Audio via Airplay

[Christoph]

I'm intrigued with the ability to send audio via AirPlay. Does it require the use of the Apple TV box?

Apple TV, Airport Express or any 3rd party device that supports AirPlay. More info here at Apple. Actually, for audio only in a band context Apple TV is not the best option because it has no analogue audio output. We use Airplay with both an Airport Express for playing audio recordings from SLM and an Apple TV to display video sequences on a projector. More info about our actual setup is in this topic.

[Pongo]

Hi Christoph,

Thanks for the information! I have an old Airport Express that's been sitting in a drawer for the last couple of years. Time to blow off the dust and put it to work!

[Pongo]

Woohoo! This [seems] to work well on my iPad Mini, which is my primary device. I tried it with my backup device (iPhone 3GS, w/6.0.1) and it was...painful. The audio can't stream fast enough, because it just doesn't have enough horsepower to run SLM and send audio via AirPlay...I guess.

Anyway, +1 to you for your help!

[Pongo]

Well...I spoke too soon about my enthusiasm.

I just tested this with a song that has a recording and a few MIDI presets attached and there's a delay of ~ 1-2 seconds from the audio and the MIDI changes (MIDI is late) *EDIT* It's the audio that's late. I guess I'll need to go back to using the headphone jack on the iPad until I can resolve this.

FWIW, the AirPort Express is about 2 feet from my iPad.

[Ruckman65]

Hello lads. Just curious to know how you get the audio to your PA. Obviously, the iPad sends the audio to the Airport Express but I am not sure how the Airport Express then interfaces with your PA.

[Pongo]

You just use the appropriate adapter to go from the AirPort express output jack (3.5mm) to either two RCA jacks, or 1/4" jacks and plug them into a stereo channel in your board.

You must first setup the AirPort Express as a wi-fi network and select it from your ios device. I simply named the new network SLM.
You then have to enable the AirPlay feature on your ios device (usually by swiping `up' from the bottom of your screen...tap on the AirPlay icon (small rectangle with an arrow head...sort of) and choose `AirPort Express', to send the audio.

Voila!

[Ruckman65]

Hey Pongo. Thanks for the response. What is the sound quality, volume and reliability like? I currently run an adapter out of the 30pin socket of my iPad which connects to our desk. Sound quality is far superior to that out of the headphone socket and the volume is 10% to 15% higher. Apart from the wirelessness, I wonder what you think the other advantages are of the AirPort Express route.

[Pongo]

I can't comment on the sound quality, or reliability, as this setup may not work for me after all. I've noticed that the latency (on the audio) is pretty bad, which is a huge problem with MIDI data in an automation track!

[Ruckman65]

Thanks for the reply. Please let me know how you fare if you decide to use it at any time.

[Pongo]

Hey Pongo. Thanks for the response. What is the sound quality, volume and reliability like? I currently run an adapter out of the 30pin socket of my iPad which connects to our desk. Sound quality is far superior to that out of the headphone socket and the volume is 10% to 15% higher. Apart from the wirelessness, I wonder what you think the other advantages are of the AirPort Express route.

I was merely hoping to eliminate the cable connecting the iPad (on my mic stand) to the board. I already use an iRig MIDI, which plugs into the other side of the iPad, so it would just make things a bit cleaner.

Apparently, the latency is thanks to Apple. They have a 2 second delay for playing audio from an AirPort Express and there doesn't seems to be any way to remedy this, so...no AirPort Express in my setup after all. If I wasn't using MIDI preset changes, in an automation track, this would be doable, but since I do...it's a game changer.

[Ruckman65]

I am a bit sceptical about the reliability. The 2 second latency would not make much difference to me as I only use backing tracks, no midi data. But, losing the wi-fi signal at any time would literally be a show stopper. Not sure I would want to take the risk!

[Pongo]

I may have found a way to do this after all.

I turned on Bluetooth and connected to a wireless speaker. This seemed to stream the audio in SLM with no noticeable latency, but...it's only playing the right channel. However...when I connect headphones to the speaker, it now plays both channels! So, I just need to connect the headphone out, to my board and hope that the sound quality isn't noticeably diminished.

I suppose the obvious caveat would be if the Bluetooth connection was ever interrupted during a gig. Yikes!

[Ruckman65]

Well, it seems it can be done but I am not sure I would want to run the risk of losing the Bluetooth signal. Having said that, I haven't lost the Bluetooth signal yet when linking devices under SLM. Still, I am not brave enough to run the risk in a live situation for fear of it becoming a dead situation.

[Nordi]

Hi all
Since some weeks i use for that http://www.thomann.de/de/alesis_multimix_10_wireless.htm
I cannot realize any latency or breaks with the bluetooth. The Alesis Multimix is the Sub-Mixer for my keyboards und Git-Amp, now we can bring some audio files from iPad without any problems. It works defently better and stable than airport or Wlan-Stick on my Roland Jupiter Keyboard.

Cheers -Nordi