Here is a plugin which adds a new type of players to LMS: Group Players
A Group Player is a new player that you can create using the plugin settings. Each Group Player represents an arbitrary set of real SB players and you can create as many Group Players as you want
They will appear in LMS like any other "real" player but as soon as you start to play on a Group Player, all the real players (the "members") will be assembled in a synchronization group and will play together.
When a Group Player is stopped or paused, the group is immediately disassembled. It's really on-the-fly LMS group creation. Of course, a real SB Player can be member of multiple groups, there is no limitation in combinations.
For example, you can have a Group Player named ‘Master Bedroom’ made of a SB and a Duet, a Group Player named ‘1st Floor’ that contains these two plus a Boom and a last Group Player named ‘Whole House’ which adds another Boom and a duet.
You can also think about "scenes" where a Group Player is more dedicated to a type of usage, rather than to a topology of players. For example when you listen to Podcasts, you might want a certain set of SB to play across the whole house, but not all of them, then just create another Group Player named "Podcast"
Starting with version 0.6.1, it's possible to manually synchronize a "real" player with a Group Player. It's an option which is disabled by default as it can be a bit confusing. Such extra player is not part of the group, for example it's volume remains independant. It should be used for temporary additions to a Group, but if such extra player should always be a member, then add it in the Settings
Version 0.6.1 adds as well some compatibility with playlist transfer plugin like Music Walk With Me or iPeng player's transfers. It's not as smooth as between players, though. It is not compatible with Triode's Switch Player plugin, but I've created a version 0.4 that adds compatibility. It's called "Switch Player (Groups compatible)". You must remove Triode's version first. For iPeng, as of Group Players 0.6.2 and iPeng 9.5.1, you cannot switch a Group Player to one of its members (need to use MWWM of SwitchPlayer plugins) and when you want to switch a Group to another player, *never* use one of the members to start from, always start from the Group Player (master) itself. We'll work with @pippin to improve that
That's pretty much about it. A Group Player shall be seen by LMS as any other SB player, so - in theory - everything that works with a player should work with a group
You cannot have nested Group Players - DON’T TRY - there is some protection against that, but it's not fool proof, just DON'T
The stable version is now part of the 3rd party plugin built-in list, so you should find it in the plugins page. If you want to test the development version (there is not always one on-going), just add the following repository
A few more details
More details and special cases:
Note that synchronization might be off for a fraction of a second when starting to play while the gathering happens
One very interesting trick: when many players are assembled together using LMS regular synchronization feature, network bandwidth might be badly affected when playing hi-res files. It’s always possible to limit bitrate of players, but limitation will apply even when they play standalone.
As a Group Player is seen by LMS as yet another player, it is possible to limit its bitrate, in which case LMS will only apply the limitation when all the members play together, but not individually
And many thanks to Michael for his help, advices and code contributions
A Group Player is a new player that you can create using the plugin settings. Each Group Player represents an arbitrary set of real SB players and you can create as many Group Players as you want
They will appear in LMS like any other "real" player but as soon as you start to play on a Group Player, all the real players (the "members") will be assembled in a synchronization group and will play together.
When a Group Player is stopped or paused, the group is immediately disassembled. It's really on-the-fly LMS group creation. Of course, a real SB Player can be member of multiple groups, there is no limitation in combinations.
For example, you can have a Group Player named ‘Master Bedroom’ made of a SB and a Duet, a Group Player named ‘1st Floor’ that contains these two plus a Boom and a last Group Player named ‘Whole House’ which adds another Boom and a duet.
You can also think about "scenes" where a Group Player is more dedicated to a type of usage, rather than to a topology of players. For example when you listen to Podcasts, you might want a certain set of SB to play across the whole house, but not all of them, then just create another Group Player named "Podcast"
Starting with version 0.6.1, it's possible to manually synchronize a "real" player with a Group Player. It's an option which is disabled by default as it can be a bit confusing. Such extra player is not part of the group, for example it's volume remains independant. It should be used for temporary additions to a Group, but if such extra player should always be a member, then add it in the Settings
Version 0.6.1 adds as well some compatibility with playlist transfer plugin like Music Walk With Me or iPeng player's transfers. It's not as smooth as between players, though. It is not compatible with Triode's Switch Player plugin, but I've created a version 0.4 that adds compatibility. It's called "Switch Player (Groups compatible)". You must remove Triode's version first. For iPeng, as of Group Players 0.6.2 and iPeng 9.5.1, you cannot switch a Group Player to one of its members (need to use MWWM of SwitchPlayer plugins) and when you want to switch a Group to another player, *never* use one of the members to start from, always start from the Group Player (master) itself. We'll work with @pippin to improve that
That's pretty much about it. A Group Player shall be seen by LMS as any other SB player, so - in theory - everything that works with a player should work with a group
You cannot have nested Group Players - DON’T TRY - there is some protection against that, but it's not fool proof, just DON'T
The stable version is now part of the 3rd party plugin built-in list, so you should find it in the plugins page. If you want to test the development version (there is not always one on-going), just add the following repository
Code:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/lms-plugins-philippe44/dev/repo-sf.xml
- Volume of a Group Player is the average of the volume of each players. Changes made to the Group Player are applied to each player with the same ratio. To set all member's volume at the same level, just set the Group Player Volume to 0 then set it to the desired volume.
- The Volume settings of each member only applies when the group is assembled. The values before the "gathering" happened are restored when the group breaks up.
- Powering on/off the Group Player powers on/off all members. This can be disabled in Settings
- Initial power state will be restored when the group is broken up
- Member’s playlists are restored after group is broken up
- In LMS Settings, Player tab, you can change group memberships & members. You can also create a stereo pair only when two players are assembled as a Group
More details and special cases:
- Powering on/off a member has no effect on the Group Player. A powered off member will restart playing when powered back on but only if it was already on when the gathering started
- When pausing a member, the Group Player stops but the group is *not* broken up and this is the only exception. It is assumed that resume with occur later using one of the members (for example using pause button on Radio or a Boom). Be careful with that, do not try to change playlist
- When stopping (or clearing playlist) of a member, only that member stops, the rest of the gathering continues without that member. That allows you to start playing something on that player without affecting the other members
- So if you change the playlist of a member, only that member will be affected. You must change the Group Player if you want all to be affected.
- When a member is separated from an active Group by playing something different on it, the Group will not re-claim it at next playlist change unless that member is idle.
- If a member was part of a LMS sync group before the Group Player started, it is re-affected to that group when the gathering is broken up. If that LMS sync group is playing then the ex-member will be powered off (otherwise it would start playing what’s on the group, which could be inconvenient)
This re-assembly can be disabled (which I prefer) - If a member was not connected when a Group Player started to play, it will not join the group whenconnecting. You must pause/resume the Group Player
- If a member belongs to Group Player A and B and a track is started on B while A was playing, the member moves to B without interrupting the playback on A. Note that when B finished, this Player will NOT be re-affected to A. Now, if a play/resume/playlist change happen on A, then that member will be re-affected to A. Basically, whoever came last wins the member
Note that synchronization might be off for a fraction of a second when starting to play while the gathering happens
One very interesting trick: when many players are assembled together using LMS regular synchronization feature, network bandwidth might be badly affected when playing hi-res files. It’s always possible to limit bitrate of players, but limitation will apply even when they play standalone.
As a Group Player is seen by LMS as yet another player, it is possible to limit its bitrate, in which case LMS will only apply the limitation when all the members play together, but not individually
And many thanks to Michael for his help, advices and code contributions
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