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Let's talk bewildering multi-room audio/video (?) options with AirPlay!

S

scootermaster

Platinum Member
Here's the deal...I have:

1). Office: 2.1 speaker setup, only wireless connectivity. Currently with laptop that streams all of my music/movies plugged directly to 2.1 setup.

2). Living room. 5.1 speaker setup. Router. AppleTV. "SmartTV" with Plex + generic DNLA endpoint. AirPlay Denon receiver.

3). Bedroom with nothing.


Other notes: I have a PogoPlug (the best of the variants you could get for $15 or whatever) and an old Core2Duo desktop with a few hard drives that're doing nothing, if you have clever ideas for that. Oh, also, my router is an AirPort Extreme, which I guess I could hang a hard drive off of, if that made sense to do.

Currently, my bedroom gets nothing, I get audio direct from the laptop -- well, I have an external FW DAC -- to the 2.1 system, and I used the AppleTV to airplay to the living room.

So...:

I'm thinking of moving the laptop the living room so I don't have to stream movies over wireless -- although it's been plenty fast enough to do so -- and so I can run OpenEMU on my television.

Questions:

1). What the hell do I do with all of his stuff? 😀

but really

1). I'm trying to figure out what the best permutation of what's plugged in to what. One possible solution that occurred to me is an AirPort Express for my office. Then the laptop could go in the living room.
1a). Could I get a smaller Bluetooth Thingee for my bedroom? Can you airplay and BT at the same time?

2). Is there some other permutation of front ends (Plex on the TV, DNLA, AppleTV, Denon, laptop plugged directly in) and back ends (PogoPlug NAS, Hackintosh/Windows Server on the desktop, Laptop staying in the office, HD hanging off the Airport Extreme) that makes more sense?

There's literally dozens of permutations here. What would you all do?

Thanks!
 
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First option is Sonos. Best system on the market if you want multi-room synced audio without having to resort to hardwiring everything. Very expensive & no integrated Airport Express, although you can plug one in as an audio source.

Second option is Airplay. I would argue that it's designed to add wireless receiving capabilities to existing speakers, rather than to do whole-house audio. Apple has the best hardware (Airport Express), although there are a lot of Airplay-certified devices. Especially with the knockoff Airplay devices (like the cheap ones on Amazon & eBay), sync lag becomes an issue between devices, so if you want to play a song in the kitchen & living room, they may be a second or two behind each other. However, for $99, you can add music to multiple speakers. Plus, Rogue Amoeba makes some great software called Airfoil:

https://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

1. Airfoil: (for Mac & Windows) Send audio from your computer.
2. Airfoil Speakers: (for iPod Touch, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux)
3. Airfoil Remote: (for iOS devices) Lets you use your iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad as a remote control for Airfoil for Mac or Windows, letting you control different software & multiple speakers.

It's good to have a single technology to interface with. Imagine wanting to stream an album but then you have to choose Bluetooth for the bedroom, Plex for the home theater, DLNA for the TV, etc. - it's just too much hassle. What works best is having a single interface, such as Airfoil & Airplay - any source to any speaker (or multiple speakers). Again, Sonos does it best if you want a wireless system, but they are very pricey.

So I would say, reverse-engineer the situation: identify your audio areas (bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, outdoor deck, living room, etc.), identify what speakers you want to use (5.1, 2.1, 2.0, TV speakers, boombox, etc.), and then figure out how you want to control it. I used to manage a huge media library (in iTunes, unfortunately), but now I just use Spotify primarily (20 million songs for $10 a month, how cool is that?).

Ultimately, it all depends on what you want to do, how much you want to spend, and how much effort you want to put in. For example, I like the concept of whole-house audio, but I'm in a rental right now & would rather not permanently install speakers in the ceiling & then have to leave all of my gear in the house when I leave. So right now, I'm using a stuff like a $20 Soundbot Bluetooth speaker in the bathroom so I can listen to music or a podcast while I'm shaving & taking a shower in the morning:

http://www.amazon.com/SoundBot%C2%AE...dp/B00IGUUYTI/

Or I just use my iPhone's built-in speaker next to my bed with a sleep timer for listening to audiobooks when I go to sleep at night. I'd prefer a nice ceiling speaker system running off Airplay, but it meets the need & doesn't require any money or effort on my part, so it works for now haha.

The basic idea with figuring out what to do with your technology is to make a blueprint for each space - what do you want to do right when you walk into the room? When you walk into the living room, do you want to be able to pick up a game controller & play OpenEmu immediately? That means your laptop will need to be hooked up to the TV. But what about the TV? Do you want to be able to stream music to it wirelessly? That means you will have to leave it turned on, or better yet, just leave your 5.1 system on & ready to receive audio signals any time (although that's a waste of power if it's running off a receiver). So kind of figure out what you want & then work backwards from there.
 
Thanks for the [detailed] input, but Sonos makes exactly zero sense, given everything else I wrote.

What I'll probably do is keep the laptop in the office for now, and if I want speakers in the bedroom, get a cheapish (~ $50) AirPlay compatible speaker. If I move the laptop, I'll go find a used Airport Express on Craigslist. (It kinda sucks the AirPort Extreme doesn't have an audio port. I could be talked into buying an AC Time Capsule, and then could re-purpose the AE as an AirPlay endpoint, but no such luck. I guess I could do that, then sell the AE, but that sounds like a lot of effort. 😛)

The next question -- which I shouldn't have conflated with the above question -- is from where should I stream all this stuff. This one is probably more complicated, and involves video.

From my laptop in the office, wirelessly?
My my laptop in the living room, directly? (I.e. HDMI)
Use my laptop as a front end, and then set up a NAS using the PogoPlug?
Use my laptop as a front end, and then set up a pseudo-NAS using the Airport Extreme?
Set up something with that desktop that's gathering dust?
Some other permutation I haven't thought of?

As I've mentioned, if memory serves, my 802.11n network is fast enough for 1080p + 5.1 audio (although I haven't tested this extensively). Therefore, the only thing I think I'd "lose" by having my front end (the laptop) directly connected to the living room AV system is the ability to play OpenEMU or something like that (I don't think Airplay mirroring is fast enough for that).

So...um...thoughts?
 
not sure how it works with Apple TV but use the desktop as a media server, I use Serviio, you could use plex or whatever apple TV will hook into to just toss all your media across your network

I use Serviio + bubble uPnP app on my phone/tablet and I can send media to any DNLA compatible device on the network
 
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