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From [0]: > Airplay doesn't offer multi-room audio; AirPlay 2 does > AirPlay lets you stream from any Apple device to your speakers or TV > AirPlay 2 lets y
by pbronez 6y ago
From [0]:
> Airplay doesn't offer multi-room audio; AirPlay 2 does
> AirPlay lets you stream from any Apple device to your speakers or TV
> AirPlay 2 lets you play from speakers over Wi-Fi, and it'll stay in sync
> AirPlay 2 lets play different songs in different rooms with multiple HomePods
Personally I've been very happy using AirPlay 2 with recent iPhones, a collection of HomePod Minis, an AppleTV and Denon Receiver. It makes it pretty easy to set up complex audio routing configurations from your phone. You can send a stream to several devices simultaneously while controlling volume independently and as a group. You can see what's playing on each device. Audio quality is good, battery impact seems fine.
I wish I could have strong AirPlay 2 support from non-Apple devices, but I know how the ecosystem works. Still, easy enough to use something like the Emby iOS app [1] to bridge arbitrary content into the system.
[0] https://www.pocket-lint.com/speakers/news/apple/144646-apple-airplay-2-vs-airplay-what-s-the-difference https://www.pocket-lint.com/speakers/news/apple/144646-apple...
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/emby/id992180193 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/emby/id992180193
- funcDropShadow 6y ago> Airplay doesn't offer multi-room audio; AirPlay 2 does That seems strange. Because I remember buying several used Airport Express base station to build a multi-room audio system. It worked great. That was around 2006/7, if my memory serves me right. At that time the protocol and the feature was called AirTunes.
- 3JPLW 6y agoYeah, you (used to?) be able to do multi-room audio with the original Airplay, but it was only supported from Macs. iOS did not support it.
- pfranz 6y agoDoesn't the original AirPlay have a constant 2 second lag? Like pressing Pause will take 2 seconds to take effect. I remember hearing it was something addressed in AirPlay2.
- amaccuish 6y agoOriginal AirPlay does have a built in lag, but commands like pause were sent immediately (and if the target has hardware volume control, volume would be instant to rather than modifying the lagged audio stream)