Music Distribution System Ideas

[dsavitsk]

I am looking for a good way to implement a music distribution system in a largish space. The space is ~10,000 sqft with several rooms and several levels. The space is a noisy workshop, so audiophile sound is not really a consideration.

I would like to have multiple nodes that play music and that can be synchronized, or be used independently. The more wireless the system is, the better. I would like to accomplish two distinct things:

- the first is to allow multiple users to play music from a central server to one or more nodes.

- the second is to allow users to play music from a device (laptop/phone/etc) to send to the rest of the system.

There is a large server in place that can run whatever virtual machine I like. But the nodes do not exist, and cost is a major factor.

For the first part, I think the easiest thing is to run a central server (Vortexbox most likely) that stores files and runs Squeeze Server (Logitech Media Server). Each node will then be some small Linux device (Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone, etc) with a sound card, a digital amp, a speaker, and SoftSqueeze running. That seems straight forward enough.

The second part is the hard part, I think. One thought is some sort of software soundcard that could be installed that would broadcast sound to a network. Another possibility is a USB soundcard to plug into, or an AtoD converter that a user could connect the analog jack to the system. The issues here are broadcasting to a controllable set of notes, and not running wires every which way.

Any ideas?

[grawk]

Appletvs

[dsavitsk]

I should add that non-proprietary/open source is a requirement.

[Grahame]

I like the way you think

For the nodes ...

Logitech has their Logitech Squeezebox Radio (Open Box) for $89.99 after applying coupon codelogi_radio_8812. Shipping is free.at the moment

Don't know how that lines up with you budget wrt cost / node.

2nd Part - people have used similar approaches to capture audio output from CD players / Desktop Apps etc , and use that as a broadcast source for the squeezebox / slim server

You probably want to look at the Wave Input For Linux Plugin if you are thinking of vortex box

You could attach that ( or multiple ones) to say an airport express, then people could use airplay to source music from their iphones.

Or for the android + other bluetooth enabled users ...

Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth Audio Devices (980-000540)

[Dusty Chalk]

Wait, you want multiple nodes to be able to play into the distribution system? I think your big problem is going to be the software -- not sure how it handles being dynamically played into "collaboratively", I.E. the resource contention problem (you only ever want one person to be able to play into it at a time, neh?). Basically, the play device isn't going to matter, so you could probably get away with iPads, iTouches, laptops, ultrabooks, netbooks, etc.

Playback is entirely different and well-formed at this point -- Roku, Squeezebox, etc. all have plenty of such devices.

[luvdunhill]

Totally wrong thread, sorry.

These look cool, thinking about buying some to play with.

http://store.netgate.com/mobile/ADI/RCC-DFF-2220.aspx

There is also a four core version and an upcoming six core.

http://store.netgate.com/mobile/ADI/RCC-VE-2440.aspx

Also cheaper n-1 gen stuff available at that site. Just ran across the website when looking at some of the pfSense recommended hardware configurations and what some of the newer NAS hardware was powered with and thought about Doug, so figured I would post it.