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Is there a way to stream music from a Linux machine to multiple destinations? Currently I have a notebook with Mint connected to my stereo system for all my mu

by itry 14y ago

Is there a way to stream music from a Linux machine to multiple destinations? Currently I have a notebook with Mint connected to my stereo system for all my music needs. It works nice. I would love to have the music play in multiple rooms simultaneously. Is it possible? Money is not an issue. I could buy whatever equipment is needed. But I did not hear about any solution yet.

IgorPartola 14y ago
I know this is possible with Linux. At my previous job one of the developers used to pipe his music stream to the broadcast address on our LAN. I don't remember much about the exact protocols involved, but I'm sure it's possible. Even better, do multicast, since broadcast is out in IPv6.
- itry 14y ago
  Synchronizing the clients is the hard part.
  - IgorPartola 14y ago
    Ah. Is that the magic that AirPlay takes care of? Interesting problem...
    - toby 14y ago
      Airplay doesn't really do this. The sound is often slightly out of sync but it's enough to be really irritating if you can hear two of them. The best solution I know of for perfectly synchronized wireless sound is Sonos (quite expensive, but I love it)
      - itry 14y ago
        Squeezebox is not perfectly synchronized?
patja 14y ago
I'm not certain it will work but you might look into the Logitech Media Server http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download with SoftSqueeze clients http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/ http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/ While intended for use with Squeezebox hardware clients, I suspect you could get an all-software linux client-based synchronized setup working with it. The Squeezebox software is all known for being hackable. There is some concern about Logitech killing off the Squeezebox ecosystem, but the source for much (all?) of this is available and the community remains active.
- itry 14y ago
  Wow, I never heard about squeezebox. Sounds very good! I only want the server to be my linux box. The clients can be whatever. I will probably try both: build my own clients with softsqueeze and order some squeezebox radios as clients and see what happens. Nice! Thanks!
StavrosK 14y ago
Icecast? http://www.icecast.org/download.php http://www.icecast.org/download.php I can't imagine this being hard. Just generate a stream and play it on other computers, even VLC can do it.
- itry 14y ago
  Seems not to support synchronization of multiple clients.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    Ah, you want them to all be playing in sync? That might be a bit harder, then.
  - keenerd 14y ago
    You get that for free if your network is good. In college, we'd wire up half a dozen rooms to the same icecast server. The server itself could not participate, but there was no lag between the clients (all on the same network switch).
cdcarter 14y ago
Invest in a multi-room stereo system.
- itry 14y ago
  Are there any good wireless ones?
  - toni 14y ago
    Yes, Sonos makes nice wireless systems. Search for "Play:5" or "BU250" models, for example.
    - itry 14y ago
      I read about Sonos a couple of times, but never understood what it is about. Now I did it again. Same result. I dont get it. When I buy the Play:5 - what do I get? Where will I put my mp3s? Can they stay on my Linux box? Do I have to transfer them to a special device? It looks like Sonos uses its own wireless transfer mechanism. Why do I have to connect it to my router?
      - toni 14y ago
        > When I buy the Play:5 - what do I get? You get one Play:5 device. I would guess you need several of those to equip different rooms. > Where will I put my mp3s? Can they stay on my Linux box? Your mp3s can reside on any machine as long as they are reachable via CIFS/SMB protocol. > Do I have to transfer them to a special device? No. You only need a so called "Sonos Controller"- a small piece of software available for Windows/Mac/iOS/Android - where you actually manage your Sonos network: define your SMB share folders, create your playlists, search, stuff like that... > It looks like Sonos uses its own wireless transfer mechanism. Why do I have to connect it to my router? Yes Sonos does not really use 802.11 as we know it. It uses its own protocol called SonosNET (a kind of Spanning Tree Protocol) to create a wireless mesh network. So at least one Sonos device must be connected to a wired network to act as a wireless AP to allow other Sonos devices to connect to the network and use standard internet services (DHCP, DNS, etc...). Does that make sense?
rijoja 14y ago
You could try doing it with pulseaudio. It's nice because then you can stream everything that plays on a specific machine. Everything that's required is that the program has pulseaudio support which most music playing programs should have. I'm not sure how well it works with multiple destination though.

