Multi Room Audio

[mgalvin]

Hello!!

I've recently started looking in to multi room audio systems and have become rather disillusioned by the lack of any official windows mobile.... or windows for that matter .... apps.

So my question is what are people out there doing? anyone hacked together a cool setup?

Ideally i'm looking to stream music from my phone, over wifi, using groove and have it play in multiple rooms... should be simple... right?

Currently I'm streaming via Bluetooth to my hifi amp, which works great and I'm considering using an aux out on the amp to some sort of audio sender... which will work... but all feels pretty hacked together.... which i think i like.... but my wife will hate

anyhow, let me know what you're all doing!

nivlag

 

[mrpuny]

Hello!!

I've recently started looking in to multi room audio systems and have become rather disillusioned by the lack of any official windows mobile.... or windows for that matter .... apps.

So my question is what are people out there doing? anyone hacked together a cool setup?

Ideally i'm looking to stream music from my phone, over wifi, using groove and have it play in multiple rooms... should be simple... right?

Currently I'm streaming via Bluetooth to my hifi amp, which works great and I'm considering using an aux out on the amp to some sort of audio sender... which will work... but all feels pretty hacked together.... which i think i like.... but my wife will hate ��

anyhow, let me know what you're all doing!

nivlag

This is a subject near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately, on Windows Phone/Mobile, your options are very limited. (On the desktop/tablet there are more options.) Probably the best option is Sonos, though it's on the pricey side. But you can get standalone speakers or an adapter to hook to an existing stereo. Sonos was working on a Windows Phone app at one point (it was in beta) but they've since decided not to support the platform. But there are 3rd party apps (e.g. Phonos) available that appear to work well. Sonos also supports Groove Music subscription if you use that.

Another option might be something like the Philips Izzy family of speakers. These are Bluetooth speakers, but also support multiroom. From what I understand, the way these work is that you connect your phone to one speaker using Bluetooth, and up to 4 other Izzy speakers can be linked to that speaker to provide a synced multiroom setup. I believe that while your phone connects by Bluetooth, the speakers communicate among themselves over a WiFi direct type protocol, but I'm not sure of that. The good thing here is this approach works just like any other Bluetooth speaker setup as far as the phone is concerned and so it's platform independent and will play anything your phone can.

I'll throw out one last thing if you have multiple powered speakers already and are just looking for an inexpensive dongle setup, but you're probably not going to like it :wink: In that case it would be hard to beat the Chromecast Audio devices. You're not going to be doing multiroom audio from a Windows Mobile device with this setup, but you can pick up a super cheap Android phone to keep around the house to control it. (Just think of it as a remote control.)

 

[EspHack]

you can buy Bluetooth receivers to plug into every stereo on every room, or connect all the rooms to aux on your receiver as you said

 

[mrpuny]

you can buy Bluetooth receivers to plug into every stereo on every room, or connect all the rooms to aux on your receiver as you said

Depending on exactly what the OP is asking for, this could work. Standard Bluetooth is one-to-one. One source plays to one Bluetooth receiver. So if it's just being able to play wirelessly to one room at a time, then yes, you can add Bluetooth receivers to each stereo/powered speaker.

If you want synced playback for ony two rooms at a time, the OP can hook a Bluetooth transmitter to the aux/tape out on the current receiver and then hook a Bluetooth receiver on the second stereo/powered speaker. (I happen to have a set of these http://www.amazon.com/Brightech-Bluetooth-Receiver-Transmitter-Transmission/dp/B00Z9O205K?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00 that I used to transmit sound from my TV to a stereo in another room (paired together with one set as a transmitter, one as a receiver) and they worked well with no noticeable lag. (If speakers could be wired, there might also be options for using receiver "Zone 2" speaker outputs and/or a wired distribution amp setup to expand this further.)

But if the OP needs a wireless multiroom audio solution to more speakers than above, something more advanced than standard Bluetooth will be necessary.