Multiroom Audio

[stabbedintheface]

I was more than a little excited when I heard about the Chromecast Audio. Over the years I've acquired 6 Bose Acoustic Wave stations via various means for cheap. Up to this point I've used bluetooth to play music wherever that particular station happens to be. The dream of course (which was out of my budget and never could find the perfect solution) was to have wireless speakers synced.

The Chromecast Audio already gets me pretty close. ie - I can now stream without having to have a device within bluetooth range. Which is great...BUT the holy grail here is the synced multiroom audio.

I've already purchased the 6 units for each Bose. At 35 bucks a pop it's basically a no brainer.

I'm curious - does anyone know or have any ideas how Google is going to pull the synced audio off? It seems pretty damned hard knowing how the chromecast works. It wouldn't take more than a few ms of audio being out of sync before the whole thing fell apart.

 

[richard_rsp]

I was wondering the same thing. I purchased two Chromecast Audios (also for Bose units) and didn't realize that multiroom wasn't yet available. In all honesty, it makes me want to return one until I KNOW they have this working. Syncing is not an easy task, and while Google has good intentions, it may be a while before they are able to successfully pull this off. But then again, its only $35.

 

[Vstone]

I would bet on a large buffer, high priority packets, and clock synchronization.

 

[Rarry]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol

Interesting article. I guess this is how the sync is done.

"NTP can usually maintain time to within tens of milliseconds over the public Internet, and can achieve better than one millisecond accuracy in local area networks under ideal conditions."

 

[Rarry]

When the multi room thing is working I wonder if audio Chromecasts share the same stream or each have their own separate stream?

 

[stabbedintheface]

I wish they would hurry up and announce it!

 

[Boilingpoint24]

I believe at the keynote speech when they first introduced chromecast audio they said that multi-room update would come out by the end of 2015. I'm now thinking google may have over sold us on chromecast audio and will under deliver. I bought two of these and now returned them.

 

[stabbedintheface]

I believe at the keynote speech when they first introduced chromecast audio they said that multi-room update would come out by the end of 2015. I'm now thinking google may have over sold us on chromecast audio and will under deliver. I bought two of these and now returned them.

Anything is possible I guess. Even if they didn't end up releasing it - I still have zero buyers remorse. 35 bucks to add wireless streaming to all my speakers is a no brainer.

 

[Jude Fontenot]

Looks like multiroom support is here! I can't post links but checkout Google's chromecast blog.

 

[Boilingpoint24]

Yes and initial reviews appear quite favourable. Just went ahead and reserved two chromecast audios for pick up at bestbuy.

 

[RolandStone]

I heard that multiroom was here. Bought two more dongles to go with the one I already owned. Paid just $55 for a pair at Best Buy. Got home and synched them up from one end of my house to the other with one in the middle. Even though my wifi is weak, I had no trouble downloading and installing the latest hardware updates and synching them all together in a group which of course I named "Sonos Killer"! Even though I have a long house, the sound is perfectly in sync from one end to the other with no lag adjustments necessary. . I am very pleased! But if I'd spent up to $500 per room for a Sonos system I'd be ticked off! Glad I don't own stock in Sonos!

 

[Richard Servello]

got my second CCA today. Paired with Google home, and incoming mini (maybe Max) it's awesome. Kills overpriced Sonos.