Airplay 2 streaming to different combinations of rooms?

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Airplay 2 streaming to different combinations of rooms?

We have Airplay 2-compliant speakers/stereos in three rooms -- call them the living room, kitchen and study. We would like to stream to them simultaneously from our Macs and iPhones in different combinations. Sometimes we want to stream in sync to the living room and kitchen, but not the study. Other times we want to stream in sync to the kitchen and study, but not the living room.

I was told I could set up zones by going into the Home app on an iOS device. I found when I did so, though, that the app would only let me assign a given room/device to a single zone. So I can set up a zone for, say, the living room and kitchen. But I can't then create another zone to cover the living room and study -- at least as far as I've been able to find.

Is there a way to do this?

Also: Is there another community here where it would be better to ask this question?

HomePod

Posted on May 20, 2020 7:17 PM

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Answer 1

QuickPost

Level 10

103,525 points

May 21, 2020 10:06 AM in response to FrankO23

Hello,

Currently Macintosh does not natively support multi-room audio streaming system wide which is why you cannot select multiple AirPlay destinations in System Preferences.

Any audio that is playing on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV all support AirPlay 2 multi-room. The only exceptions are those applications that explicitly prohibit the use of AirPlay. Any time you are playing something you can directly access Control Center and select multiple AirPlay 2 destinations.

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Answer 2

QuickPost

Level 10

103,525 points

May 20, 2020 7:22 PM in response to FrankO23

Hello,

Multi-room audio support on Macintosh is a bit limited at this time however it can be accomplished in the Music application. On iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch > Open Control Center > Tap the AirPlay button > From here you can tap the check mark next to each AirPlay destination. Each destination that is checked will be simultaneously played through.

On Apple TV > Open Control Center (press and hold the TV button from the Remote) > Tap the AirPlay button > From here you can select whichever AirPlay destination you would like.

On Macintosh > Music > Tap the AirPlay button > From here you can select whichever AirPlay destination you would like.

On Apple Watch > Now Playing > Tap the AirPlay button > So on and so forth..

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Answer 3

FrankO23 Author

Level 1

68 points

May 21, 2020 8:36 AM in response to QuickPost

Thanks for the information, that sounds like a promising start. I have a couple of follow-up questions.

On my iPhone, when I open the Control Center and tap the AirPlay button, I see menu areas for two audio sources -- the Music app on my iPhone, and our Apple TV.

We would also like to do multi-room simultaneous streaming from other sources, such as:

-- a radio station website's stream from Safari or another browser

-- a third-party audio app, such as Spotify

Is there a way to make the output of these sources directable from the same menu under Control Center > AirPlay? At this point I don't know how to direct audio output from Safari or other browsers. As far as I can see, within the Spotify app output devices can be chosen, but only individually one at a time.

In macOS, I see the AirPlay icon within the Music app, but it only appears to control output of content streamed from the Music app itself. I'm therefore wondering the same thing as above on how to direct output of other apps, and audio from Safari or other browsers.

From the Mac desktop I can go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Sound > Output to specify the overall audio output from that Mac, and I see all of the Airplay 2-compliant devices in our household as choices. However, it seems they can only be selected one at a time, and I'm not seeing any way to group them (there are not check boxes that can be selected in multiples like the examples you gave).

Can you offer any help with these situations?

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Answer 4

FrankO23 Author

Level 1

68 points

May 21, 2020 11:32 AM in response to QuickPost

Awesome! I didn't see the iOS capability because I didn't have any other app(s) running on my iPhone. But when I start one (Safari streaming KCRW, Spotify) I see they appear on the iPhone under Control Center > Airplay.

That's just about a perfect solution for us. The only issue remaining is that my wife likes to stream from her MacBook Pro so she has a better view of the website, its playlists, etc. If there's a way to put this in as a macOS feature request, I'd definitely do so.

Thanks again.

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Airplay 2 streaming to different combinations of rooms?

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