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[dfortney]

I was wondering if the mac version of MC27 supports airplay to my various HomePods same as Apple Music currently does?  If not would really like to see this feature as I now have a number of AirPods throughout the house and don't want to use Apple Music anymore because my main library is managed by MC.

[Awesome Donkey]

No it doesn't. I believe you'd have to use an app like Airfoil.

[bob]

Mine plays to my Apple TV (and Id's using Airplay) if I choose Core Audio (Default) in MC and then choose the Airplay output device in the system.

[dfortney]

Mine plays to my Apple TV (and Id's using Airplay) if I choose Core Audio (Default) in MC and then choose the Airplay output device in the system.

Have 2 homepods that i was trying to add as devices to the Audio Midi Setup (why they still call this midi?) with the '+' at the bottom -> 'connect airplay device' which does connect but only one of the airplay devices at a time however as soon as you try connecting another you lose the first and it seems those devices only stay in the list of possibilities if it is actively selected as the output.  Question is how would I create an aggregate or multi-output device with say both of those homepods and my main DAC?  Doesn't seem possible.  Within Apple Music app you can select multiple airplay devices from a dropdown together no problem.  To say setting up the audio devices is confusing would be an understatement.  It doesn't quite seem possible to set it up correctly with multiple outputs so I could effectively listen to the same music from more then one homepod and dac together.  Even just playing it to one homepod is a bit of a hassle to setup since you have to go into Midi and add the airplay device and then remove it and revert your output device back every time you want to change it. 

I think adding Airplay2 support to MC27 in the same way Apple Music app magically allows it would be the way to go. Proper and easy to use airplay integration into MC is the hot ticket feature that would add real value add for users. What I 'want' to do and can do from within Apple Music doesn't seem possible currently within MC.

[dfortney]

This interface just makes perfect sense for it allowing selection of multiple devices together and being able to select the volume of each as appropriate and I think MC should adopt the same moving the output selection out of the options menu and right to the top of the interface with the volume slider...

[Library Eye]

On Mac, if you're using JRiver and want multiple device Airplay support a one-time purchase of Airfoil is worth it. The cost can be covered, for instance, by skipping over the next MediaCenter upgrade for Mac, and unless this feature does happen to get added then I'd say it's worth considering that as money better spent over whatever may or may not be added to MediaCenter 28 for Mac. I get the upgrades, to support JRiver, but having multiple device Airplay support is a very important feature for me and one reason I stick with JRiver for Mac and not switch to Linux- so I consider Airfoil relatively essential.

[johnkaess]

On Mac, if you're using JRiver and want multiple device Airplay support a one-time purchase of Airfoil is worth it.

Either Airfoil or Sound Source, both from Rogue Amoeba will let you send audio via airplay. I consider both apps to be highly useful for anyone who has a Mac and uses it to play music. I own both apps and couldn't be without them.

[bob]

This interface just makes perfect sense for it allowing selection of multiple devices together and being able to select the volume of each as appropriate and I think MC should adopt the same moving the output selection out of the options menu and right to the top of the interface with the volume slider...

I did spend some time looking at this and there doesn't appear to be an API for it in MacOS.
There is one on iOS.

[dfortney]

On Mac, if you're using JRiver and want multiple device Airplay support a one-time purchase of Airfoil is worth it. The cost can be covered, for instance, by skipping over the next MediaCenter upgrade for Mac, and unless this feature does happen to get added then I'd say it's worth considering that as money better spent over whatever may or may not be added to MediaCenter 28 for Mac. I get the upgrades, to support JRiver, but having multiple device Airplay support is a very important feature for me and one reason I stick with JRiver for Mac and not switch to Linux- so I consider Airfoil relatively essential.

Yeah, am probably going to do that.  Was just thinking adding it to MC should be considered an important modern feature to be high priority for MC28.  Nowadays I am sure a lot of MC owners have various airplay (and even bt) speakers they would love to play to simultaneously.  If they haven't exposed an API for it must be something you just need to link an open source library that implements the standard for?  In my mind this sort of new feature would be worth the upgrade and like you I have been upgrading MC for years without much else that matters to me just to support them.

[dfortney]

Setup Airfoil and it is essentially doing what I wanted it to, thanks everyone but this only reinforces that this should really be a feature built into MC natively.  I like that they have an EQ over the audio but unfortunately it isn't possible to EQ each airplay individually.  Latency is a bit high assume it is using Airplay 1 not 2 ?  Thought Airplay2 was supposed to drastically reduce latency.

[dfortney]

Quick search found this resource for adding Airplay2 to an app on macOS...

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/media_playback_and_selection/getting_airplay_2_into_your_app

[bob]

Quick search found this resource for adding Airplay2 to an app on macOS...

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/media_playback_and_selection/getting_airplay_2_into_your_app

Interesting.
It's in swift, switching to objective-c doesn't change anything on those pages.
Also parts of the implementation require at least 10.13 and the picker 10.15.
Something to ponder...

[dfortney]

Sure, I think Swift is their future or at least what they focus on.  I know you can interface between C++ and Swift pretty easily.  Would really love to see a more multi-cast type output from the main UI which supports not only Airplay but also sending audio to multiple DACs and managing per-output latency delay, volume, EQ presets etc.