Airplay 2 Multi-Room Audio with Apple TV (4th Gen)

[shockwave562]

Perhaps I am confused by the iOS 11 announcement, but I thought my existing 4th Gen Apple TVs would be a compatible multi-room Airplay 2 speaker once I downloaded the IOS and TVOS updates today.

As far as I can tell, I can only stream from my IOS device to a single Apple TV at a time even though I have 3 4th Gen Apple TVs hooked up to TVs and sound systems around my house.

On demos, speakers show up in Airplay 2 as a speaker icon whereas my apple TVs are showing up as an Apple TV icon. It seems as though you need to add Apple TV as a "speaker" in Homekit, but it's not clear to me how to do that for Apple TV either. Did I not understand how this is supposed to work?

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Perhaps I am confused by the iOS 11 announcement, but I thought my existing 4th Gen Apple TVs would be a compatible multi-room Airplay 2 speaker once I downloaded the IOS and TVOS updates today.

As far as I can tell, I can only stream from my IOS device to a single Apple TV at a time, whereas I have 3 4th Gen Apple TVs hooked up to TVs and sound systems around my house.

On demos, speakers show up in Airplay 2 as a speaker icon whereas my apple TVs are showing up as an Apple TV icon. It seems as though you need to add Apple TV as a "speaker" in Homekit, but it's not clear to me how to do that for Apple TV either. Did I not understand how this is supposed to work?

This feature is either VERY unclear or blatantly missing from the current release. Apple's website doesn't really mention it as being "Coming Soon" like it does some of the other features they straight up removed from the iOS 11 release.

 

[JWreck]

I’m pretty annoyed by the lack of information on this.

 

[vipergts2207]

I hope a fix or explanation is found soon because Airplay 2 was one of the most wanted features of iOS 11 for me.

 

[Voosman12]

Per Apple Support Chat i just had:
<Name>, thank you for waiting. I am unable to find any information confirming AirPlay 2 has been incorporated with the latest iOS launch. It is possible that it will be in a later update.

 

[TheColtr]

I bet it will be a software update when the HomePod is shipped. Right now only the Apple TV would be able to take advantage of Airplay 2 and it isn’t clear whether or not if airplay 2 requires specific hardware, maybe that the 4th gen atv doesn’t have?

 

[vipergts2207]

I bet it will be a software update when the HomePod is shipped. Right now only the Apple TV would be able to take advantage of Airplay 2 and it isn’t clear whether or not if airplay 2 requires specific hardware, maybe that the 4th gen atv doesn’t have?

I'm getting an iPhone 8 and ATV 4K on Friday, so I'll have to try them together and see if Airplay 2 works. I hope its not a hardware issue with the ATV 4, as I was hoping to buy one on sale around black Friday and put in the bedroom to take advantage of Airplay 2.

 

[shockwave562]

Finally an article that acknowledges this issue, my initial searches online were only coming up with announcements from WWDC. Apple Insider says they've reached out to Apple and will update the article. I must say I'm surprised with the number of major iOS 11 features that didn't make it in time for GM.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/17...tional-in-ios-11-devices-connected-to-tvos-11

 

[whiteshadoww]

Finally an article that acknowledges this issue, my initial searches online were only coming up with announcements from WWDC. Apple Insider says they've reached out to Apple and will update the article. I must say I'm surprised with the number of major iOS 11 features that didn't make it in time for GM.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/17...tional-in-ios-11-devices-connected-to-tvos-11

Rene Ritchie from iMore just tweeted that Airplay 2 update was NOT pushed out with iOS 11.0. I guess it should be forthcoming. My current Bowers and Wilkins speakers better work with that update - a firmware or hardware update seems ridiculous since I can send audio to multiple speakers from my Macbook Pro through iTunes or Airfoil.

 

[vipergts2207]

Apple probably intentionally delayed release on this until closer to the HomePod launch. Then people can't go out and purchase relatively cheap Apple TVs and pair it with whatever speakers they want, which is exactly what I'm going to do.