outside audio

[arw01]

Although strictly speaking, not likely to involve the isy in any manner except maybe some mood lighting (phillips hue's out there would be pretty cool or some rgb with the new figaro(sp) controllers they have.

 

What are you guys doing to have some outdoor audio that you can control from android, ipad, ipod, computer, etc.

 

I looked a bit at Sonos but they still seem to have no outside speakers, so looking at going with thewirecutter.com recommendations after we listen to them at Best Buy, but that brings up some sort of amp, the cabling, the volume control, the source etc.

 

I've also recently come into the possession of a F200 projector made by Panasonic so I am thinking multiple sources out there as we might watch a movie on the back porch and a fire going a couple of times this simmer.

[bleepblorp]

I'm still enjoying Squeezebox throughout the house so I continued this outside as well.

 

I use a 'homemade' squeezebox using the very well done Squeezeplug software for raspberrypi. I have that connected to an extended battery inside a Drytunes box to protect it from the elements (and also allow it to float in the pool if I care).

 

The result is seamlessly synced audio inside and outside the house that I can control from android, idevices, and ISY.

[kevkmartin]

Apple airport express, connected to amp and speakers, or powered speakers.

 

I mounted a set of Polk outdoor speakers on the deck, and ran 4 in 1 speaker wire back to the wiring closet where the Airport express, and amp live. It's great for iTunes, and I can airplay any app that supports it.

[arw01]

Apple airport express, connected to amp and speakers, or powered speakers.

 

I mounted a set of Polk outdoor speakers on the deck, and ran 4 in 1 speaker wire back to the wiring closet where the Airport express, and amp live. It's great for iTunes, and I can airplay any app that supports it.

 

Android apps? and how about Kindle apps?

 

So far around the house we have a couple android tablets, multiple laptops, the isy, 3 android phones, 1 dumb phone, 2 ipods, a pair of kindle fires, and an ipad.

 

Ideally I would like to be able to control the amp hooked to the speakers with any of them and play anything in itunes, amazone cloud, google cloud, or on the server in the house, we have out there.

 

Alan

[oberkc]

I use a grace music streamer, controlled by various iOS or android apps. I dont believe it can play from the cloud locations, but it can play music from a network server or your computer. It also can play from things like pandora or iheartradio.

[kaphely]

I have two Paradigm Stylus 370 outdoors wired to my Denon AVR-2807 on zone 2 which sits in my living room. I use an Airport express to stream music from my iTunes server. I control everything with a Logitech Harmony link and it's iOS apps and the a Apple remote app. I can then power everything on and off, switch to FM or Airport express and change the radio presets and volume. Is has been working flawlessly for two years.

[johnnyt]

I have a sonos amp running a boston acoustics "rock" stereo speaker. Someday soon I'll re-read the sonos thread on sending commands to sonos from ISY.

 

 

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[stillen_i30]

I have a Bose whole house audio system with a panel of amps for individual rooms in the laundry room.

 

Each room has a personal music center remote. Out back, there are two in-ceiling speakers and two Bose Element speakers on the patio that actually sound good (previous owner had all this installed so it works for me).

 

All I need out back are the remote for the speakers and my phone which I have out there anyway. I also use an old android that is no longer activated. All our devices have BubbleUPnP on them. The central music area inside has a Sony SMP-N200 media player fed into it with pandora, access to our NAS music server, etc. All of it is controllable by using the BubbleUPnP app on any android. Volume controlled by Bose remote. Can also stream to BubbleUPnP with shoutcast, etc.

 

Have read about the Grace Solo (mentioned by another poster above) and I am looking into that instead as the unit can be started from the android app (my aging Sony media player has to be manually turned on from inside...its android app does everything else besides power).

[oberkc]

Have read about the Grace Solo (mentioned by another poster above) and I am looking into that instead as the unit can be started from the android app (my aging Sony media player has to be manually turned on from inside...its android app does everything else besides power).

 

As you say, the grace solo can be turned on and off through the app, but the necessary amp remains unaffected by the grace app. Also, the grace does not draw enouh power to trigger one of those smart power strips (at least none that I have tried). One of these days, I may take some time to solve this problem, but we dont use music enough to make it a priority for me.

[arw01]

Any "amps" that fit in an outside electrical box? I am thinking a rotary volume control and maybe a raspberry pi with some music app maybe xmbc?

 

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[johnnyt]

Any "amps" that fit in an outside electrical box? I am thinking a rotary volume control and maybe a raspberry pi with some music app maybe xmbc?

 

Sent from my Sony Tablet S using Tapatalk

I had an a-bus amp/volume control in a regular switch outlet until I pulled in out just this weekend in favour of a sonos amp. Check out http://www.hometoys.com/emagazine/2013/ ... trong/2101. It was okay but I much prefer my sonos setup. For one thing I couldn't control my abus from anything other than the physical volume control.

 

 

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[jsu1995]

I use a grace music streamer, controlled by various iOS or android apps. I dont believe it can play from the cloud locations, but it can play music from a network server or your computer. It also can play from things like pandora or iheartradio.

 

I also use a Grace Tuner as one of our whole-house music sources and love it!  It probably serves 90% of our listening throughout the house.  (The other 10% is stuff streamed from our iPhone via an AirPort express when we want to listen to something more specific.)

 

If you do go with a Grace Audio tuner, I would recommend spending a little extra for the full-size unit (GDI-IRDT200) instead of the Solo.  It has a few extra features that are nice including digital stereo output, SD card slot, USB connection (to external drive), FM tuner, and a wired Ethernet port (in addition to Wi-Fi).  You can also play music directly from a DLNA server (like a Synology NAS).

 

A word of warning: the interface on the unit (both front panel and IR remote) is kind of crappy and needs a lot of work (in my opinion), but the free app is pretty nice.  It's great to be listening to Pandora throughout the house and being able to open the app when you hear a song you like and immediately see who it is and give it a 'thumbs up' right there from your phone.  Also, the app gives you easy access to all of your favorites -- this can be a mixture of stations from FM, Pandora, or other internet sources.

 

I know this doesn't answer the OP's question of getting the music outside, but it does give you a great way to control some of the music that is fed to the system.

[Techman]

Grace Digital just released their new tuner GDI-IRCA700 which has a large color display, it's something you may want to check out.