Multiroom with plural sources

- a macbook with music stored in iTunes can be used as a musicsource

- for each room you need an airport express and speakers connected to it

- with the remote app you can use your iphone as a remote for the whole system

All correct.

Is it possible to play two different songs, that are stored on the same macbook, in two different rooms at the same time?

No, not two different songs at the same time. You can stream the same iTunes Music to multiple AirPort Expresses or other AirPlay devices though. If you attempt to use a second MacBook while the first one is streaming, it will tell you that device "is already in use".

Your music library can reside on a Time Capsule.

I suppose the following should work:

1. For two rooms: If your main (two-band) WiFi router provides enough signal in those rooms, set it to two different names for the 2,4GHz and 5 Ghz bands; In room A you place an Express with "extend the wireless network" you can choose one name (with different network names the Express can only extend one at the same time), stream music from your computer to that one network name; in room B you place the second express to "extend the wireless network" with the other network name. Connect to that name and stream music with the other computer.

2. For more rooms: place two express in each room, the one having network one name the other network two name.

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When this works, you still have each WiFi net for access to the internet for more computers than one.

I hope that Professor Bob Timmons looks at this thread to see what he thinks about this.

Hi,

if you don't want to use another macbook (hardware) I would try if you could virtualize another os x installation on your macbook which then is hosting another instance of an itunes installation.

Your music files can stay on an external harddrive or second partition, but you will need some software that does organize and sync your different itunes libraries.

Both libraries would be available in your network an therefore can transmit sound to your designated airplay devices.

No, the Wifi is one WiFi then, that is also used by the VM. That means you can only choose one WiFi net.

the thread opener just want to play and listen different sounds on different airplay devices that are in different rooms, why should those airplay devices be on different networks? That does make no sense!

You just need another instance of itunes to serve different music to different airplay devices, so there are two options:

1. take another hardware that is capable to start another instance of itunes

2. or virtualize another operating system on existing hardware that is capable to start itunes

both itunes libraries are accessible through remote app and can play different songs on different airplay devices.

As I explained the main router has two bands 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz. Normally you let them have the same name and then the Airport chooses the strongest one. If you give them different names, like net1 and net2, the airport express does extend the one that you choose, not both.

In the mac you have only one Airport antenna, irrespective of how many VM's you have, thus all connect to the same WiFi net. Thus only one iTunes can play on the airport express that is choosen, like Jihn galt explained.

Sorry John, misspelled your name.😊

but...

the thread opener just want to listen to different songs on different airport express devices in different rooms, so the situation that 2 people are sitting in the same room and trying to listen to different songs on the same airplay device without recognizing each other should point to zero and make the whole story with extending 2,4 and 5ghz with multiple airport devices and speakers unnecessary complex and expensive.

and even if you name the airport devices wifi names different, both (2,4 and 5ghz) will use the same ip range & subnet and therefore will be visible in the network if you did not choose different ip ranges per frequency first.

@multiroomman just install one airport express or airplay capable speaker system per room and advertise two different itunes libraries on your network its up to you and your wallet 🙂 if you are using a different hardware or try to virtualize a second system on your primary macbook.

while using the remote app on your iphone or ipad you are able to connect to all of your available itunes libraries and have a look first if the airplay device you want to stream music to might already be in use!

you can not use two iTunes to play to one airport express at the same time, see John Galt's answer....

Even two different rooms with each it's own express does not work AS LONG AS THEY ARE ON THE SAME WiFi net.

where I am writing that it is possible to stream from two itunes sources to one airport device at the same time??

Even two different rooms with each it's own express does not work AS LONG AS THEY ARE ON THE SAME WiFi net.

try to explain this sentence!

if i got 4 airport express on my house, they can all be on the same network, and while I am playing music from my central mac mini server to my airport express #1 & #2 via itunes my, girlfriend can stream with no problem to airport express #3 & #4 with her macbook pro and itunes or to one of the not used airport express with her iphone at the same time.

one more time... the thread opener does not want to stream different songs to the same room at the same time, so no need for multiple airplay devices on one room!

- a macbook with music stored in iTunes can be used as a musicsource

yes!

- for each room you need an airport express and speakers connected to it

yes!

- with the remote app you can use your iphone as a remote for the whole system

yes!

But my doubt:

Is it possible to play two different songs, that are stored on the same macbook, in two different rooms at the same time?

no, not with only one itunes source! it you have another itunes source it is not a problem!

Or do we need two macbooks to create two music sources?

yes absolute right, and you can only access the airplay device exclusive not shared with different sources while playing music on it!

I imagine the problem stays the same if we use a Time Capsule as music source?

yes, the timecapsule can only host the music, but you can use it to host it for two different itunes instances on your network.

You are not writing to play tunes to one airport at the same time: you are writing to have different tunes to two airport express, and that was what I duscussed. The issue is that that is not possible without having a different WiFi net on each.

Hi,

I don't wanted to start an airplay war just to clarify up wrong suggestions :)

@multiroomman I just proved what I have established at home, I got 3 airport express, 2 raspberry pi's that are working at an airplay device (maybe a cheaper and more convenient and versatile solution for you, just google for airpi) and 1 Apple TV 3rd Gen that are placed along my household, each are working on the same network, some wired and some via wifi, I streamed a song from my central iTunes server to three devices and streamed another song from my girlfriends MacBook Pro to two other devices with no problem, have fun and good luck with your partner ;)

Regards

Eldrik