Can I feed multiple AirPlay/AirTunes streams from one computer?
November 25, 2010 1:05 AM   Subscribe

Using AirPlay/AirTunes (or Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil), is it possible to play multiple audio streams from one "jukebox" to multiple Airport Express devices?

I have set up a Mac mini as a jukebox that streams audio to an Airport Express in another room in the house. I control this with the iOS Remote app, and this works great.

At the present time, it looks like the Mac mini's copy of iTunes gets taken over by the Remote app.

If I set up a second Airport Express in room B, is there a way to set it up (as well as the jukebox) so that it can receive and play its own unique music stream ("stream B"), separate from what's going on at the Mac mini, or in room A, which is playing stream A?

To accomplish this, I would be happy to buy a copy of Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil if it will allow sending multiple, separate audio streams from one computer to the multiple wireless bridges, while using the Remote app (or a Rogue Amoeba equivalent). However, it is unclear to me from their site whether that is the case or not.

Thanks for your advice.
posted by Blazecock Pileon to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: Hello. Sadly, no. iTunes can only send one stream at a time. Air foil will let you send audio from any program (including iTunes if you wanted got send to air speakers or something) to an airport express. So, you could play pandora or something to the second room.
posted by reddot at 5:08 AM on November 25, 2010


As of right now neither iTunes nor Airfoil will stream multiple streams at once. I've been using airfoil for years mainly because it was always less buggy than itunes streaming. Something tells me simultaneous multi source streaming will be available sometime soon, but one of the problems I would imagine would be the tremendous cpu load it would put on the computer; I typically see loads around 5-7% just from airfoil on my computer, and on my wife's macbook you'll see consistent loads from 10-15%. Streaming from within itunes is no better. Given that you may very well see some 25% of your cpu going to push 3 or 4 streams simultaneously. That's quite a lot, IMHO.
posted by chosemerveilleux at 6:10 AM on November 25, 2010


Replace the AirportExpress with an AppleTV for about the same price, and skip the actual TV. The AppleTVs can play audio served by iTunes, and can be controlled by the iOS remote app. You'll need a display of some sort attached for initial config of the AppleTV. You should confirm that it can operate without a display attached.
posted by Good Brain at 9:25 AM on November 25, 2010


But iTunes can't play two completely different files simultaneously, can it? What difference would using an airport express or apple tv make if there can be only one source at a time? I think that is what the OP is asking about-multiple, unique audio streams simultaneously, from one itunes library. Unless I'm missing something I can't get any of my computers running iTunes to do this. I'm not familiar with ATV personally, but unless it has a more sophisticated control over an itunes library than itunes does, specifically access two different files in the library and play them simultaneously to two different outputs, then it wouldn't address the issue the OP is trying to overcome.
posted by chosemerveilleux at 10:52 AM on November 25, 2010


Response by poster: The reason I ask is because I can run iTunes on multiple computers that can access the jukebox's iTunes library, and they will play their own separate, unique streams correctly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:04 AM on November 25, 2010


VLC can be made to stream to an Airport Express, and you can run multiple instances.

There are a few VLC remote control iOS apps, but I don't think they can handle multiple instances on one computer (I might be wrong though, so check that out). Outside of that, one idea would be to investigate the possibility of starting up each VLC instance with its inbuilt web interface running on different ports, or hacking together a web app to run on the mini's web server and consolidate control of all the VLC instances into one page.
posted by Pinback at 6:12 PM on November 25, 2010


chosemerveilleux, iTunes is using the AirPort Express like they are remote speakers. The AppleTV can apparently work that way too, but it can also use iTunes like a media server. Or, look at it as push, vs pull. iTunes pushes audio to the AirPort Express. The AppleTV can pull audio out of iTunes.
posted by Good Brain at 10:46 PM on November 25, 2010


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