Wireless Music via Airplay in multiple rooms

tweedbean · 19 Oct 2012 at 12:20

Hi all im looking into modernising the music solution in our house. I have a macbook, an ipad and 2 iphones. We have BT Infiniti Wireless in our home with the base unit in the kitchen.

Living Room

Apple TV box connected to TV/surround sound

Bedroom

AirPort Express connected via audio jack to stereo

Kitchen

AirPort Express connected via audio jack to stereo

With the setup above could I do the following:
Scenario 1: Stream one song to all three units in the living room, bedroom and kitchen so the same song is playing in all three rooms at the same time? Say for a party.

Scenario 2: Stream music from my iphone to the bedroom airport express, while my partner uses the apple TV unit in the living room to play songs streaming from her ipad? Nothing playing in the kitchen. More for a day to day use.

Also do any of the devices need to be wired to the BT broadband hub, or does it all work wirelessly using wifi?

Links to both products:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC414B/A/airport-express-base-station

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/apple_tv

Disco Boy · 19 Oct 2012 at 12:57

If it's a multi room audio streaming setup that you want, then a sonos or squeezebox solution is far superior to an AirPlay one.

tweedbean · 19 Oct 2012 at 13:09

Disco Boy said:
If it's a multi room audio streaming setup that you want, then a sonos or squeezebox solution is far superior to an AirPlay one.

Thanks for the suggestion, however cost wise, im not looking to spend anywhere near as much as the Sonos systems. Im looking for a simple solution, im no audiophile. I have an AppleTV on the way and can pick up the airplay express for £150 for the two.

Dangerous Dave · 19 Oct 2012 at 14:43

tweedbean said:
With the setup above could I do the following:
Scenario 1: Stream one song to all three units in the living room, bedroom and kitchen so the same song is playing in all three rooms at the same time? Say for a party.

Scenario 2: Stream music from my iphone to the bedroom airport express, while my partner uses the apple TV unit in the living room to play songs streaming from her ipad? Nothing playing in the kitchen. More for a day to day use.

Also do any of the devices need to be wired to the BT broadband hub, or does it all work wirelessly using wifi?

I am currently fitting multi room audio to my house and have been investigating each system, Sonos is the best but as you say cost wise the airplay system works out very cheap if you already have apple devices to control them.

For scenario one you can not stream from an iPad or iPhone to more than one room, you can run iTunes on a pc/mac and use the remote app on the ipad/iphone which allows you to stream the same song to multiple rooms.

For scenario 2 you can stream to different rooms at the same time from two devices.

If you are running three devices you can run them wirelessly but it would be better to wire them directly to the hub as it it a lot of wireless devices on the network at the same time once you include the iPhone and iPad.

tweedbean · 19 Oct 2012 at 15:02

thanks for your response. So what your saying is for a party, I can play music from itunes on my mac to all airport express and appletv devices? Then use remote on my iphone/ipad to control the music playing on my mac? Therefore giving me the same song in all rooms.

Then day to day I can stream to a single airport express from an ipod/ipad. The only thing I cant do is stream from an ipod/ipad to all three devices at once?

Dangerous Dave · 19 Oct 2012 at 16:11

tweedbean said:
thanks for your response. So what your saying is for a party, I can play music from itunes on my mac to all airport express and appletv devices? Then use remote on my iphone/ipad to control the music playing on my mac? Therefore giving me the same song in all rooms.

Then day to day I can stream to a single airport express from an ipod/ipad. The only thing I cant do is stream from an ipod/ipad to all three devices at once?

In short yes to all the questions. Hopefully an update at some point will allow airplay on the iPad to stream to multiple rooms at the same time.

tweedbean · 19 Oct 2012 at 16:27

Great stuff, thanks for your help.

Turbo-G · 20 Oct 2012 at 10:18

Yes, effectively your mac will be the server. You enable home sharing on the mac, and then from the iOS remote app you can browse your collection like a touch screen juke box, and play it through your various airplay devices, Apple TV , stereo connected to an AE etc.

Works very well, it would be very hard to justify spending extra on Sonus if you already have the apple gear. It just works really well I find.

peterwynne · 26 Oct 2012 at 15:47

sounds like you're sorted.. but just for note:

I have an iMac upstairs - then mac mini in the lounge attached to home cinema sound - then airport express attached to an amp which powers speakers in the kitchen.. I used air foil to pipe sound through to the mac mini etc all at once:
http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/
great software, available for windows too.