Airport Express and a jail-broken iphone. On the rare occasion I stream to all three they are all perfectly synchronised.





crmcatee

5,691 posts

226 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
I looked at doing exactly the same sort of thing. Having multiple Airports called different rooms all feeding a six channel power amp which would then feed loudspeakers in different rooms.

The lack of flexibility in Apple e.g. having not being able to take multiple streams all from the same iTunes library kicked it on the head.

I canned the idea, went for SONOS and a NAS. Dumped my iTunes folder onto the NAS, and told SONOS where it was. Now I just need to put new MP3 purchases onto the NAS, tell Sonos to update the Music library and it's all good. No issues of multiple streams pulling from the same library songs handles it all - running five zones without an issue.




BalhamBadger

1,159 posts

172 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
Wadeski said:
It seems as if Apple always wants your macbook to be the "centre" of the ecosystem vs a media hub with storage for some reason. Is this correct? And is there a smart way to control switch between mine and my wives iTunes libraries on the fly?
The macbook doesn't have to be the centre but it is the only way you will be able to play to all three airplay base stations simultaneously.

You can stream to any airplay base station using the content on any device on your wifi network (iphone / ipad), as well as online apps such as spotify or Tunein Radio.

ios 7 and later has easily accessibly global controls for swapping between airplay base stations - apps like Spotify have the necessary menu embedded. Once source device a. has stopped streaming, the airplay base station is free to be streamed to from device b.

Hope that all makes sense!

sparkyhx

4,143 posts

203 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
BalhamBadger said:
Wadeski said:
It seems as if Apple always wants your macbook to be the "centre" of the ecosystem vs a media hub with storage for some reason. Is this correct? And is there a smart way to control switch between mine and my wives iTunes libraries on the fly?
The macbook doesn't have to be the centre but it is the only way you will be able to play to all three airplay base stations simultaneously.

You can stream to any airplay base station using the content on any device on your wifi network (iphone / ipad), as well as online apps such as spotify or Tunein Radio.

ios 7 and later has easily accessibly global controls for swapping between airplay base stations - apps like Spotify have the necessary menu embedded. Once source device a. has stopped streaming, the airplay base station is free to be streamed to from device b.

Hope that all makes sense!
out of interest can you now have a person with their own device controlling the speaker in their room? i.e.multi devices each able to independently controlany zone?

I always thought airplay couldn't do this.

vote for Sonos though - its just works.


BalhamBadger

1,159 posts

172 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
sparkyhx said:
out of interest can you now have a person with their own device controlling the speaker in their room? i.e.multi devices each able to independently controlany zone?

I always thought airplay couldn't do this.

vote for Sonos though - its just works.
Good question - give me 5 mins!

BalhamBadger

1,159 posts

172 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
BalhamBadger said:
Good question - give me 5 mins!
Just tried - yes two devices can simultaneously send music to two base stations on the same network.

gacsal

1 posts

113 months

Monday 20th October 2014
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Hi there,

you can stream even from iOS-Devices to multiple Airplay-devices at the same time.
Search the AppStore for keywords "multiroom airplay", you'll find it.

Enjoy your music on up to 6 Speakers!


Podie

46,630 posts

274 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
NorthDave said:
...if it were me I would ditch most of the kit and go with Sonos and a NAS
yes

We did this. Added Spotify, and now barely use the NAS.

talkssense

1,336 posts

201 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
BalhamBadger said:
Not true. I have three airplay devices - an Apple TV, an Airport Express and a jail-broken iphone. On the rare occasion I stream to all three they are all perfectly synchronised.
How is your Apple TV connected to your TV and surround sound?

dxg

8,125 posts

259 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
brickwall said:
I've got a setup similar to this in my house, an honestly I'm not that happy with it.

Reliability is terrible. Typical problems include:
a) Devices (Airports/Apple TVs) not being 'discovered' by iTunes, you're unable to play through them
b) Devices appearing and disappearing from iTunes
c) Devices dropping off mid-playback

Echo isn't a problem I've encountered, but frankly the reliability issues mean next time round I'll go for Sonos.
I, too, have such a setup (kitchen, bedroom, living room, office).

I don't have a problem with echo at all.

However, the kitchen is wifi and frequently disappears or just drops completely out of sync by a couple of seconds or so. All the hardwired bits work just fine.

I persist with this set up because it has been largely cobbled together over the years from old kit. Rogue Amoeba's airplay software will turn anything into an airplay receiver for not much cash. Their transmitter software also captures all and any sound on a source machine (nice for broadcasting iplayer radio round the house). And at a fraction of the cost of a Sonos set up.

BalhamBadger

1,159 posts

172 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
talkssense said:
How is your Apple TV connected to your TV and surround sound?
HDMI to the TV, optical out to the amplifier. The other two (airport express and iphone) are both analogue but I have never noticed any lag/echo.

Wadeski

Original Poster:

8,132 posts

212 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
I like the look of the Sonos, but I know if its not Apple the chance my wife will use it is zero. She's as thoroughly brainwashed that "Apple = Easy, everything else = Hard and not worth learning" as anyone I've ever met!

Salesy

850 posts

128 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
Wadeski said:
I like the look of the Sonos, but I know if its not Apple the chance my wife will use it is zero. She's as thoroughly brainwashed that "Apple = Easy, everything else = Hard and not worth learning" as anyone I've ever met!
VOTE FOR SONOS FROM ME.

i had the all Apple setup and at times was a pain. My wife constantly moaned.

Introduced Sonos and she's got it on all the time. The Sonos App on apple is great, your wife will approve



sparkyhx

4,143 posts

203 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
BalhamBadger said:
BalhamBadger said:
Good question - give me 5 mins!
Just tried - yes two devices can simultaneously send music to two base stations on the same network.
is that cos you have 2 base stations. or is it truely multi device

I think Sonos can handle 32 Or 16 (something like that) devices contolling the music anywhere - which is great flexibility, but allows the kids to play silly beggars, but that soon wears off.



BalhamBadger

1,159 posts

172 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
sparkyhx said:
is that cos you have 2 base stations. or is it truely multi device

I think Sonos can handle 32 Or 16 (something like that) devices contolling the music anywhere - which is great flexibility, but allows the kids to play silly beggars, but that soon wears off.
No, I don't think you can have separate streams from e.g. your macbook's itunes library. If someone in the lounge is streaming from the macbook's itunes, someone wishing to listen to something different in the kitchen would need to use another input source (e.g. spotify, tracks stored on iphone).

BalhamBadger

1,159 posts

172 months

Monday 20th October 2014
quotequote all
For me airplay is a bit of a hobby and appeals to the geek in me getting each room in the house zoned with whatever kit I have lying around. Fully appreciate that for someone with a decent budget and starting from scratch Sonos is a good option.