Pre-Announcement: ickStream Music Platform

[erland]

I know MusicIP as as good as dead to some, but even the latest Bowie still gets analyzed and I use it very much. It's still better than the smartmix solution powered by the Echonest for me, so support on ickStream would be very welcome, especially if it works like SpiceFly Sugarcube.

Smart playlists/mixes is definitely something we want to support, especially since it's functionality which is more or less missing from most other hardware players except for the Squeezebox.

I'm not sure we want to rely on MusicIP, since that product unfortunately is no longer maintained, but the API's we provide to third party developers would definitely make it possible for a third party developer to do an integration with MusicIP similar to SpiceFly Sugarcube. For people who are happy to run LMS it might even just be an adjustment of the current Spicefly Sugarcube plugin.

[vining]

Will there be CLI support for guys integrating syestems with AMX or Crestron?

[Corelli45]

When you say you are speaking with other manufacturers does this include Logitech?

[erland]

When you say you are speaking with other manufacturers does this include Logitech?

Can't comment on individual hardware manufacturers, but if we see a business potential we will generally investigate it at an appropriate time.

If any hardware vendor sees this thread and is interested, you are very welcome to contact us directly, you will find the contact information on our web page: http://www.ickstream.com

[erland]

Will there be CLI support for guys integrating syestems with AMX or Crestron?

Our integration API's are based on JSON data structures and I'm pretty sure they contain all functionality which would be needed for integration with home automation systems, the idea is that our own controller and player software will use the same API's as we make available to third parties who like to use the ickStream platform. I'm personally not familiar with the AMX/Creston integration, but generally it should be possible for a third party developer to create the necessary glue between our API's and AMX/Creston integration API's, for example by implementing a CLI wrapper around our API's.

On short terms our main focus is on the platform and our own API's, but if anyone has developed integrations for AMX/Creston previously and would be interested in experimenting with our API's as a third party developer please let us know via PM or mail.

[toby10]

Great news! I'd be happy to help out with beta testing of MyIck.com (ok, bad joke) with my SB3, Boom, Touch & Radio. I stream some players 24/7 so might be a good reliability test, of sorts. What will the annual subscription be and where can I send it now (if you need some development cash)? I understand it's not ready yet, but I'd be happy to help in testing and $$$, just let me know.

[aubuti]

This is very welcome news indeed, all the more so because of who is involved. I haven't been in any hurry to worry about what happens post-mysb.com, but I've signed up on your site and am looking forward to following your progress with ickstream. Good luck with it!

[chenrikson]

Great news! I'd be happy to help out with beta testing of MyIck.com (ok, bad joke) with my SB3, Boom, Touch & Radio. I stream some players 24/7 so might be a good reliability test, of sorts. What will the annual subscription be and where can I send it now (if you need some development cash)? I understand it's not ready yet, but I'd be happy to help in testing and $$$, just let me know.

+1

[Mnyb]

Will this include any custom player fw or is it "only" a server+cloud service with apps thing .

Will the compatibility to all kinds of devices happen in the server software and can you have some kind of synergy with a collection of devices from anyone , this would be almost to good to be true ?

I can imagine that you figured how to serve squeezeboxes as some of the devs involved have mastered the art of making a player for the LMS server , and it's not far fetched to assume that if you understand the player you understand the server protocol .

[dsdreamer]

Really great news

I am very happy to see this initiative, and wish you great success with it. It makes a great deal of sense to go for device independence, but I hope you will have some differentiated hardware in your ecosystem, since the digital streaming music business is quite crowded by now. I am sure you have ideas on how to differentiate yourself from what's already out there.

I did try the obvious to see if I could get a peak at what you're up to, but to no avail.

git clone https://code.google.com/p/ickstream/
Cloning into 'ickstream'...
warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.

No surprises there, but it was worth a try. Hopefully, there will be a degree of open community development once the first public release happens...?

[epoch1970]

Geschäftsführer: Jörg Schwieder

I'm confident this project will go in the right direction.
Congratulations, and thanks.

[GeeJay]

This is very welcome news indeed, all the more so because of who is involved. I haven't been in any hurry to worry about what happens post-mysb.com, but I've signed up on your site and am looking forward to following your progress with ickstream. Good luck with it!

My sentiments exactly. I'm glad you guys announced when you did, so those of us sitting on the sidelines can continue to demonstrate patience until you're able to introduce your product.

I'm hopeful I won't soon have to answer the question, "but how will I replace iPeng and Erland's plugins?"

[erland]

I did try the obvious to see if I could get a peak at what you're up to, but to no avail.

git clone https://code.google.com/p/ickstream/
Cloning into 'ickstream'...
warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.

No surprises there, but it was worth a try. Hopefully, there will be a degree of open community development once the first public release happens...?

As mentioned in the initial post, we really want to keep the community feeling from this community, a big part of that is to allow third party developers to easily enhance and integrate with the platform and also to allow community members to participate in beta testing and influence future functionality. This is also how it currently works for people invited to our beta program.

Unfortunately we can't be more open to the general public at the moment, mainly because we want to avoid a situation where some competitor with a lot more development resources steal our unique ideas and releases something before us. It's going to be less of a problem after the first public release and we should then be able to be more open also to people outside the beta group and get that nice community feeling we are all familiar with. :-)

[tamanaco]

Great News! Already signed at ickStream.com. Also glad to hear that MusicIP or similar functionality either native or via a 3rd party plugin is being considered. Looking forward to future news and would gladly provide feedback if admitted as beta tester.

[pippin]

Will this include any custom player fw or is it "only" a server+cloud service with apps thing .

Kind of in-between. Currently, for the Squeezeboxes, it's an Applet.
Custom firmware is difficult, lots of proprietary stuff in there that's actually needed so adding to the standard firmware is easier as long as that one still works.

Will the compatibility to all kinds of devices happen in the server software

No, it's in the API/on the client side. It might be possible to simulate that, similar to LMS exposing the Squeezeboxes as UPnP devices but me thinks at least syncing will be difficult with such a scenario (but who knows... if the latency is known).

and can you have some kind of synergy with a collection of devices from anyone , this would be almost to good to be true ?

Well, not anyone. We can't make dumb devices more intelligent. But our system is simple enough to fit into a lot of devices.

I can imagine that you figured how to serve squeezeboxes as some of the devs involved have mastered the art of making a player for the LMS server , and it's not far fetched to assume that if you understand the player you understand the server protocol .

Well, our "server protocol" is very different from what the Squeezeboxes do. We do NOT have the intelligence in the server. That's the one fundamental decision we have made, we believe that embedded devices these days are powerful enough to be able to have the controller in a controller and to be able to give the player some kind of autonomy.
This gets us around the problem that the server always needs to be present and reachable, at all times. A problem haunting the Squeezeboxes when you don't run the server 24/7.

It's pretty much what Logitech _should_ have done for the Smart Radio but it involves a much bigger change in architecture.