My Kingdom for Airfoil + Sage

[PAF]

I'm sure most of use would love to have the feature of whole house audio when using the extenders... at least I would.

I got an airport express yesterday and after playing around with that and the airfoil app. I asked myself why couldn't this be ported to Sage.

Airfoil offers a free app., Airfoil Speakers, http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/speakers.php where you can use a Mac, Windows, or Linux device for syncing audio in different places. Because this is so platform independent, could this be ported to work on Sage Extenders?

I would rather use my extenders instead of buying more of the airport express stations... meaning I would actually pay a reasonable fee for this functionality .

[Clift]

This may work, but it would need some fundamental changes to how the extenders and server interact. From what I understand, the server doesn't ever send anything to the extender that it doesn't explicitly ask for (not that it couldn't). And the extenders don;t really "talk" to each other. It's a sweet idea and someone should jump on it and make a plugin.

[sandor]

this is part of the reason i don't use Sage for music, and have continued to use iTunes... Main music library runs on the 5.1 system in the living room, one airport express in the kitchen, one in the master bedroom, and one up on the roof deck. all audio is synced, i can control iTunes with my iPhone.

you can find the 802.11/g airport expresses for all of $20 on ebay...

[paulbeers]

I just gave Airfoil a try. I am truly impressed. This is the first software I have ever tried that actually can sync audio across multiple pc clients. Granted I only tried it from my Desktop to my laptop, but it was able to keep the audio in synce (a few minor glitches here and there). Most software based solutions quickly fall out of sync within a minute or two....I was able to run it for the full 10 minutes (software limitation when only using the trial version) without any major sync issues.

[mickp]

Originally Posted by mlody11

I'm sure most of use would love to have the feature of whole house audio when using the extenders... at least I would.

I got an airport express yesterday and after playing around with that and the airfoil app. I asked myself why couldn't this be ported to Sage.

Airfoil offers a free app., Airfoil Speakers, http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/speakers.php where you can use a Mac, Windows, or Linux device for syncing audio in different places. Because this is so platform independent, could this be ported to work on Sage Extenders?

I would rather use my extenders instead of buying more of the airport express stations... meaning I would actually pay a reasonable fee for this functionality .

Hey there,

I emailed Rogue Amoeba suggesting this some time ago. From their brief response, I think they may be open to providing Airfoil Speakers support to the Sage extenders if approached by Sage. Has anyone lodged a support request?

Mick.

[PGPfan]

According to Rogue Amoeba, they have fully re-written Airfoil for Windows to leverage the whole .Net architecture, and they claim that there is a DCOM interface to control it now (which could certainly allow Sage to access/control it) but I've yet to find any documentation on how they've implemented it.

From the Airfoil release notes:

Airfoil for Windows 2.6
Released on 8/12/08

* Entirely recoded in .NET for easier updates in the future
* Support for additional audio players, including foobar2000
* Improved Apple TV support, with better metadata
* Improved sync of local audio playback
* User interface improvements
* improved handling of firewall problems (IPv6)
* DCOM API for automation
* Uses DirectSound for audio device input



So it would seem that the key elements for implementation into Sage is there now. I just wish there were some documentation available.

-PGPfan

[mickp]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

According to Rogue Amoeba, they have fully re-written Airfoil for Windows to leverage the whole .Net architecture, and they claim that there is a DCOM interface to control it now (which could certainly allow Sage to access/control it) but I've yet to find any documentation on how they've implemented it.

From the Airfoil release notes:

Airfoil for Windows 2.6
Released on 8/12/08

* Entirely recoded in .NET for easier updates in the future
* Support for additional audio players, including foobar2000
* Improved Apple TV support, with better metadata
* Improved sync of local audio playback
* User interface improvements
* improved handling of firewall problems (IPv6)
* DCOM API for automation
* Uses DirectSound for audio device input



So it would seem that the key elements for implementation into Sage is there now. I just wish there were some documentation available.

-PGPfan

Nice find PGPfan!

I've just written to RA:

Hey there,

The release notes mention that a dcom interface is available for automation however there doesn't seem to be any documentation for this interface in the help or on your site.

Could you provide some details on this interface (whatever you have, e.g. scanned copy of dev notes scrawled on a crumpled napkin would be better than nothing )? I'm interested in the possility of creating a plugin for Sage TV to control audio distribution via Sage's 10' interface + remote control btw.

Regards,

Mick.

Hopefully they'll get back with some info soon. I'd expect if the interface is okay that it would be relatively easy to cobble something together stvi wise to control the thing.

I'm intrigued by the possibility of getting airfoil speakers going on an extender. Have any linux users tried out the airfoil speakers? Any thoughts as to the possibility of this working?

Mick.

[PAF]

I sent them an email requesting any documentation they would have for .NET and they told me "its not possible." Meaning, they probably don't want to share the API calls with people... but if they were told they would get a bigger user base by SageTV, they just might give some documentation.... maybe.

[sandor]

I think it might take "developer to developer" talks... ie SageTV has to think enough of the idea to approach Rogue Amoeba...


I personally have only used the Mac version of Airfoil, as it also adds in some basic video/audio syncing... so i was able to have synced movies playing in my living room and roof top during parties and such. worked very well, albeit only with basic functionality (using the Airfoil video player)

[mickp]

Originally Posted by mlody11

I sent them an email requesting any documentation they would have for .NET and they told me "its not possible." Meaning, they probably don't want to share the API calls with people... but if they were told they would get a bigger user base by SageTV, they just might give some documentation.... maybe.

The initial response...

Hi MIck,

I need to pass your issue onto someone in engineering. As this is a more complex issue, it may take a few days for them to analyze it and send out a response. Just watch your email - we definitely want to get this resolved for you!

-Lee

Mick.