Streaming live Audio from Airport Extreme to an Airport Express (not iTunes/Airplay)

[marku5]

I work at the best hotel in my city here in austria.
Next week we are celebrating our 200th anniversary and are going to have some live music in the lobby of our hotel.

We would like to stream the music and eventually a speech from the lobby to our café/restaurant (maybe 20 -30 meters without any significant objects between the two locations but three corners)
That being so i'm quite sure the wifi connection between the two would be quite adequate for surfing/music streaming via iTunes/airplay etc. .

My question:
Is there any way to stream the audio live from an external source (chinch L+R) from the lobby via an Airport Extreme to the Airport Express in the café/restaurant to play it on the sound system there? (Again chinch L+R)

As far as I could find out there isn't a solution from apple for this task.
I own an 2007 TC and am considering to buy an new TC or Airp.Extreme in the near future anyway. So if the above mentioned setup works in some way I would buy the Airp.Extreme right now and the Airp.Express just for this event.
(maybe the previous gen. Model? because it would be quite handy for traveling..?
any arguments against that? eg.:with the newer model being faster ?? )

I'm very glad for any kind of input on this matter because I just spent about an hour searching for a solution for my problem on the internet.
Laying a cable straight through the lobby with all the people running around just isn't a real option for me with our hotel being quite a nice location with a hard earned reputation a stake.

Regards,

marku5

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

The hotel has no PA system?

Is the live music amped? I'd think the most reliable solution would be either existing PA if available or running a balanced audio cable along the wall.

 

[priitv8]

An AirPort Extreme is no good in streaming to AirPort Express at all, except for providing a network connection. It by itself does not handle AirPlay protocol at all, let alone can play a server or client role in this chain.
What I can see as a workable solution is this:
Get a Mac(Book) that has a line input and has at least Mountain Lion.
That way, you can eg with GarageBand play line in input to Mac's default audio out and from Sound Preferences you should be able to redirect Mac's default audio output to an AirPlay device (AirPort Express).

 

[marku5]

Im not very experienced in this field...

I take it by PA System you mean the wires in the floor and all the hardware for good quality audio and video connectivity throughout ONE ROOM? (in our case)

We do have all that in the conference rooms but not in the lobby or café/restaurant. Just some Cat.5 and Cat.7 for the register.

I dont know yet if it will be amped. ( could you explain to me why thats relevant?)
The live music will be something like a soul singer with background music throughout the day(as far as i know for now) an a few minutes of talking in-between.

So if we are talking laying a cable vs. streaming in a somewhat less good quality we are DEFINITELY going with streaming, if the quality is acceptable!

-marku5

 

[marku5]

@ priitv8:

the Airp.Extreme or TC would be there just to extend the wifi an provide the 3.5mm headphone jack port. ( get how i was thinking?)

what i forgot to mention: i have a macbook air 2013 13"

with which i would stream with some software to the express via the extreme
just like airplay just without iTunes.....


i've used garage band only one or twice three years ago so i have no experience at all with it..
so i would listen to the external input(presumably chinch MONO)via an adapter like this ( http://eu.startech.com/Cables/Audio...dset-Splitter-Adapter-Male-to-Female~MUYHSMFF ) to the music on the speakers connected to the express on the other end of the line instead of my internal speaker on my macbook?

sounds like i just need some software that works like airplay but without itunes..

right??

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

Im not very experienced in this field...

I take it by PA System you mean the wires in the floor and all the hardware for good quality audio and video connectivity throughout ONE ROOM? (in our case)

We do have all that in the conference rooms but not in the lobby or café/restaurant. Just some Cat.5 and Cat.7 for the register.

I dont know yet if it will be amped. ( could you explain to me why thats relevant?)
The live music will be something like a soul singer with background music throughout the day(as far as i know for now) an a few minutes of talking in-between.

So if we are talking laying a cable vs. streaming in a somewhat less good quality we are DEFINITELY going with streaming, if the quality is acceptable!

-marku5

By mentioning amped I was just curious if the audio was already being piped into a sound system that you could tap for the feed to the cafe.

The poster above offered a good suggestion along the lines you're already thinking. I'd be concerned about the distance. You should give it a quick try before suggesting for the big day.

Pro wifi installs will often have access points closer than that with clear line of sight and you said you have walls in between.

Since you have Cat5, maybe work with your IT guy to get a couple switch ports on the same VLAN to connect the source (e.g., MBP w/ GarageBand) and the Airport Express.

 

[marku5]

ok

i think it will be almost definitely come from a small amplifier
= i'll get my audio signal via chinch L+R

the distance is really not that long!
I and there are no direct walls but 2 solid corners and 1 glass corner of an office
If you would want to look straight from the lobby to the café/restaurant you would have to look through 0.5m into an corner from its edge three times..

did you understand that? sorry i couldn't think of a better way to explain the situation.

the Extreme would be placed near the first corner in the lobby(with an ethernet port for internet connection) max. 5m from the MBA and the Express would be placed ca 15m from the extreme after the 3rd corner in the café.

so im hardly concerned about the wifi connection. are you guys still ??

Im almost sure there isn't any cat5 cable left ( all in use) :/

an ideas for the software to do the kind of "airplay" I need?

-marku5

 

[priitv8]

an ideas for the software to do the kind of "airplay" I need?

To begin with, the audio output to AirPlay device is built in to OS X Mountain Lion.
You would only need the software to play stereo audio coming to Line-In (any cable that has stereo 3.5mm plug on one end and whatever suits your audio source equipment on other end will do) out to Mac's speakers. That way you can redirect this output to AirPlay device.

 

[marku5]

You would only need the software to play stereo audio coming to Line-In [/URL].

which would be garageband??

does my mac recognise a pair of speakers connected to an Airport extreme via 3.5mm headphone jack as an airplay device?

i guess that would be the solution of my problem..

any tips on how exactly to handle the line-in audio with garageband?

-marku5

 

[priitv8]

which would be garageband??

Could be, but I discovered using QuickTime in Audio Recording mode is even simpler! You won't want to press the REC button as it would record your whole thing and fill up your HDD. You can monitor the sound without actually recording! Just pay attention to the volume slider below that REC button!

What I found though, is that there is substantial audio delay using this method!

does my mac recognise a pair of speakers connected to an Airport extreme via 3.5mm headphone jack as an airplay device?

Yes, as long as they are both on same local area network! And AFAIK, AirPlay needs to be turned on in Airport Utility to be active. PS it's the Express, that has audio out, not the Extreme!

any tips on how exactly to handle the line-in audio with garageband?

You might want to read this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/209204/
If you create the Real Instrument track, be sure to select AirPlay as output device there! See the attached pic!

PS Now on my rMBP I actually see, that the main problem for your setup might be the lack of line input! The fresh MBA may have the same problem!
What it means is this: you can only get audio in to this Mac using the 4-ring connector, just like iPhone earpods have. If you use regular 3.5mm audio cable, the connecor remains a headphone output mode. On earlier Macs you had separate in and out connectors, on following Pro-s that had a single connector, you could set it to input or output mode in Sound Preferences.

 

[waw74]

airplay will not work in a live situation.

there is a delay of around 2 seconds built in due to buffering, when all of you outputs are delayed, that's fine.
but there is no way to delay the live source to match the output

if your 2 locations are separate and you can't hear or see one from the other, you could probably do it.


for live, you would do better with something like this
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/sho...source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pla