Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

BridgeCo to Bring AirPlay Streaming Technology to Home Audio Equipment

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
69,046
40,091



143341-airplay_speakers.jpg


At Apple's media event last week, Steve Jobs briefly demoed a new feature called AirPlay rolling out in iTunes and coming to iOS devices in November with iOS 4.2. An extension of the existing AirTunes feature for streaming audio to remote devices from iTunes, AirPlay will allow users to stream audio, song titles, and album art between devices. In addition, users will be able to stream videos and photos between devices, as demonstrated by Jobs in streaming a movie from an iPad to an Apple TV.

As we noted yesterday, third-party companies such as iHome are also looking to deploy AirPlay-compatible products to accept streaming content from Apple's devices. CNBC profiles BridgeCo, the software company Apple has worked with to allow these third-party companies to create AirPlay-compatible products. According to the report, BridgeCo has been granted nearly unprecedented access to Apple's iTunes software and team as it seeks to build out the functionality.
BridgeCo worked with Apple on its new AirPlay, where anyone with an iPod, iPhone, or iPad will be able to walk around his or her home and wirelessly send music from iTunes to receivers made by Denon, iHome Audio, Marantz, JBL, and Bowers & Wilkens. Unlike past products which did something similar, this is not a third-party reverse engineering workaround which has to be reworked every time Apple has a software update.

This is a product created by a third party with Apple's blessing.
Click to expand...
BridgeCo CEO Gene Sheridan notes that Apple had little choice in the matter if it wanted to reach its goals for streaming content around the home, as it simply isn't in the stereo equipment market.
"They're not gonna create the world's stereo equipment," he says. Instead, Apple decided BridgeCo had the software and the well-known stereo equipment customers in place, and so Apple agreed to let Sheridan and his team get a look at the iTunes code. What was that like? "There is a magic to Apple that sounds simple," he says, clearly in awe. "They know how to take a complex and feature-rich technology and narrow it." How narrow? Sheridan said after getting a peek inside, BridgeCo provided Apple with a long list of what it could offer the company. "They picked three."
Click to expand...
According to Sheridan, AirPlay-enabled stereo equipment should be hitting the market before the holidays, offering a solid lineup of compatible products to help jumpstart AirPlay. BridgeCo has reportedly been working with manufacturers on AirPlay for a year to ensure that everything is lined up and ready to go, with more than half of the company's revenue reportedly now resting on its deal with Apple for the technology.

Article Link: BridgeCo to Bring AirPlay Streaming Technology to Home Audio Equipment
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/09/08/bridgeco-to-bring-airplay-streaming-technology-to-home-audio-equipment/
Not sure I understand the point of this. Whatever is on your ipad, iphone or ipod is already on your computer which is then accessible by AppleTV which is connected to your tv or home theatre system.

Unless you are going to someone else's house, who needs this? Seems like a very limited use item.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

gmpirate said:
Not sure I understand the point of this. Whatever is on your ipad, iphone or ipod is already on your computer which is then accessible by AppleTV which is connected to your tv or home theatre system.

Unless you are going to someone else's house, who needs this? Seems like a very limited use item.
Click to expand...

I think you're missing the point. What this means is, any device with this technology built in can wirelessly receive iTunes "broadcasts" throughout your network. So you can have wireless speakers at the pool playing iTunes, or stream straight from your iPhone in your pocket to your home theater, etc. Yes, this could be done in some way or another with existing products (Remote app, airport express, etc) but this is wireless and easier. Great move by apple, as this will open the floodgates to third-party wireless speakers, etc, further cementing the iTunes ecosystem.
 
gmpirate said:
Not sure I understand the point of this. Whatever is on your ipad, iphone or ipod is already on your computer which is then accessible by AppleTV which is connected to your tv or home theatre system.

Unless you are going to someone else's house, who needs this? Seems like a very limited use item.
Click to expand...

You're missing the point:
- AirPlay lets you stream your music from your Mac to any specially-enabled speakers in your house...put a pair in your kitchen, hang some on your porch, put wireless ones in your ceiling, etc. This way you can have the same music playing in multiple places in your house at once, such as during a party.
- AirPlay (in iOS 4.2) will also let you push your music or video from your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad to your Apple TV.

Instead of having to wire speakers up all over your house you'll now be able to wirelessly push them from your computer to your speakers and control it all using the Remote app on your iDevice.
 
That's what DLNA is for.

Industry already has a standard for that. It's called DLNA. Why do we need another one? For example, many TV sets already support DLNA. DLNA is supported by Windows 7. Is is supported by NAS devices. It is also supported by some Android phones natively (Samsung Galaxy S) or with the use of special apps. It's hard to imagine that Apple can win this battle of standards. It also shows Apple's unwillingness to support industry standards (what else is new?). HTML5 anybody? How about Flash ;)
 
Can someone tell me how this is different from the standard we already have, DLNA?
 
