Multiple Apple TVs as Muilti-Room Audio System?

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had a solution for running 12 apple tv's off one itunes.

We have recently setup a system with 12 1st gen apple tv's. After purchasing them we found there was a maximum restriction of having 5 Synced and 5 Streaming apple tv's per instance of itunes. The synced ones are set to not actually sync any content, but can however still access all of the itunes content as long as the computer is on. So essentiality they are all 'streaming', we never intended to store content on the apple tv's. As soon as you try to add an 11th apple tv, one of the other apple tv's (at random) will no longer be able to access the computer running itunes and gets kicked off. Has anyone done this and is there a way around it. I had thought of trying to run 2 instances of itunes pointed at the same library, with half of the apple tvs paired with each instance, but that doesn’t seam possible?

The new apple tv's use home sharing, does anyone know how many 2nd gen apple tv's can run off one itunes simultaneously?

Hi there,

Not sure yet how many Apple TV 2 or 2nd generation can use home sharing at the same time. As soon as we have enough of them I will be able to give further information on this but if anyone else has already tried this, it would be great to get their feedback.

Hi,

I was able to troubleshoot this today with 6 Apple TV's but only 5 of them were actually able to read my iTunes library using Home Sharing. Once I activated Home Sharing on the 6th unit, and I tried to access my library, I had a black warning screen on my Apple TV saying my library could not be accessed.

You will only be able to run 5 Apple TV's 2 using Home Sharing on one single iTunes Library.

Hopefully this will change in the futur.

Thanks for a good overview - still I have one question:

I just read : "Yes, you can simultaneously stream to multiple Apple TV's from the same iTunes library."

Then my questin is - will it keep all in sync ?

Meaning that, over the IP network it is likely hat there are different delay to the diferent players. This makes it impossible to use more players simultanously - with the same film or music - due to small irritating delays.. This is solved by ie. Sonos for multi room Audio - but not yet for Video..

- so is multirom synchronisation of Video and Audi supported by AppleTV ?

brg

R

So in answer to your question yes you will notice an bit of lag if you have some hard wired and others on wifi. I have 2 airplay devices and 2 apple TV's and you will notice a little lag when playing the same song on all devices but as long as one isn't cranked up way louder than the rest I suspect you won't even notice its that minor of a lag.

Now going a bit off topic I like music videos and you can add music and music videos to a play list and appleTV will play the video when there is a video or just show cover art when its music. It would be awesome if you could mulitroom that not only to other apple TV's but to airplay devices also. Granted the airplay devices would simply play the audio but great for a party where you want music playing in all rooms but also want put your TV to work with something other than a screen saver.

I just got my Apple TV 2 hooked up and running last night. I have two Q's

First Q:

When I acess my Itunes library through the Home Link using my Ipad2 I can see the content and even play it but no sound coumes out of the Ipad2. When I connect the Ipad2 to my Apple TV I get full sound there, but still no sound from the Ipad2?

Second Q:

I set up my Ipad2 and my Iphone 4. I can only comunicate with one of them at a time. If I am using the Ipad and want to use the Iphone 4 I have to Re-Share library between the Iphone and my PC. That then turnes communication off to the Ipad. This also happens in opposite when using the Iphone 4 and then tring to use the Ipad2.

Thanks for the help.

Just set mine up today. Here is the set up.

Living room. Airport Extreme (2011 edition) connected to a Seagate 2TB Flex drive with my video library all nice and

organized.

MacBook Using air video server

Bedroom. TV connected to tv and controlled by iPad using air video using AirPlay

Using this set up iTunes isn't necessary and your library can be organized as you see fit. Another bonus, the iPad will play the videos in the background, so it's possible to check email and what not.

I absolutely love this set up, because there is no way that I know of to organize movies in iTunes, and air video works wonderfully.

Hi ruskow,

Did you find an answer to your question in this thread? I thought the answer was yes after some reading, I went and bought 6 ATVs for a project and realized that I couldn't get them syncronized. Allpe support was not useful either.

Interested to read your post, maybe you could help me here?

I'm wanting to put a modest DVD collection, and music, onto some kind of "movie server" - I had thought Mac Mini - and then share the movie library and music across four different TVs, independent of each other. This is a small guest lodge property, where each room will have an iPad available. Guests will be able to use the iPad for internet access etc, but also to choose music and movies if they wish.

It looks like this can be done - but how?

Thanks!