ANNOUNCE: AirPlay Bridge = integrate AirPlay devices with LMS (squeeze2raop)

[philippe_44]

Yes sir - I'm running Airplay Bridge v0.4.50.0

Thank you!
Dave

I still don't understand: you said

Now; Airbridge has (generally) been working with good stability in my installation (Max2Play 2.51, RPi 3, Logitech Media Server 7.9.1 - 1511211491). Recently, however, about every other time I try to use it to feed from my iPhone, it doesn't show up in the available devices link.

What do you mean by "feed from my iPhone" and what is "it" in "it doesn't show up"?

[gianpaoloracca]

Hi, I'm trying your plugin with a Docker installation.
At first I missed your advice to use host network mode. Then I switched to host mode, I have specified the correct network interface (I have two on my server), and then restarted the server.
No Airplay devices are being found.
Maybe it is because they are on a different network?
Chromecast bridge works well even if chromecast devices are on a different network too and if I try to use Airplay with my phone (which is on the same network of my LMS) I see my Airplay capable devices on the other network.

Any hint?
Thanks,

Gianpaolo

P.S. Log attached.

Hi, just a little update on the matter, even if no one seems to care about it

I tried to put my two Airplay devices on the same subnet as my LMS and it works like a charm!
Now, it would be nice to understand why having those devices on a different subnet prevented LMS from discovering them. I remind you that my iOS devices (that are on the same subnet of LMS) could find Airplay devices even if they were on a different subnet, so I think my PFSense rules were ok.
If anyone has the same situation or has some hints it will be very appreciated.

Have a nice day,

Gianpaolo

[philippe_44]

Hi, just a little update on the matter, even if no one seems to care about it

You sound like Calimero

No offense meant, Calimero was a popular cartoon when I was a kid and as it was an Italo-Japanse creation and your name sounded Italian, I could not help it. Apologize if offense taken.

I tried to put my two Airplay devices on the same subnet as my LMS and it works like a charm!
Now, it would be nice to understand why having those devices on a different subnet prevented LMS from discovering them. I remind you that my iOS devices (that are on the same subnet of LMS) could find Airplay devices even if they were on a different subnet, so I think my PFSense rules were ok.
If anyone has the same situation or has some hints it will be very appreciated.

Have a nice day,

Gianpaolo

The different is where the mDNS query is initiated from and where it is supposed to return, as here it is inside the docker instance. In the case of your iOS device are, that constraint is not here.
I'm not saying that this is the reason, I'll have to have a look at the mDNS broadcast code

[edit]: I checked and the mDNS time-to-live is set to 32 which means "send to whole site", so it should propagate across your sub-networks unless something in the docker container prevents it. You can try to run the helper squeeze2raop-xxx on any machine (Linux x86/x86-64/arm5/arm6/aarch64, Windows, OSX, Solaris and FreeBSD)

[dborod]

Hi,

I've been happily using AirPlay to stream music to my Apple TV (thank you). I recently acquired some HomePods, and while they show up in the AirPlay bridge configuration screen, no sounds come out of the HomePods when selected and music is played from LMS.

Before I spend time trying to debug this I wanted to ask if streaming to HomePods via AirPlay works at all, or might work someday?

Thanks.

[philippe_44]

Hi,

I've been happily using AirPlay to stream music to my Apple TV (thank you). I recently acquired some HomePods, and while they show up in the AirPlay bridge configuration screen, no sounds come out of the HomePods when selected and music is played from LMS.

Before I spend time trying to debug this I wanted to ask if streaming to HomePods via AirPlay works at all, or might work someday?

Thanks.

See 1st post of that thread

HomePod require "send metadata to player" to be enabled

[dborod]

See 1st post of that thread

Thanks for pointing me to that, but that setting is enabled, and no sound comes from the HomePods. I have also tried disconnecting the homepods from being in a stereo pair with each other. I also erased and recreated the config file.

[mnvelocitypilot]

I still don't understand: you said


What do you mean by "feed from my iPhone" and what is "it" in "it doesn't show up"?

Thanks. To be explict, the RPI that is running LMS in my case is named "Pool". Pool does not show up in the Airplay list (the "Bridge Configuration Screen"? on my iPhone) when I'm trying to source from my iPhone (6sPlus running Ios 14.2). I've tried rebooting the iPhone - no change.

As mentioned, when this first started to happen, going into Settings on the AirPlay Bridge plugin showed that I was missing a config file that was (in theory) auto generated when the screen was refreshed. Unfortunately, I can no longer even get Settings to open for Airplay Bridge ... clicking on Settings just puts me into a permanent waiting mode, waiting for the Rpi/LMS system to respond. It never does. Other Settings for other plugins work fine (and open right up).

The only way I can get this to work is to unload Airplay Bridge, reboot both the Pi and LMS, reinstall, and reboot again. Then it'll work for a day or so.

I really do appreciate your help!

Dave

[philippe_44]

Thanks for pointing me to that, but that setting is enabled, and no sound comes from the HomePods. I have also tried disconnecting the homepods from being in a stereo pair with each other. I also erased and recreated the config file.

Then I don't know - I don't have HomePods so we'll have to wait for somebody having these to step in

[philippe_44]

Thanks. To be explict, the RPI that is running LMS in my case is named "Pool". Pool does not show up in the Airplay list (the "Bridge Configuration Screen"? on my iPhone) when I'm trying to source from my iPhone (6sPlus running Ios 14.2). I've tried rebooting the iPhone - no change.
Dave

I'm still utterly confused. The RPI running LMS should not "appear" on in the AirPlay list of your iPhone, unless that RPI runs shairport, but that a totally different thing.

The AirPlay bridge finds *real* AirPlay devices on your network and make LMS believe that they are native squeezeboxes. Such AirPlay devices can be HomePods, AppleTV, Sonos and many software players based on shairport. So, unless you run shairport on the RPI, it should not be pickedup by the bridge

Now, if you want to see real squeezeboxes to be turned into AirPlay devices that will appear on your iPhone as target speakers to send the audio to, this is where you are looking for ShairTunes2W plugin

So, in summary when you are talking about the RPI named "Pool" I can only assume that you are referring to squeezelite (aka LocalPlayer) that is a software squeezebox that runs on your RPI, but that software runs independently from LMS. In other word, it can run on a RPI that does not runs LMS (of course, some computer on your network must run LMS, but it can be anywhere). You can do the contorted thing to transform squeezelite into an AirPlay using the bridge and then use it from your iPhone, but you'd rather use shairport that gives your direct access.

[mnvelocitypilot]

I'm still utterly confused.

I can assure you sir, that it's not you who is confused, and I apologize for all the stupid questions!

So I'm still capable of learning, and I'm trying hard. After further prodding by you (which shouldn't have been necessary), yes, I am running Shairport. I was looking for a Shairport plugin inside of my Squeezebox plugins, not in Max2Play. Shareport is running on Max2Play, and AirPlay Bridge is running on Squeezelite (which is running in turn on LMS on my Pool instantiation of Max2Play).

My system, then, properly stated, is that I'm running Max2Play on several devices in my RPi network. The "Pool" instantiation of Max2Play is running LMS, and that Pool instantiation is also running Squeezelite. I've been successfully using Airplay from my iphone to send music and podcasts to Pool (and my mistaken understanding was that that was happening via your AirPlay bridge LMS plugin).

However, I now see that I am also running your Sharetunes2 fork (v0.120.3) LMS plugin. I can see why you are confused!

I am sorry for increasing your frustration level... and again, thanks for all your hard work and your help!

Dave