Hi Balena & everyone, please pardon my simple / naive questions. I would love a Sonos alternative that is under my control. I’ve spent a fair amount of time looking around but I find I still have basic questions.
Does balenaSound, like Sonos, allow me to pick which rooms are playing what sounds? Like can my kids play music in some rooms and I play mine in others?
Is there a simple interface to balenaSound that my partner and kids could use without any CLI knowledge etc?
I’m a Plex media fan - could I play from my Plex apps to these speakers, maybe via AirPlay?
Welcome @spetey! Thanks for joining our forums and for considering balenaSound.
Does balenaSound, like Sonos, allow me to pick which rooms are playing what sounds? Like can my kids play music in some rooms and I play mine in others?
balenaSound will either sync up all the devices with the same audio source with all devices on the app, or you can turn off this sync and all the devices can be separate wireless or bluetooth targets for audio (e.g. computer audio, Spotify, Air Play).
Is there a simple interface to balenaSound that my partner and kids could use without any CLI knowledge etc?
We designed balenaSound to be enjoyed without knowing it’s there. e.g. You power it and its speakers on, and it shows up as an output source in Spotify or Air Play. There are a few admin-like interface for you, the admin, but for the end user/music listener, they’re just opening their music player of choice and choosing a device.
I’m a Plex media fan - could I play from my Plex apps to these speakers, maybe via AirPlay?
I don’t have a lot of experience here, but I’m curious about it. I know just normal Air Play works, but not sure about using Air Play to connect the two. If you end up trying this out, please let us know!
We also have an entire microsite about balenaSound full of great info, troubleshooting advice, and FAQs. Check it out!
Hope you give it a try. Looking forward to hearing from you.
I’m assuming to change a device from MULTI_ROOM_CLIENT to STANDALONE the user must set the environment varible in the web ui for this device, correct? That’s the only way?
The usecase @spetey is describing is something that probably many users would want:
As a spotify user I’d like to select if I want to connect to a single balena device or the multiroom group from the spotify connect dialog, so that spotify connect shows each balena device for use in standalone mode and the multi room master.
Or even better: The ability to create multiple named multi room groups that can be selected directly in spotify connect.