Setting Airplay default output in iTunes

Hello All,

I've been searching for a few days and haven't found anything relating to my question yet...

Here is the setup:

I work for a music retailer, installing digital player systems into grand pianos. The manufacturer of the digital system has an extensive digital library of music and also video which we run through an iPad to the piano. The piano has an audio system installed, we were running audio out directly from an iPad by cable using iTunes, which works fine.

Now we are installing Airports to the piano controllers (which split the signal to the speakers and the digital player control units) and streaming from the iPad to the Airport using Airplay. This also works fine, but only for strictly audio applications. When we run a video, the audio playback consistently defaults back to the iPad speakers, we have to go in every time and choose the Airport from the iTunes drop down menu. Again, this doesn't happen when we are playing a piano track or piano and symphony track in iTunes, only if we run a video track (also in iTunes). It is very frustrating that we can't seem to set Airplay to always default to the Airport, rather than the iPad speakers.

We have tried creating playlists, but every time a new video loads, the audio defaults back to the iPad. When we do the same thing with audio tracks, the audio stays set to the Airport when the music changes.

Hardware is an iPad 1, unknown software build number, and fairly recent iTunes version. Standard Airport Express with basic wifi setup on the piano, which connects perfectly to the iPad and a local Macbook as well. I've streamed regular audio from the Macbook to the Airport, it plays fine through the piano speakers. I haven't tried video from the Macbook yet.

The setup on the iPad is fairly bare-bones, as we are using this for a music controller, and don't have a lot loaded on it.

The manufacturer has no idea what I'm talking about, but when I outline the playback problem in video, admits that 'oh yeah, that's how it works'. Not fun, and when you set up a playlist, it ***** to have to go back to the iPad and keep resetting the audio on every song. They know nothing on Airplay setup.

Question: Is there a setting to make Airplay default to the Airport for all playback, and cancel out the iPad speakers?

Thanks,

Rob K.

Edmonton, Canada