Airplay?
Posted by: jon h on 14 October 2011
Any news on Airplay support?
> In my opinion, Airplay is absolutely crucial in this game.
+1
In my opinion, Airplay is absolutely crucial in this game. Naim have firmly stuck with Apple for remote control so they are embracing 'the Apple way'. Airplay is the Apple way for music delivery between servers and clients in the same way as uPnP is 'the network way' or A2DP is 'the Bluetooth way' for such delivery, so a lack of Airplay on Naim products would be bad. Apple users expect this stuff to just work, and that means Airplay in this context.
The question in my mind is whether the servers need to be Airplay certified too. Is that the case?
Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.
Meaning? If you mean the Unitiserve I don't see how it could be. The pieces that are Airplay enabled are all renderers and not servers which makes the server end all Apple. In that I mean an iOS or at a min. iTunes on a computer (Apple or PC) to serve from. Certainly Airplay is a nice feature and makes it easier to get your music from a portable device but I really don't see it as must have at this point. But...and this is pretty big one...Airplay will not stream Pandora, etc. from a computer to the Airplay device. You can do it with an iOS device but not using a computer. All that Airplay allows you to do (so far) is Airplay iTunes from a computer or laptop. So, that leaves laptops and desktops out. I understand why but still don't agree with Apple on this one. Precisely why Marantz and the other adopters of Airplay also include UPnP playback of Asset, etc., they know it's not the end all.
Where it comes in so handy in the Naim (and lesser so Linn) world is the ability to stream the many streaming services popping up such as Spotify, MOG, Pandora, etc. etc. (as opposed to embedding them in the firmware ala Denon, Marantz, etc.). After using Linn's Songcaster to do exactly that I can see the clear benefits of an Airplay type solution there. The Linn solution (as opposed to AirPlay) on the other hand will stream ANYTHING from your computer either wirelessly or wired making it a terrific tool for looking for music and sampling whatever strikes your fancy out on the web. Any site that sells music can have those samples streamed to the Linn including iTunes making it a more universal tool than Airplay. So, unless Airplay opens up a bit I see it as a limited interest to many people and I'm betting that Naim is also watching it very closely. I would hope that Airplay will evolve into more than what it is today with streaming higher resolution audio along with any video source from any computer or iOS device being the ultimate goal. We'll see.
Meaning? If you mean the Unitiserve I don't see how it could be. The pieces that are Airplay enabled are all renderers and not servers which makes the server end all Apple. In that I mean an iOS or at a min. iTunes on a computer (Apple or PC) to serve from. Certainly Airplay is a nice feature and makes it easier to get your music from a portable device but I really don't see it as must have at this point. But...and this is pretty big one...Airplay will not stream Pandora, etc. from a computer to the Airplay device. You can do it with an iOS device but not using a computer. All that Airplay allows you to do (so far) is Airplay iTunes from a computer or laptop. So, that leaves laptops and desktops out. I understand why but still don't agree with Apple on this one. Precisely why Marantz and the other adopters of Airplay also include UPnP playback of Asset, etc., they know it's not the end all.
Agreed.... It is exactly this that I am thinking of when I ask myself "why?" does everyone want Airplay in Naim gear. You wont use it with the Naim Servers, and it requires you to use iTunes (or the new foobar component for Airplay).
That is simply not true. Using a software like Airfoil computers (mac/win/linux) can send any application's sounds to an AirPlay compatible device. I'm using it with AE.
Currently Airplay doesn't support hi-res (most likely the spec will get updated as iTunes gets into hires business...), but AirPlay isn't there for serious hi-fi, it's there for convenience and mp3-quality services like Spotify and other casual stuff. Hello, there's sub-par iRadio for heaven's sake!?
UPnP is more than enough for hires-streaming, but a modern streamer is seriously handicapped without Airplay support. Especially at this price range.
An Airplay device plays stuff from any URL as long as it is a format it recognize. Airplay is not (as far as I know) a protocol that stream content. It is just the control part. Then the Airplay device use HTTP (Live Streaming) to get the bits with the content.
So to stream data to an Airplay device you implement the Airplay protocol to control the Airplay device and you also implement a small web-server that the airplay-device can use to access your content (audio file).
You can of course use any web.server on the net. Which think Apple will be doing with iTunes when it goes streaming.
But the difference from UPnP is that Airplay use internet standard protocols for the content feed.
BTW. HTTP Live Streaming adapt to the quality of the network and replay device. Usually not transcoding but a selection of preset resolutions (files mastered for each resolution). The replay device can dynamically (while playing) upgrade or downgrade between this these formats depending on the conditions.
As long as you also support Apples required resolutions there is no reason for Airplay to lock out HD-audio. You also need for the hi-end air-player to ask for the best quality available.
Apple have long term ambitions in this area and no interest in supporting anyone else's servers.
Tog