by itry 14y ago

IgorPartola 14y ago

I know this is possible with Linux. At my previous job one of the developers used to pipe his music stream to the broadcast address on our LAN. I don't remember much about the exact protocols involved, but I'm sure it's possible. Even better, do multicast, since broadcast is out in IPv6.

itry 14y ago
Synchronizing the clients is the hard part.
- IgorPartola 14y ago
  Ah. Is that the magic that AirPlay takes care of? Interesting problem...
  - toby 14y ago
    Airplay doesn't really do this. The sound is often slightly out of sync but it's enough to be really irritating if you can hear two of them. The best solution I know of for perfectly synchronized wireless sound is Sonos (quite expensive, but I love it)
    - itry 14y ago
      Squeezebox is not perfectly synchronized?

patja 14y ago

I'm not certain it will work but you might look into the Logitech Media Server http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download with SoftSqueeze clients http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/ http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/ While intended for use with Squeezebox hardware clients, I suspect you could get an all-software linux client-based synchronized setup working with it. The Squeezebox software is all known for being hackable. There is some concern about Logitech killing off the Squeezebox ecosystem, but the source for much (all?) of this is available and the community remains active.

itry 14y ago
Wow, I never heard about squeezebox. Sounds very good! I only want the server to be my linux box. The clients can be whatever. I will probably try both: build my own clients with softsqueeze and order some squeezebox radios as clients and see what happens. Nice! Thanks!

StavrosK 14y ago

Icecast? http://www.icecast.org/download.php http://www.icecast.org/download.php I can't imagine this being hard. Just generate a stream and play it on other computers, even VLC can do it.

itry 14y ago
Seems not to support synchronization of multiple clients.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  Ah, you want them to all be playing in sync? That might be a bit harder, then.
- keenerd 14y ago
  You get that for free if your network is good. In college, we'd wire up half a dozen rooms to the same icecast server. The server itself could not participate, but there was no lag between the clients (all on the same network switch).

cdcarter 14y ago

Invest in a multi-room stereo system.

itry 14y ago
Are there any good wireless ones?
- toni 14y ago
  Yes, Sonos makes nice wireless systems. Search for "Play:5" or "BU250" models, for example.
  - itry 14y ago
    I read about Sonos a couple of times, but never understood what it is about. Now I did it again. Same result. I dont get it. When I buy the Play:5 - what do I get? Where will I put my mp3s? Can they stay on my Linux box? Do I have to transfer them to a special device? It looks like Sonos uses its own wireless transfer mechanism. Why do I have to connect it to my router?
    - toni 14y ago
      > When I buy the Play:5 - what do I get? You get one Play:5 device. I would guess you need several of those to equip different rooms. > Where will I put my mp3s? Can they stay on my Linux box? Your mp3s can reside on any machine as long as they are reachable via CIFS/SMB protocol. > Do I have to transfer them to a special device? No. You only need a so called "Sonos Controller"- a small piece of software available for Windows/Mac/iOS/Android - where you actually manage your Sonos network: define your SMB share folders, create your playlists, search, stuff like that... > It looks like Sonos uses its own wireless transfer mechanism. Why do I have to connect it to my router? Yes Sonos does not really use 802.11 as we know it. It uses its own protocol called SonosNET (a kind of Spanning Tree Protocol) to create a wireless mesh network. So at least one Sonos device must be connected to a wired network to act as a wireless AP to allow other Sonos devices to connect to the network and use standard internet services (DHCP, DNS, etc...). Does that make sense?

rijoja 14y ago

You could try doing it with pulseaudio. It's nice because then you can stream everything that plays on a specific machine. Everything that's required is that the program has pulseaudio support which most music playing programs should have. I'm not sure how well it works with multiple destination though.