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Simultaneous Playback

Does anyone know of a way to playback in multiple zones simultaneously with airtunes. Ex. I want to play my music through the computer sound card and the living room stereo at the same time synched.
 
I have never had a problem with bluetooth - because when i sync, my phone is a foot away. However, i want to buy AirTunes, and use my phone or PDA as a remote. My lounge is next door to my computer room, so i will never be more than 20ft from my laptop

When i tested it last night, my bluetooth phone would not connect further than about 4 feet away (with no walls in between) 7 feet and a wall inbetween with the door still open and it wont connect.....

Do i have a problem? should the range be that bad?
 
Hey

I dont seem to be getting an feedback!!! Is there anyone that can help??

I have just been testing it, and its really odd, Bluetooth stays connected when im in the spare bed room about 8 15 feet away.....but wont work when i am in the lounge only 5 feet away....and i want it working in the lounge!

I thought there may be something to do with interference, so i unplugged my router and cordless phone, but it still disconnects at about 5 feet in the lounge, but works in the bedroom 15 feet away.....how can this be??

Is there a PDA with wifi that would work as a remote control? Thanks
 
austink said:
Does anyone know of a way to playback in multiple zones simultaneously with airtunes. Ex. I want to play my music through the computer sound card and the living room stereo at the same time synched.

I seriously doubt that would work, adding a delay at the same time that it throws the song into the network with delay at the front end?

If it was 'mission-critical', could you get two airport express units? Somehow I think it's still limited to one per network (for airtunes use).

The people that really know their stuff are at www.ipodhacks.com and www.ipodlounge.com , you can try asking there. Occassionally you'll get a good answer at the official apple.com discussion boards too.
 
My range was better before the G5.

The antenna must be the problem because the G5 tower is such an insulator and that dinky antenna makes four feet seem small. Anybody got a better antenna?
 
Quick question, I have a iMac G5 but no Airport card, but it is connecting to the internet via a router and my Airport extreme basestation, can I use the express?? cannot seem to clarify a answer to this question from friends. so can you?
 
chrisrb2002 said:
Quick question, I have a iMac G5 but no Airport card, but it is connecting to the internet via a router and my Airport extreme basestation, can I use the express?? cannot seem to clarify a answer to this question from friends. so can you?

Yes you can. I have a PowerMac G4 upstairs with no airport card. It is connected to a Netgear Router. I have an Airport Extreme connected to the router, and downstairs I have an Airport Express connected to the HiFi. The Powermac can see the AIrport Express and stream iTunes to the HiFi.
 
Has anyone else been having any problems with the connection dropping out from time to time? I lose my connection completely about two to three times per week. When this happens the green light remains lit up, I just can't connect to it. I downloaded MacStumbler to see which channels the other networks in my area are using, and I've switched mine to an unused channel 8, no one is using channels 7 or 9 either so I figured I would be safe. The problems continue...

I then tried switching my security from WPA to WEP, this didn't help the situation at all either. My setup is as follows...
Cable modem to 4 port Linksys, connected to PC, XBox, VoIP box (connected to 2nd PC) and AirPort Express. When the wireless connection drops on my PowerBook I go to check my roommates PC (connected via ethernet), and it still works. The cable modem is obviously still connected, so I'm pretty sure that I can say the problem lies within the AirPort Express itself. I've tried resetting defaults and updating firmware with no joy.

When this happens I've opened up MacStumbler which doesn't show my network, it shows all of my neighbors, just not mine. I'd never had a problem until I moved into Manhattan, so I think it can be attributed to interference. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
Is the connection loss temporary and self-fixing? Or must you do something to remedy the issue?
 
airtunes playback

Santaduck said:
I seriously doubt that would work, adding a delay at the same time that it throws the song into the network with delay at the front end?

If it was 'mission-critical', could you get two airport express units? Somehow I think it's still limited to one per network (for airtunes use).

The people that really know their stuff are at www.ipodhacks.com and www.ipodlounge.com , you can try asking there. Occassionally you'll get a good answer at the official apple.com discussion boards too.

Thank you for those links I will try them. The two airports won't work because it will still only play to one at a time. If there was a patch to play through all airport zones that would work because it would have the same delay for all airports. Anyone have an idea on where to get something like that?
 
airport

chrisrb2002 said:
Quick question, I have a iMac G5 but no Airport card, but it is connecting to the internet via a router and my Airport extreme basestation, can I use the express?? cannot seem to clarify a answer to this question from friends. so can you?

If you dont have a wireless card then there is really no point to an extreme base station or an Airport Express. But yes you can replace the Airport extreme with the airport express or use it as a bridge though I haven't tried doing that yet (some people say it isn't easy and some say it isn't possible.) I seem to recall a bridge option in the setup of the express though.
 
remote question

marknicholls said:
Is there a PDA with wifi that would work as a remote control? Similar to the way a PDA or phone with bluetooth works? with wifi the distance would be much better

I haven't seen any programing that would work with that setup. However ATI makes a product that works off of RF that might get you better range I believe it is called remote wonder.
 
bluetooth range

marknicholls said:
Hey

I dont seem to be getting an feedback!!! Is there anyone that can help??

