Considerations for stable connections with Lots of Airplay Devices?

[nathan...@gmail.com]

While we wait for TuneAero for Android... :) I've been testing other Android Airplay Receivers again and have had some sucess with the latest version of AirReceiver (more in this JRiver post - http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=95760.50).

It was nice and stable with good stats in the TuneBlade Monitor but as I added more Android Devices (all wireless) I started to get issues with drop outs etc at 6 devices.  Couple of Qs:

1) Any hints on what "tuning" can be done as the number of devices increase

2) Can you explain what the info in the TuneBlade Monitor is for:

  - The columns (they don't have headings)

  - When devices are shaded different colours (like yellow)

Thanks

Nathan

[nathan...@gmail.com]

After some more testing, I'm not sure it is a # of device thing as it's been pretty good over 10 devices this moring.  

- Playing with the Buffer seems to help - higher seems better than lower (or it could just be a placebo) 

- The Nexus 7 2013 tablets seem to be the worst offenders, get my G2 Phone seems the best.  Samsung Tabs in between

- Tried some tweaking of my NW settings (both with my Ubiquity APs and device settings) but nothing definitive

I'd say it is 90% "good", but I'm guessing what we really need is an Andriod app with "proper" sync support (aka AeroAudio for Android) to iron out the last of these issues.

[TuneBlade Support]

Hi Nathan, 

We're glad you're finding some success on sending to Android from TuneBlade.  

Apart from increasing the buffer size in TuneBlade, there is no specific tuning required. (We  can't be sure if non-Apple approved sw/hw implement timing and synchronization support to take advantage of the increased buffer). The most important thing is to optimize the network like selecting a WiFi band or channel which is less congested, and decreasing distance of the devices from the router wherever possible, and using wired network instead of Wifi wherever possible. TuneBlade is designed to work with practically any number of receivers, provided the network can provide the bandwidth and latency. We're aware of a user streaming to 12 receivers simultaneously in real-time mode without any issues. The receivers are mostly wired to a switch, and all receivers are Apple or MFi licensed. And sometimes there are cases when there are drop-outs even with one receiver due to high interference from household appliances and/or other networks, or due to a large distance of the PC or receiver from the router. 

About the columns in the monitor panel: 

Column 1: Name

Column 2: Status: Disconnected, Disconnecting, Connecting, Connected, Error

Column 3; Sub State : Streaming, Standby, Waiting

Column 4: Data Rate

Column 5: Resend Data rate

Column 6: Number of resends in past 1 second

Column 7: Number of pending resends

The higher the number in Column 5,6,7, the poorer the signal strength of the receiver. The yellow/orange colour for a row is when the receiver is requesting packets which should have already been played by the receiver, signifying glitchy audio or drop outs. The red colour of the row signifies that TuneBlade has decided to stop streaming  (Waiting Sub state) to the receiver briefly either due too very high number of resends or due to systems own incapability of sending at the desired data rate. 

Tablets and phones usually are optimized for low power consumption with smaller Wifi antennas ,  so it may not perform as good as an AirPort Express or some other dedicated AirPlay hardware in challenging network conditions. 

Thanks,

The TuneBlade Team