Really unsure of the best place to put this, but really wanted to document it in case it actually works well!
I've been doing a huge amount of work over the last 18 months or so to try and open up the MOST bus audio system that can be found in cars, eventually creating a MOST bus HAT for a Pi. I am now onto an STM32 based board that will act as a sound card for transmitting audio and control messages.
For a long long time I have been tempted by some multi room audio, and ever since I have been play with the MOST stuff I have been thinking how well it could work with that.
For people that don't know a huge amount about the system, here's a quick overview of it (forgive any numbers being wrong, this is all off the dome!)
MOST is a fibre optic network that has a network master. The network master sets the Fs of the network, either 44.1khz or 48khz. It transmits upto 15 quadlets of synchronous data at once, so allows up to 15 16bit 2 channels streams all at once. A device can stream audio onto the network after negotiation with the master, and any device can retrieve that audio off of the network aswell by setting those quadlets to be assigned to it's own sink.
So here's my thinking of how I can have a play with this.
I've managed to source 10metres of the correct plastic fibre optic cable from ali express for £14, I am going to put a MOST device into everywhere that currently has some type of amplifier (man cave, living room, garage, kitchen), I'm then going to route the cable into each room and build some kind of web app to control the system. So if I am playing audio on my Mac, I will stream that onto 4 channels, if I want that audio picked up in the living room, connect that device to those 4 channels etc etc.
Now I know someone will raise the question and yes I know this is a lot of effort for something that can be done wirelessly these days, but I have a bunch of spare devices that work perfectly well from prototyping etc, also I've grown rather attached to the system, and most importantly - it's going to be great fun!
Anyhow, that's the current thinking, I am happy to keep this post updated if people find it of interest!
I've been doing a huge amount of work over the last 18 months or so to try and open up the MOST bus audio system that can be found in cars, eventually creating a MOST bus HAT for a Pi. I am now onto an STM32 based board that will act as a sound card for transmitting audio and control messages.
For a long long time I have been tempted by some multi room audio, and ever since I have been play with the MOST stuff I have been thinking how well it could work with that.
For people that don't know a huge amount about the system, here's a quick overview of it (forgive any numbers being wrong, this is all off the dome!)
MOST is a fibre optic network that has a network master. The network master sets the Fs of the network, either 44.1khz or 48khz. It transmits upto 15 quadlets of synchronous data at once, so allows up to 15 16bit 2 channels streams all at once. A device can stream audio onto the network after negotiation with the master, and any device can retrieve that audio off of the network aswell by setting those quadlets to be assigned to it's own sink.
So here's my thinking of how I can have a play with this.
I've managed to source 10metres of the correct plastic fibre optic cable from ali express for £14, I am going to put a MOST device into everywhere that currently has some type of amplifier (man cave, living room, garage, kitchen), I'm then going to route the cable into each room and build some kind of web app to control the system. So if I am playing audio on my Mac, I will stream that onto 4 channels, if I want that audio picked up in the living room, connect that device to those 4 channels etc etc.
Now I know someone will raise the question and yes I know this is a lot of effort for something that can be done wirelessly these days, but I have a bunch of spare devices that work perfectly well from prototyping etc, also I've grown rather attached to the system, and most importantly - it's going to be great fun!
Anyhow, that's the current thinking, I am happy to keep this post updated if people find it of interest!