Apple have been promoting their products as a digital hub for the digital lifestyle, but based on this discussion as things stand Airtunes can't deliver a viable digital music hub - or at best it can only deliver a pretty limited solution which has no interest for me.
To get Ethernet working across a national network in the WAN, it needs to use MPLS of some sort - martini draft or Lassere v.Kompella - is this the way to go? Although this delivers latencies of around 1.5 mulliseconds on a 200 mile circuit it sounds a bit OTT to me. Or are there QoS methods that can be applied?
One way or another Apple has to deliver on this. They've opened a door onto a massive market for wifi applications in the home, music is just the start. I'd like to have AirDVD too! And home security using wifi-enabled webcams (which I also can't find). And links to home control systems.
Well, if multi cast is unreliable, then they could use broadcast. You would need to prime target receivers before transmission, to allow for subsets to be handled. I think that multi cast will be perfectly fine on one physical network.
The only problem i can see is that the stream is encrypted on the fly, presumably keyed to the receiving unit, so using any form of 'cast is unlikely to work.
While I think that it is technically possible ( within bandwidth limits ) what it really boils to is:
a) how many people are going to need it?
b) what user interface will you use to do it?
I think (b) is the key problem. The UI as it stands is pretty simple. Adding support for zones or multiple receivers is only going to complicate matters. Im sure that the tech guys at Apple implemented plenty of features that we wont see in the final product, and that in this case the feature was dropped as a result of UI testing. The added complexity isnt worth the benefit.
Aitunes already has a pop down menu of zones (or rooms or hifi systems) - what i want is an addition to the list which says "All zones".
Piece of cake!
As to who would use it - i'd say pretty much everyone.
The current single zone solution is market limiting - I already have a G4 laptop plugged into my hifi - where's the benefit of going wireless? HIFI over WIFI only makes sense if all hifis can be wifi'd.
AirportExpress with a ethernet cable and stereo connector plugged in. Headless server with airport classic card plugged in stored away. iBook roaming the house. All within range of each other.
Can the AirportExpress deliver internet connection and recieve music at the same time?
Music is on the server. Can it be delivered over the Airport classic card to airport express?
The music in iTunes on the iBook is really on the server, but the iBook doesnt know that. If I want to play music from the iBook iTunes interface to Airport express will it travel server->airport express->iBook (recoding to loseless)->airport express->stereo? If yes will it work? And still if yes is there any iTunes remote app I can run on the iBook so it will travel from the server to Airport express and not over the iBook?
Will I be able to play different music to different zones at the same time (I dont quite grasp if the multicast discussion above is about that or if its about the same music to different zones)?
Different music simultaneously to different zones or same music simultaneously to different zones, but are same sides of the coin, at least from my perspective and both need to be delivered asap to allow Apple significant early mover advantage in this space.
Products such as the Yamaha MusicCast can do it, so why can't Airtunes?
Comments
Apple have been promoting their products as a digital hub for the digital lifestyle, but based on this discussion as things stand Airtunes can't deliver a viable digital music hub - or at best it can only deliver a pretty limited solution which has no interest for me.
To get Ethernet working across a national network in the WAN, it needs to use MPLS of some sort - martini draft or Lassere v.Kompella - is this the way to go? Although this delivers latencies of around 1.5 mulliseconds on a 200 mile circuit it sounds a bit OTT to me. Or are there QoS methods that can be applied?
One way or another Apple has to deliver on this. They've opened a door onto a massive market for wifi applications in the home, music is just the start. I'd like to have AirDVD too! And home security using wifi-enabled webcams (which I also can't find). And links to home control systems.
The only problem i can see is that the stream is encrypted on the fly, presumably keyed to the receiving unit, so using any form of 'cast is unlikely to work.
While I think that it is technically possible ( within bandwidth limits ) what it really boils to is:
a) how many people are going to need it?
b) what user interface will you use to do it?
I think (b) is the key problem. The UI as it stands is pretty simple. Adding support for zones or multiple receivers is only going to complicate matters. Im sure that the tech guys at Apple implemented plenty of features that we wont see in the final product, and that in this case the feature was dropped as a result of UI testing. The added complexity isnt worth the benefit.
Aitunes already has a pop down menu of zones (or rooms or hifi systems) - what i want is an addition to the list which says "All zones".
Piece of cake!
As to who would use it - i'd say pretty much everyone.
The current single zone solution is market limiting - I already have a G4 laptop plugged into my hifi - where's the benefit of going wireless? HIFI over WIFI only makes sense if all hifis can be wifi'd.
Neil
Can anyone figure out if this will work.
AirportExpress with a ethernet cable and stereo connector plugged in. Headless server with airport classic card plugged in stored away. iBook roaming the house. All within range of each other.
Can the AirportExpress deliver internet connection and recieve music at the same time?
Music is on the server. Can it be delivered over the Airport classic card to airport express?
The music in iTunes on the iBook is really on the server, but the iBook doesnt know that. If I want to play music from the iBook iTunes interface to Airport express will it travel server->airport express->iBook (recoding to loseless)->airport express->stereo? If yes will it work? And still if yes is there any iTunes remote app I can run on the iBook so it will travel from the server to Airport express and not over the iBook?
Will I be able to play different music to different zones at the same time (I dont quite grasp if the multicast discussion above is about that or if its about the same music to different zones)?
Products such as the Yamaha MusicCast can do it, so why can't Airtunes?
Neil