how to use my airport express just to stream music, no interent

First, if you purchase the AirPort Express from the Apple Store they have a return policy if you are not satisfied that it will meet all of your goals for it.

1. Can AX be setup as I have described above - to receive iPad playback (via wifi) using its own dedicated little network and output it via its audio socket to my PA?

Yes, this should work. Sorry, I don't have an iPad handy to verify it though.

2. Is there a better way to do this - something I have not thought of?

Again, what you propose should work. Of course, you should give it a try before attempting to take it on location just to be sure and to familiarize yourself with its operation.

3. I am concerned about performance of course. Music files playback isn't too onerous but if it's thrashing around with wifi will that cause any noticeable latency issues?

The latest (2nd generation) AirPort Express supports 802.11n wireless. So should be your iPad 2. This is more than enough bandwidth to handle audio streaming. Just be sure to keep the location of the iPad & the Express in the same area to prevent any unnecessary Wi-Fi interference to have a clean signal between them. Since you will be operating a Wi-Fi network, even though local, I would suggest that you use wireless encryption to prevent anyone from connecting and using up your network's bandwidth.

4. What might the impact be of using wifi like this on the battery? Currently a 2-our gig of playing music via an audio cable only uses about 15% which is excellent. Using wifi as well to transmit the signal will probably use more. I could of course plug into power but would rather use less cabling

The wireless drain would be similar to what you are getting now when your iPad is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi. I would suspect that you will see a greater power draw on the battery and should expect that battery life will be affected ... but I don't think it would be significant ... unless you are already experiencing poor battery life. For example, if your iPad is several years old and is starting to have battery issues.

Tesserax,

Thanks for your reply and considered suggestions...

1. I will do this, imagine setting it up to work without an Ethernet/internet connection may cause issues with errors being logged but as you've indicated in other posts on this thread, these can be ignored, or even switched off

2. Always try before going on the road with things like this. I'm a relatively new iPad user (started in May this year) and spent ages getting to know it and the app as well as trialling it out. I had original concerns about the low volume level output by the iPad's headphone socket but have plenty of scope on my amp

3. Makes sense. Not sure how we would define "in the same area" but within 30 yards certainly although there won't be line of sight visibility I don't expect. Other wireless networks will be fairly minimal as the restaurant is in a reasonably rural location. I assume wireless encryption is an option with the AX device.

4. Battery is fine. I expect some rundown if using wifi as well but overall I wouldn't expect to use it wirelessly in the way I want to for more than 2 hours. Probably less

Thanks again

BRIAN

To tie this thread up I can confirm that I purchased an AirPort Express device from my local Apple Store (Trafford Centre, Manchester) last week and managed to successfully (easily) use it as required/desired.

I can now walk around with my iPad and play songs using the Stage Traxx app to my PA in another room. It works a treat.

Setup was simply a matter of...

1. Install Apple's AirPort utility onto iPad

2. Power up AX (AirPort Express) device then use the AirPort utility to find and connect to it

3. Setup the AX as a new network (not connected to internet) and give it a name and password

4. Go into iTunes and select AirPort Express as the output device

5. Play music through iTunes and listen to it come out of speakers connected to AX (music also played through StageTraxx app which uses the iTunes player by default)

Switching iPad back on after it went into standby or after using connected to my house wifi I had to go into settings and select the AX wifi connection then back into iTunes and check output is to AX device but that takes all of 20 seconds so isn't a serious overhead.

Hope this helps anyone looking to do the same

BRIAN

Just for the initial setup, it can be connected to either the router or directly to your computer.

Since you have the AX connected to the other router by Ethernet, I would recommend that you configure both of them for a roaming network.

Be sure that your computer is connected to the wireless network being provided by the AirPort Express BEFORE attempting to access it via the AirPort Utility.

Hey Tesserax

Yep thats right- so do I need to connect the AX to the router with the ethernet cable to set uo, or not? I've got it connected to the stereo...

Thanks

Thanks Tesserax- I've finally sorted the issue. It was a problem with the WEP password. I changed it to a 40bit instead of 128, and it's all good. I'd never have worked that out!

Thanks for your time!

Hi Quemanly- is your modem security using WEP encryption? I just switched the DSL modem over to WPA2 encryption and it's been perfect ever since.

Thanks, just to confirm,

If I want to use airplay a Keynote from my iPhone to my Apple TV by using the local network (no internet) what are the steps to build that local network?

Regards,

Jonathan M.

This is such a valuable set of instructions. Thank you Tesserax. Can you UPDATE it for current airport utillity 6.x? Many thanks in advance.

This post is referring to you original set of instructions posted July 29. 2012.