Some Airport Express w/Airtunes Q's (Streaming tunes around the office)

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tonyhughes

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#23576 3-Jul-2008 08:58

Hey guys, some questions about the above, as I am investigating the most convenient way of getting decent music to everyone in the office.

With say, half a dozen Airport Express / Airtunes units running, do I need a gruntier PC than I would for streaming out to one?
Can the volume control on iTunes act as a 'master' volume control for all the units at once? (Obviously each units connected speakers will cause individual variations though)
Can each 'user' stream different music to their unit compared to everyone else?
Any practical limits to this setup using an Apple 802.11n Wireless Router, all set up in an average sized house?
Does anyone have one or two Airport Express/Airtunes units they would be prepared to loan me for a couple of days? (Would be returned with liquor vouchers or something)

What other centralised office music setups do you guys have that won't break the bank?

I like the idea of the Apple units, because its cheap, easy to install, portable, expandable, and using iTunes is definitely my preference if possible.

At the moment, the office has one stereo in the middle of the restored Villa we work in, and its a battle between the dark metal crowd, and the early 90's popular dance crowd (leaving not much room for me of the popular hard rock and commercial metal), and the boss wants it sorted with technolgy [ "oh..... okay..... " says Tony :-) ]

tonyhughes

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#142437 3-Jul-2008 09:20

Problem # 2

The speakers must be wall mounted up high, but users must be able to control their volume from their desks.

alsta

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#142459 3-Jul-2008 10:29

One PC will stream to up to 5 Airport Expresses or appletv's at once.
Same stream to all 5.
Can't play different music to different ones from one instance of iTunes, i.e one PC.

All Airport Expresses are discoverable via Zero-config netoworking, so (i believe) if all PC's are on same subnet then every PC's version of iTunes can see every airport express.

I suppose, theoretically you might be able to run 5 instances of iTunes on one PC via virtual machines that will stream individual music to each Airport express.

itunes can control master volume of airport expresses. can obviously turn down the volume on each stereo/amp that the expresses are connected to.

iphone/ipod touch is suppposed to come with a remote control app for itunes with the new app store next week.

cheers

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alsta

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#142460 3-Jul-2008 10:32

Further,

a base extreme would be a nice central router, but isn't necessary if all computers are already on same subnet.
the Expresses will all be setup as non internet serving clients so will be just receive a IP address just like any PC connected.

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stuzzo

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#142482 3-Jul-2008 11:45

I think alsta's pretty much on the money with his answers here.

Apple say 3-6 Airports can be streamed to in typical conditions.

If you decide to look further at this I'm in the Hastings area and have 2 Airport Express units you are welcome to try. Just PM me.

I dare say a more practical solution would be Sonos if the budget went that far.

tonyhughes

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#142627 3-Jul-2008 17:05

Thanks, I will be seriously looking at the Sonos.

We don't have WiFi here yet, so need a WiFi router anyway. I would also rather have all the streaming happening over a physically seperate network, as we rely on high availablity and low latency on our LAN.

We decided today that one music stream for the whole place is all thats needed, and now just need wall mountable speakers, with some way of have individual volume controls at the desks.

TomAckroyd

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#142877 4-Jul-2008 10:33

I'm not a tech but this is what we have planned for our (Mac) office. No wireless though - all via existing ethernet cabling. Maybe not of immediate help to you, but it's a solution I quite like!

We have a multimedia table in our main "big" room (kitchen, meetings, bar, hang-out room). Bravia, amp, PS3, ethernet, umbilical to speakers, power etc. Next thing to add is Apple TV.

With help from IT (!) we plan to use both the PS3 and AppleTV as media servers. The AppleTV will stream everyone's iTunes playlists, browsing the network via ethernet. Ditto PS3 once we figure out hooking it up to a Mac network.

Also the AppleTV will hook up to YouTube, and we will use the PS3 browser as well. We will have local storage on each unit too. Video, photos, music etc.

Tom