DIY Multi-zoning Audio

I'm deeply involved in DIY solutions for multi-zoning audio throughout the home.  During my years, I have promoted a DIY route utilizing Xlobby and all its great abilities.  Unfortunately, Xlobby has run its course, and Win XP is no longer even being supported by Microsoft, I finally saw the slow demise of this great system.

I taught myself a lot about DIY zoning audio and the possible capabilities and control.  In my new system that I'm currently designing up, I looked at all the options and abilities that I can foresee my family using.  Though my Xlobby system covered all these options, its capabilities were actually too much (I over designed/engineered it), to the point that it actually intimidated the family from wanting to use it.  This new setup will incorporate proven standards, and won't have as many music options to choose from, so alot of the complexity of operation is now gone.

 The Xlobby system had the following:

 - 7 zones split into two floors

 - each floor could play up to 4 different Winamp streams (zones on each floor could sync with other zones on same floor)

 - one Winamp stream for total house sync (all zones playing same music in sync)

 - could accept external audio devices such as an AM/FM tuner and CD player

 - was AirPlay compatible for streaming music from Apple devices

The Xlobby system had internet streaming in the beginning, but due to lack of plugin support, lost the ability. Also lost other features due to lack of support for specific plugins.

The new system will be running Logitech Squeezebox.

 - LMS on UnRAID/OMV server in Docker

 - 5 zones to start, each zone running from individual Raspberry Pi modules residing in that particular zone.  Pi's loaded with PiCorePlayer (I had tested SqueezePlug,  Volumio, Squeezelite, and Shairport).

 - can quickly add or remove zones by adding/removing Raspberry Pi modules loaded with PiCorePlayer, allowing the ability to expand the system

 - all zones can play individual stored music streams from LMS

 - all zones can play individual internet streaming music

 - all zones can be synced together to play single stream of music (from LMS or internet streaming)

 - system controlled by simple Logitech Squeezebox apps on Android and/or Apple devices

 - system has AirPlay capabilities as each Pi has Shairport installed

Click on the link to the left (drop down the DIY Multi-zoning Audio tab), or here to view my archived DIY Xlobby Multi-zoning Audio Setup.

Click on the link to the left, or here to view my DIY Pi Multi-zoning Audio Setup in progress.