I have just been testing it, and its really odd, Bluetooth stays connected when im in the spare bed room about 8 15 feet away.....but wont work when i am in the lounge only 5 feet away....and i want it working in the lounge!

I thought there may be something to do with interference, so i unplugged my router and cordless phone, but it still disconnects at about 5 feet in the lounge, but works in the bedroom 15 feet away.....how can this be??

Is there a PDA with wifi that would work as a remote control? Thanks
is the broadcast point in the same room? could just be what the walls are made of or whats in them. If it is a usb bluetooth you may try putting it on an extender and moving it around.
 
Mephisto said:
Is the connection loss temporary and self-fixing? Or must you do something to remedy the issue?

It always seems to resolve itself, sometimes a few seconds later, sometimes up to 15 minutes later.
 
signal drop

davecuse said:
It always seems to resolve itself, sometimes a few seconds later, sometimes up to 15 minutes later.
Is your signal strength weak to begin with? I have fluctuating signal strength sometimes but never that drastic there is either a major fluctuating interference or it may just be a defective unit.
 
austink said:
Is your signal strength weak to begin with? I have fluctuating signal strength sometimes but never that drastic there is either a major fluctuating interference or it may just be a defective unit.

I'm usually within 15 feet of the airport express, with 3 or 4 bars. The strength is good, and again this does not happen when I'm not in the middle of Manhattan... When I'm in the country using the same express it works fine. I assume it's just interference, as there are 8 other available networks with pretty good strength that I can access from my apt.
 
out of luck

davecuse said:
I'm usually within 15 feet of the airport express, with 3 or 4 bars. The strength is good, and again this does not happen when I'm not in the middle of Manhattan... When I'm in the country using the same express it works fine. I assume it's just interference, as there are 8 other available networks with pretty good strength that I can access from my apt.

Yeah that is probably it guess you will just have to wait for 802.11i, sorry.
 
I just noticed yesterday that the music playback through AirTunes skips when I'm downloading something big at full speed through my 10Mbit internet connection... :(
 
Hydra said:
I just noticed yesterday that the music playback through AirTunes skips when I'm downloading something big at full speed through my 10Mbit internet connection... :(
Wish I had a 10Mbit net connection :eek: But while we're here, how is your network set up? Is the computer that is downloading on wireless? Is it the same computer that is streaming AirTunes? If the answer is "No" to either of those questions, you might be able to reconfigure your network to isolate the net download from your Airport Express. Typically, a switch would help.
 
austink said:
Thank you for those links I will try them. The two airports won't work because it will still only play to one at a time. If there was a patch to play through all airport zones that would work because it would have the same delay for all airports. Anyone have an idea on where to get something like that?
Well, not really. It's possible, but I don't think it's as simple as that. You have to keep in mind network latency. It's not like copper cable where even if you've got different length runs of cable or even two different devices playing a signal from the same output device (i.e. one CD player sending a signal to two receivers), the sound coming out of both output devices is still in sync, give or take a few milli/nanoseconds. With an APE setup, if one access point is on the other side of the house, or maybe one access point is working as a standalone and the other is physically plugged into the switch...they've got different distances to travel, and possible more/less hops over the network to make, all of which will cause latency.

Another thing to remember is that with a wired connection, the speed at which the signal from the output device (i.e. a CD player) reaches the input device (i.e. amp/speakers) is almost instantaneous. You press play/pause on your CD player, and the sound starts/stops instantly. With the wireless connection, the sound is buffered, and what you're hearing right now might have actually been sent over the network 5 or 10 seconds ago. Apple would have to make some sort of way to make all of the access points talk to each other, and somehow make it so they're both playing the exact same portion of the buffered information at once. It's all possible, but probably not very easy to do. Hopefully Apple's working on it...I've got two APEs and I'd love it if both of them could play the same thing at once!
 
I'm thinking of getting an Airport Express but I thought that since it's been a while since the release of the first one, something new should be in the pipe, perhaps being launched at WWDC in San Francisco.

Since this is a rumor site, is there any speculation as to a second generation of Airport Express and what improvements would be forthcoming?

I'd like to see an Airport Express with wireless firewire so that all devices could be connected to the unit (like scanner, iSight, iPod, etc) leaving a PowerBook truely wireless.
 
Maybe support for...

other USB devices and hubs so we can do more with less? Apple sucks less at this than most dumb marketing companies. I think they should just have a wireless port replicator with F/W USB Ethernet FW800 Optical SCSI and whatever else we want and sell it for $125 with an antenna for another $25 and a connect kit for $15-$45. JMO.
 
There is a network USB hub that you can purchase (http://keyspan.com/products/usb/server/). I agree that it would a great idea on Apple's part to sell a similar wireless device that would allow you to plug in a FireWire HD or any other USB or FW stuff you may have and access it all over the network wirelessly.
 
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