[sbergin]

hello,

I have a synology NAS (DS210j with DMS 4.1) and several xbmc appliances (Atom D252 with Openelec + xbmc v11.0).

My wish is to push a same audio stream, via airplay to many multimedia players, to create a multi-room. Since version 4 DMS this is possible with Audio Station.

My problem concerns the airplay compatibility, between the 2 systems.

what works:
- Push a stream airplay from an iphone (apple) to xbmc
- Push a stream to a synology airplay since airportexpress (apple)

I can not seem to make it work:
- Push a stream airplay from synology (not apple) to xbmc (not apple)

I would add that the synology server see xbmc airplay, as a client.
When the synology sends an audio stream, XBMC reboot.

is that someone has arrived to operate synology -> airplay -> xbmc?

is that other people have encountered this problem and found a solution?

thank you for your help!

[Livin]

There are many ways to do what you want... and there are many threads about those ways. Do a search

[perplu]

XBMC 11 airplay function only works with video. It does not work with audio. I think the reason is related to Apple DRM.

With respect to your requirement, ie. playing the same track from Audio Station to multiple devices; and presumbably you want it synchronised there are very few solutions out there at the moment. I've hunted high and low - see these forum links: http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic....63&t=56932

And read from post 10 onwards here: http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic....4w#p224662

There are solutions for playing different tracks to different devices, but only a very few with what you (and I and I would say lots of others) are after without having to fork out the excessive amount required by the likes of Sonos. Some of the solutions available but are: Logitech Squeezetech stuff. Airplay but its not sychronised - you can verify this with Apple, ie. they don't mention it being sychronised across Airplay renderers and you'd think they would as its a great feature they'd want to advertise to anyone.

Shairport4w will work, but ony if you play from iTunes, but again the audio is not sychronised.

AirFoil does work, but it requires having a PC or similar running which is then attached to speakers. Rather clunky.

The ideal is to be able to do this with minimal devices and components, ie. the best arrangement I think would be:
1. Synology NAS with Audio Station with a client that is also available for Android or other.

2. Then any number of either Airplay speakers or DLNA speakers (like the Aris 100 or Pioneer's A4). I think in the end you'd need to decide to go with all renderers being Airplay or all renderers being DLNA. It would be a bit of an ask to expect Synology to have Audio Station synchronise playback across a mix of Airplay and DLNA. But you never know.

I've just realised there are two other players that have just launched or are about to launch solutions to compete with Sonos. These are Philips with their Fidelio system; and possibly Sony - I'm not sure that Sony's wireless speakers sychronise or not; the very recently launched Pure's Jongo and also Phorus http://www.phorus.com/.

Oh .. and there is JRiver's software - it does sychronise - but its very flakey. We all want something robust.

Personally - I'm waiting to see the next major release of Audio Station and hoping it will have what we're after. Really simple then.

[perplu]

There is also this post which explains how to do the whole thing using Squeeze stuff: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=134943

It works, the only thing is you need something to run the "squeeze client" on which then connects to each set of speakers. Not the most elegant. A possibility is to create "squeeze client" boxes using Raspberry PIs. Its do-able. But I'd rather someone just come up with the device and retail it so I can just pick 3 or 4 off the shelf, connect to existing speakers I have or use airplay or dlna speakers; or a dlna or airplay amp.

Cheers

[Livin]

Now that the OP changed and clarified his ask... it seems completely clear the issue is with the Synology and has nothing to do with XBMC - especially since none of your end-points work with the NAS and they all work with the laptop.

You should be getting help from the Synology forum, not here.

[migube]

I wanted to do exactly the same.
I tried also to stream from synology to other airplay receivers (not Apple, but android, ...) not working.
I opened a ticket to Synology, not satisfactionary. I invite you to do so too..

see also http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic....63&t=30959

[EuhicS]

Squeezebox is the best solution right now, I think, to synchronize your songs between multiple players. I also use a Synology with squeezebox server to stream audio to 2 squeezebox radio and 1 computer with squeezeplay installed (same computer that runs xbmc), all synchronized and controlled by squeeze commander on Android.
But the problem is, Logitech discontinued squeezebox in favor of logitech UE, even if they keep updating squeezebox server, that will certainly not last and we won't get new squeezebox devices.
So I also looked for another solution, like airplay, and had the same problems as yours. I stick with squeezebox for now (and squeezebox radio's price dropped) and hope something else similar will arrive.

[trip5ter]

Pulseaudio can stream to airplay speakers, you can even combine speakers (sinks in pulse audio) to playback too multiple speakers, maybe an addon to xbmc could control this?