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[rich1231]

Hi all,

Sorry to ask this question as I bet it has been asked before but I have read and read the forums and searched and searched over the last few weeks and not found the answers.

Background and requirements.

I currently have a house.

I have speakers wired into every room
The cabling returns to a small server room.
I have 3 multizone amplifiers which the cables are attached.

Which are installed in a PC with 3 M-audio Delta 1010LT audio cards.

And on the PC I have an application called Commandcubes which is no longer updated or supported and is a bit flaky.

I have pc's in most rooms and various handheld devices to provide control, but the playback has to occure on the PC/server rather than on the controling device.

I cant seem to get MC to do this.

Is it possible or am I looking at the wrong product.

[prod]

Yep you can do this - you set up 3 zones for each of your sound cards. Go to Zone Manager and configure your zones to play sound specifically through each of the required sound cards.

I suppose you'd then have to remote desktop or pcanywhere to your server to control playback, making sure you toggle to the correct zone each time. Perhaps not the greatest way to do it, I'm not sure.

[Alex B]

I have speakers wired into every room
The cabling returns to a small server room.
I have 3 multizone amplifiers which the cables are attached.

Which are installed in a PC with 3 M-audio Delta 1010LT audio cards.

And on the PC I have an application called Commandcubes which is no longer updated or supported and is a bit flaky.

I have pc's in most rooms and various handheld devices to provide control, but the playback has to occure on the PC/server rather than on the controling device.

I think you would need to be more specific. Please describe exactly what you want to do.

For example, personally, I access MC on our HTPC/server through a remote desktop program when I want to control its two playback zones remotely from another room.

The HTPC/server machine is in a home theater room downstairs and we have an audio only Hi-Fi system upstairs. The upstairs system is connected with the downstairs system with two separate audio connections. One is parallel with the downstairs audio output so it provides an easy way to play the same output simultaneously through both systems. Another connection comes from a secondary audio card and it can be used when two MC zones are playing individual playlists.

At other times I use the HTPC as a file and database server only and play files through local PC & MC instances in other rooms.

In any case I use a fully featured PC and MC as the controlling interface (I don't like limited remote controllers).

[benn600]

This ability is not really available, in my opinion.  Although I wish it was.

If you have to use something like Logmein (free and amazing) then you aren't going to be able to control two rooms at once.  Why should you have to control the server's monitor?  That seems like a poor solution.

Here are some possible solutions (maybe MC13?)
1. Greatly improve web interface.  When initially connecting to it, allow a zone to be selected.  Then give a better user experience.  Some ajax searching for tracks would be nice.  Also include cover art and thumbnails for items.  Try to recreate the MC interface a bit.  So make little squares for each track (with cover art).  Make sure to send a thumbnail for the cover art and not the full picture.

2. Allow a zone on a client to be added that will control the server.  This is tough because there could be difficulty with playing tracks if you aren't using the same database or if the server has local links.  I always make sure the server uses the network address //chenbro/titanium/ but it could be a problem.  #3 solves this problem.

3. Extend library server so it automatically imports the server zones + one local zone.  So the user could change the zone (to any of your three household zones) and the MC client would have the correct database and all tracks would be locatable by the server.  So when something was played, it would start playing on the server.  Perhaps position and cover art could show up on the client -- just no audio would physically come out of the client.  The server would handle the audio output.  This is probably the best choice.

But they are all three great options, I think.  Probably another one or two as well.  I know I would greatly appreciate improvement in this area.

[prod]

Does MC12 work under Citrix?

[rich1231]

Thanks for the replies all.

Remoting on is fine for me but a pain for guests. And it would also be cool to lock some interfaces to only be able to control certain zones.

I cant understand how a product like this is developed and then a web interface has so few features

I keep seeing mention of a different interface called MusicLobby... is that a zone switching client overlay for MC?

[JimH]

In the FAQ on the MC12 board, you'll find links to MusicLobby, NetRemote and Russound.

You can also run RemoteServer from MC (startup options) and it runs a web server you can connect to from any browser.