Axiom Audio Air is a wired & wireless Active Speaker that uses a Rasberry Pi2 instead of a "traditional" SOC. The build on the Pi is running a custom version of
Volumio and supports DLNA and Airplay as well as it's own GUI (Web, Android, iOS). Supports both wired and WiFi connection. You can also group multiple Axiom Airs and they will play on all devices and in Sync (I think it uses
SnapCast). Optionally battery powered as well (which I have). You can get it in a range of finishes.
It's Big... Loud... Smart... (but definitely not Cheap!).
AxiomAir Technical Specs
- Amp Power (continuous RMS) - 150 watts
- Woofers- Dual 6.5" Aluminium Cone
- Tweeters - Dual 1" Titanium Dome
- Frequency Response +/- 3 dB - 60 Hz - 20 kHz
- Frequency Response + 3 dB/- 9 dB - 50 Hz - 20 kHz
- Max SPL Continuous - 115 dB
- Enclosure - Bass Reflex
- Crossover Frequency - 2.2 kHz
- Height (inches) - 10.25 : Height (mm) - 261
- Width (inches) - 19.5 : Width (mm) - 497
- Weight (lbs) - 16 : Weight (kg)- 7.3
MC Installation Instructions (all credit and thanks to mwillems for the following!)
Note: Before you start you may want to expand the Data (3rd and last) Partition on the SD Card from 1GB to 10GB (I used GParted Live CD as I was unsure how to do this safely via SSH). I found that MC will fill this partion with Thumbs etc leading to very poor responsiveness.
1) Use SSH to log in to the axiomair (the Credentials are volumio/volumio) Note: You may need to enable SSH but going to the
http://192.XXX.XXX.XXX/dev/ page first
2) Install a minimal window manager and a vncserver that generates a virtual desktop, e.g.:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openbox tightvncserver
3) Then start the vnc server to force it to do first time setup and enter passwords
vncserver
4) Then kill the vnc server and tell it you want to use your window manager
vncserver -kill :1
echo "openbox-session &" >> /home/volumio/.vnc/xstartup
5) Then restart the VNC server at a reasonable resolution
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080
6) Install MC as follows
mkdir Downloads
wget -q "http://dist.jriver.com/mediacenter@jriver.com.gpg.key" -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter/mediacenter22native.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mediacenter22
7) To run MC, run the following commands through SSH
export DISPLAY=:1
mediacenter22 &
At that point, you have a running instance of MC on the AxiomAir. If you want to interact with MC's interface, you can use a vnc viewer (I use tigervnc which has windows and linux versions) to connect to the AxiomAir's IP address, just make sure to add a ":1" to the end of the address. Once you've vnced in, do some basic setup (pointing it to your server, etc.). At that point you should be able to control it fully with a Remote (gizmo, JRemote, EOS etc) or another MC Instance. It can be sluggish at time and I'd recommend
- building all your thumbnails in advance if you have a large library
- turning off the Spectrum Analyser in the Top of the MC Display
8 ) To install a MC Licence. When you purchase JRiver, you receive an E-mail with an .mjr file. Download that file to your AxiomAir's Downloads directory (the one created above). Run the following command through SSH (Replace Linux with Master if needed, and the Y's with the numbers from your .mjr file):
mediacenter22 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center22 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"
9) To set MC to autorun on Startup/Reboot using a cron script. Type "nano /home/volumio/headless" into the terminal and type the following
#!/bin/bash
export USER=volumio
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080
export DISPLAY=':1'
sleep 30
mediacenter22 /mediaserver
Once you're done, press CTRL-X, and choose "y" and press "enter" twice. Now type
sudo chmod 755 /home/volumio/headless
sudo apt-get install cron
crontab -e
After you enter the second command, you may be prompted you to choose an editor; if so choose /bin/nano, which should be option 1. Now you should now be looking at a file with some information in it.
If you want mediacenter to launch on boot type the following line at the bottom of the file:
@reboot /home/volumio/headless > /dev/null
Once you've added the one you want, press CTRL-X and then "y" and "enter" twice. Now reboot your AxiomAir, and within a few minutes you should be able to access MC and your VNC desktop.