Good info from JR/Jim, and good discussion.
I didn't see comments on MC local streaming via wi-fi speakers, bluetooth speakers, and devices enabled by such as Alexis and Google, etc. According to pundits citing sales numbers, this is catching on rapidly. To be useful in this new era, it seems that MC should explicitly do what users expect, without requiring kludgy additional software and advanced config. I know this is difficult, but it should be on the list.
The Alexis pitch is often (besides asking for a weather forecast) that it does music streaming, but of course from certain commercial services or tiny (by MC standards) folders of files. MC is for those of us with (often massive) personal audio libraries, loving how MC lets us manage and play our music. But is there a "it just works" place for MC in this new audio playback world?
There are several discussions here (and in prior MC version threads) about how to get MC to stream to various devices, while (important) preserving MC's distinctive playback options such as audio processing, gapless/overlapping song segues, and other MC delights. To do this fully with many external devices seems to require that MC send a continuous audio stream rather serving a series of discrete files. (Controlling MC via Alexis and similar seems secondary because if the audio is not good, usability doesn't matter.)
Skimming the Interact discussions I see wishes to be able to mix direct MC output (PC->amp/speakers) with wireless streaming (bluetooth and/or wi-fi speakers and/or Alexis and similar devices), typically in various areas of a home, with ALL AUDIO IN SYNC (like Sonos only with non-proprietary hardware).
I assume this is not easy, especially the sync aspect. Presumably the only way to control this is via MC zones, perhaps a separate zone for each type of device that might be used simultaneously? I experimented with two MC linked zones. On my MC desktop PC I created two physical outputs, hard-wired from the audio jack and from a USB audio adapter to two amps-speakers. I assigned each PC output to its own MC zone. With the zones linked, music playing from both sets of speakers was not always in sync, a slight but unpleasant difference. Probably I could have done more tinkering (spent a couple of hours), and yes the delay/echo might have arisen in the hardware rather than MC. But that's the point, as users connect the various speaker-side devices there will be timing differences. Can MC support such devices? Assuming the timing differences are stable, MC would need a straightforward way for the user to do synchronize setup (perhaps a timing slider for user to sync by ear). Could MC then keep it all in sync for day-to-day use? Or is this too much to hope for?
Please note, I'm not suggesting there is a flaw in MC. And new capabilities such as Panel and Id are very cool, as is the expanded client support. But all of this seems focused on one point of playback, and/or multiple hard-wired amps-speakers, and/or serving multiple clients that are in such separate places that audio sync doesn't matter. All good. But is it enough?
I am wondering, as many people unwrap their new Alexis, Google, wireless speakers and other remove and portable speaker gadgets at Christmas, will they work with MC, or become a replacement for MC?
The above comments are motivated by the various homes I've visited this month. I was surprised how many friends had music coming from streaming speakers/devices that (to my knowledge) would not work with MC the way I desire. I hope I'm wrong...
