[kwlug-disc] Distributed Sound system - Questions and presentation offer

[Alex K]

Perhaps Audio ChromeCast device in every room, DLNA or HTTP server on your
headless computer, NAScast app or similar on your Android device (no root
needed).

You will be able to play to any number of the cast devices (just group
them) either from Google Play/Spotify/whatever, or play your own music
collection streamed from your NAS.

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 2:03 PM, Raul Suarez via kwlug-disc <
kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> First things first:
> I remember that a few years ago Richard Weait gave a presentation on
> setting this up. He showed some hardware devices to receive the sound in
> each room connected to the amplifier or speakers.
> I can't remember what those devices were, does anyone here remember?
>
> The whole story
> I am in the process of setting up a distributed sound system for home. I
> want to be able to play music on different rooms either the same music of
> different music on each room.
>
> I want to be able to play my own music as well as streaming services such
> as Google Play or Spotify.
> I want to do it as inexpensive and energy efficient as possible.
>
> I am almost all set and I can offer a presentation if I ever get it to
> work exactly as I want or at least to show the pitfalls I found
>
> This is what I have done up to now:
> First try
> - I have an old headless computer connected to my sound system running VLC
> on start up
> - I use VLC Mobile remote on the android to control what is playing on
> that room.
> Pro:
> - Sergiane is happy enough with this set up. It is a small home and
> cranking up the volume you can hear in every room.
> - Very easy to set up with little to no technical expertise, very easy to
> use.
> Con:
> - It only controls one room and only the music on the laptop. While VLC
> can access UPnP servers, I haven't found an Android VLC remote app that
> allows me to select the DLNA source.
> - It is only practical if there is only one person at home or we both are
> in the same room and want to hear the same thing.
>
> Second try
> - I also have a RT-N54U router that I set up as a DLNA (UPnP) server with
> my music on a USB Drive
> - On the laptop I installed "rygel" with the playbin plug in
> <https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Rygel/Plugins> which allows me to serve
> as a UPnP rederer (it plays music it receives through UPnP
> - On the android phone I use Bubble UPnP and can select local music or
> music from the DLNA server and play it on the phone or forward the music to
> the laptop renderer.
> Pro:
> - As I change rooms I can select a different renderer for a "follow me"
> experience (e.g. my Chrome cast)
> - I can also play music on my games room using the PS3 getting the music
> from the router
> Con:
> - I can only play content provided by a DLNA server. Google play music,
> Spotify and others do not provide DLNA
> - I cannot play the same content simultaneously on two rooms
> - A bit more complex to use as the user needs to select the server and the
> renderer. (Very small learning curve)
>
> Third try (in progress)
> - There are a few Android applications that can get any thing that is
> playing in the phone and send it to one or multiple a DLNA renderers
> (AllStream, AirAudio)
> Pro:
> - I get all I want and need for now
> Con:
> - The phone needs to be rooted to work properly
> - The user needs to controll the player and controlling the upnp forwarder
> app.
>
> ToDo:
> - Root one of my devices and try AirAudio
> - Try leapcast on the old laptop to "ChromeCast" from the phone to the
> laptop.
> - Get Raspberry pi devices to work as sound endpoints for different rooms
>
>
> Raul Suarez Technology consultant Software, Hardware and Practices
> _________________ Twitter: rarsamx http://developerpractices.com
> http://rarsa.blogspot.com/ An eclectic collection of random thoughts
>
> _______________________________________________
> kwlug-disc mailing list
> kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kwlug.org/pipermail/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org/attachments/20161026/9508de90/attachment.htm>