B&W Zeppelin Air Cuts out every minute over airplay on Mac retina & Iphone

If it's any consolation; I have had this problem since I purchased the Zeppelin. I've got plenty of other Air Play devices in the house that don't have any problems like this so it's *highly* likely that it's particularly related to the Zeppelin. Needless to say it's incredibly annoying, and I suspect just rare enough for B&W not to care about it (I've contacted them in the past but to no avail.)

Hello Chris,

If you are getting dropouts during AirPlay playback, you are most likely experiencing Wi-Fi/RF interference. You mention you live in a condo so I’m guessing that you are able to see a lot of other wi-fi networks. The thing with Wi-Fi is that the vast majority of routers operate on the 2.4gHz frequency (incidentally other RF devices such as microwaves and cordless phones operate on this frequency and can also cause Wi-Fi interference).

If other routers in the condo block are overlapping with yours, this may be what is causing your problem. Accessing your router settings and assigning the network to specific Wi-Fi channel may help eliminate this problem.

You can download an app called iStumbler. This scans local networks and tells you what Wi-Fi channels they are operating on. From here you can make a decision what channel is best to assign your network to. In normal practice channel 1, 6 and 11 offer best results as these are the channels that do not overlap with any others.

Also the Zeppelin Air is an 802.11g device. Changing the 802.11 standard on your router to ‘g’ only or to a mixed signal that does not contain the 802.11n standard may also help.

I’ve had a look on Bowers & Wilkins website and have found out they recently released an update to the Zeppelin Air firmware. You can find the link to the firmware download on the following link;

http://bowersandwilkins.custhelp.com/app/home/p/6,7

I performed this on my Zeppelin Air and it was a very easy process; 5-10 minutes tops.

I have also seen a support article on their site entitled ‘When streaming via AirPlay I experience audio dropouts, what can I do to resolve this?’ http://bowersandwilkins.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/40/p/6%2C7

Have a look at this and try the fault funding process outlined in the article.

Dare I say, it but it may just be the case your router is not up to the job. Visit the router manufacturer’s website to see if there is a firmware upgrade available for your router model.

Do remember wi-fi networking is incredibly complicated behind the scenes. There are many links in the chain, and the weakest link may not necessarily be the most obvious.

Hi Chris - did you manage to sort your issue. I have recently bought a Zeppelin Air and have the same issue!

Dave

Hi rusty1

Just a quick note to say thanks. I reconfigured my routers wifi to take out all but 802.11g and its worked like a dream ever since.

top advice much appreciated.

Hi Barkmeister,

Glad I could help.

B&W have released an update to the Zeppelin Air's firmware (v 2.00.24) last month.

It's worth installing to keep it up to date.

It available on www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/support/zeppelinair in the Software & Firmware section.

Thanks so much rusty1.

My Zeppelin Air worked fine when it was in a house with only a couple of competing wifi networks but since moving into an apartment where there are easily 15 other networks in range it's been sadly out of sorts. I just switched the router settings to 802.11g earlier today and so far so good. I had previously updated the firmware which hadn't solved the issue. So fingers crossed!

Rusty1,

Thanks for your help! Your suggestions soloved my problem! I need to buy you a beer! I hope everyone with this issue finds this page and your advice.

Hi rusty1, how do I change the router setting to "g"? The Channel is set to Auto and the operating channel says 11.

I have the same unit its hardwired into a router, same issue takes a bit longer about 20 minutes. Very frustrating issue. Has happened across my iPhone 4s and iPhone 5s. Whats interesting is that another 5s in the house seems to go hours before the problem happens. Once the streaming stops I have to unplug the zeppelin and plug it back in to get it working again. Am almost ready to simply setup a old Express and enable audio airplay on it and turn the the Zeppelin into a old school speaker.

Chris,

I think I finally found a solution to this controversial problem. Just like everyone else here I bought this unit two years ago with great expectations to only find problems with connection and constant cut-offs. After taking a course in statistical communications system, I finally (yay--duhh) realized what the problem was. My current card has a 802.11g which is an old technology for our current standards. Well, the fundamental solution to the problem is to decrease the interference from other device in the same bandwidth and also in the same channel. By principle, 802.11g can only "resolve" about 3 devices overlapping and the rest is taking care by receiver's signal processing inside each of the devices. In my opinion, B&W didn't think about this from the receiver stand point.

Ok--- here is the solution --- In order to minimize inter-channel interference, I changed my wireless router to a dual band (2.4GHz and 5Ghz) with 802.11b/g/n. I directed all my devices that can take advantage of the 802.11n to a dedicated SID and JUST the Zepellin to the 802.11g to different SID. This worked like a charm ---- NO more interference or cut-offs. The only interference (very very minimal) is from my neighbors who still use 802.11g, but this can easily be solved by changing the channel once in a while. Hope this works for you.

hi,

i have a problem with a zeppelin air, recently i bought a 2TB time capsule,

now it's impossible to connect my zeppelin to the wifi (the purple light is flashing)

i attached print screens with the settings in airport utility.

pls i need your help, i'm sure that the problem comes from some incopatibility of the two devid=ces.

GO to settings, then Bluetooth, then turn the Zepplin device option off and on again.

4 years later and the fix still works.

Thanks again 🙂

I can confirm that this fix doesn't work in all cases, unfortunately 😝