Network audio system for full house coverage

[tuaris 5]

I am trying to replicate a self-hosted implementation of Sonos.  I have the technical capabilities from the hardware and connectivity perspective.  I would like to be pointed in the right direction in terms of what the missing components are.

I already have:

• A home network with Ethernet to every room and full wifi coverage.
• A dedicated Emby server on FreeBSD.  Currently virtualized on a VMWare vShpere cluster with plans to move that to bare metal (I need hardware encoding and more IO bandwidth)
• A somewhat hefty dedicated (custom build from off-lease enterprise components) NAS (XigmaNAS)
• If it helps, I also have a dedicated OpenHAB server for home automation

My desire would be to have something like:

• Speakers connected to my home network either through WiFI or Ethernet.  Scattered throughout the house
• Be able to use anyone of my devices (smartphone, tablet, PC, or Smart TV) and queue up a song through Emby (or DLNA), have that song play through all the speakers instead of the device, but with the option to play it locally only.
• Be able to turn on any device, fire up Emby and seamlessly/instantly see what's playing, no matter where I started playback from.
• Be able to skip/navigate from any device seamlessly.

Questions:

1. What do I need to do for speakers?  Do I need to hack together something with a Raspberry Pi and FreeBSD?  Or are there good quality speakers that have Ethernet/wifi?
2. Is what I am describing even possible?  If so, any hints on how to configure?

[Luke 42077]

hi @tuarisif you are going to do this over dlna there is a plethora of options. Examples are Sonos, anything with Denon Heos. Or a box like Wiim with a speaker connected.

[Gunther123 2]

I came here to check on this question again and happy to see its still a topic, not so happy to see its not somehow built-in.

I have one of those Sony systems where the Bluetooth Speakers can chain together, so I just need one device to have bluetooth connectivity in order to fill the house with synchronised sound.

It would be optimal if I could setup an Emby server on a host with a bluetooth dongle and have that server advertise it can be sent audio, whether through DLNA or Emby clients.

It could be that I setup an old PC to run the client and autologin, then have that client always paired tot he Master USB speaker. I can then redirect any media and the audio will play out Bluetooth.

Is there a reason eitehr of these two scenarios would fail? Can the server "share" its local hardware?

[Gunther123 2]

Ok. I see it is possible to install Emby Theater, have it run as a user at startup and that can be a target for media. I guess its a work around.

[Gunther123 2]

Ok, so this is not the SONOS version, but for us poor folks, I have managed to get Bluetooth speakers around my house playing simultaneously today. There are many ceavats to this because its my one day off so I did this with the idea of least resistence...

I have a Windows Server in the center of my house, so it is the best candidate for "Bluetooth server". On this server, I created a user called EmbyUser and made that user admin for the setup. Login as EmbyUser, install Emby Theater and all Bluetooth drivers. I have a Bluetooth 5 chip which is part of a WiFi card. I tried this with a Bluetooth USB Dongle and it worked, too. Make sure all bluetooth devices can connect. They should all show "Connected music":


Windows only has one audio channel by default, so we need a mixing desk. Download and install VoiceMeeter. There is  as imple setup video here:

With Voice Meeter we are making the one default windows channel the input and the Bluetooth speakers each are one output.

The system then plays to all speakers simultaneoutsly, however... The timing will be different between different chipsets of Bluetooth and different speakers manufacturers.

In my case, I have few of those Sony speakers that have "Party Mode" so with this I can increase the number of speakers in a room with no lag. The speakers with lag, I move to other parts of the house where its not too noticable.

Now, make sure EmbyUser can auto login with some regedit.exe:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
"DefaultUserName"="EmbyUser"
"DefaultDomainName"="Domain or Servername"
"DefaultPassword"="YourEmbyUserPassword"

Make sure the shortcuts for Emby Theater and Voice Meeter are in the startups folder:

c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\startup

When the Windows Server restarts, the desktop will login automatically to the EmbyUser account, Bluetooth will start and connect, Emby Theater will start and can then be used as a target for any audio from around the network.

Don't forget to take EmbyUser out of the Administrators group after the setup is done.

Now you will find out why there are so few commercial implementations of this... ...Bluetooth Speakers are horribly unreliable over a few meters and more so when in a house, behind walls. At the beach in line-of-sight to your mobile, they work well, but in a house, going through a wall, cupboard, bookshelf, ...dropouts are frequent.

Edited January 1, 2025 by Gunther123

[thoth23 5]

@tuarisThis app may be helpful for your endeavour... https://bubblesoftapps.com/bubbleupnp/