The question has still not been answered about DRM.

Will AirPlay allow iTunes FairPlay DRM protected tracks to be played on 3rd party devices?

I have over 3000 older iTunes tracks that still have DRM on them and I'm not paying to upgrade them to DRM free tracks all for use with AirPlay.
 
sciwizam said:
Can someone tell me how this is different from the standard we already have, DLNA?
Click to expand...

It will be different in that it will be supported by a very limited set of hardware. It looks like Steve found another "bag of hurt", this time it's DLNA.
 
gmpirate said:
Not sure I understand the point of this. Whatever is on your ipad, iphone or ipod is already on your computer which is then accessible by AppleTV which is connected to your tv or home theatre system.

Unless you are going to someone else's house, who needs this? Seems like a very limited use item.
Click to expand...

I believe the point is that Airplay will be the method used by Apple TV to access your computer.
 
This is just an expansion of AirTunes really which adds the ability to stream video, and stream video and audio from any iDevice. I'm guessing they didn't go with DLNA because it wouldn't work with their previous hardware (Airport Express specifically). AirTunes has been around since 2004.


MrPinkBlackrose said:
Will this still work along with my Airport Express?
Click to expand...
I believe so, yes. But all we really know is what Apple has on Apple.com
 
DTphonehome said:
So long, Sonos.
Click to expand...

Not really. One thing I love about my Sonos system is the ability to play different songs from the same library at the same time. If this is anything like AirTunes, then you can only play the same song on all the speakers on the system.

I haven't seen anything to the contrary. Has anyone seen anything on Apple's pages about AirPlay showing the ability to play different songs on different speakers at the same time?
 
Closed Apple, bad Apple

I wish apple was more open.

Anyway, I like this AirPlay thing a lot.
But I m not going to buy all my electronics again for this.
The first device that will let you connect your stereo to airplay is going to sell a LOT!
I know Airport Express can do that! But AE can do a lot more things too and cost 100 $/e! Something smaller, like a wifi-airplay adaptor from a 3 party with out :apple: tax...
 
MatthewAMEL said:
That's the point. BridgeCo is building a DLNA server for iTunes and Apple has blessed it.
Click to expand...

It could be. It's hard to understand from available documents though. BridgeCo does mention DLNA on their site (not with respect to AirPlay though). Could it be a way for Apple to provide DLNA without mentioning it? Very confusing.
 
I'm pretty excited about this. Now if they can provide an airplay dongle to hook up with my older stereo receiver, then that would be sweet!
 
techapocalypse said:
I just want one good receiver to build in AirPlay.
Click to expand...
I've got my airport express hooked into my Onyko receiver through optical cable and it sounds fantastic. Airplay doesn't change my life too much. It'll just be nice to not have to open my MacBook to stream to it and instead stream straight from my iPhone since it's with me at all times.


glui2001 said:
I'm pretty excited about this. Now if they can provide an airplay dongle to hook up with my older stereo receiver, then that would be sweet!
Click to expand...
It's called an Airport Express and it's been out for 6 years. Though, if you're looking for a cheaper dangle, say maybe $29, then that ain't it.
 
ilovethisgame said:
Not really. One thing I love about my Sonos system is the ability to play different songs from the same library at the same time. If this is anything like AirTunes, then you can only play the same song on all the speakers on the system.

I haven't seen anything to the contrary. Has anyone seen anything on Apple's pages about AirPlay showing the ability to play different songs on different speakers at the same time?
Click to expand...

Easy, it lets me play music from my iPad or iPhone as well. There are my additional libraries to play from. Don't like that, I'll run a VM on my system to start additional iTunes instances pointed to the network shared library. Sonos doesn't play well with iTunes, which despite the massive complaints of the geek crowd is easy for average (dumb) user (and there are far more of them than the geek crowd with a far larger pocketful of cash than the geek crowd is prepared to pay).

Given the problems I've had with DLNA and my Xbox360, I'll gladly take an Apple product that I know will work.
 
sciwizam said:
Can someone tell me how this is different from the standard we already have, DLNA?
Click to expand...

The problem with DLNA is that it's anything BUT a standard. Different devices have different format compatibilities. I've tried streaming video in multiple formats to my Blu-ray player (DLNA enabled), and it's very hit-or-miss. The TV (also DLNA) plays some files the Bluray player won't, and vice-versa.

At least with Apple's solution I know that if iTunes can play it, it'll stream to an AirPlay device.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back