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Rogue Amoeba brings us Airfoil 2 (Shareware $25, OS X only) which adds a missing function your Mac. It allows your Mac to play ANY audio on multiple AirPort Express units simultaneously, in sync.
Please note: Since Apple’s iTunes 6.02 release, iTunes NOW supports multi-speaker playback right in side iTunes! Airfoil 2 still adds support for playing back ANY audio your Mac can play which is not supported without Airfoil 2. See iTunes 6.02 Adds Multiple Speaker Support.
Our home is equipped with five Apple Airport Express units installed in different rooms and different floors of the house. This is primarily so we can stream audio from my Mac to the different room stereos or powered speakers. As we use iTunes for all the music in the house this is convenient. We have not used CDs to play music in quite a long time. Our huge iTunes music library and Internet radio are accessible to any room in our home.
I have always wanted the capability to stream any audio from my Mac to multiple rooms at once and of course in sync. I have been hoping Apple would add this in the future. This would make a lot of sense as they would be able to more easily sell more AirPort Express units. But Apple has yet to add this feature or allow the Airport Express’ and AirTunes to work with anything but the iTunes application.
Well, Airfoil 2 to the rescue. Rogue Amoeba is the same company that has brought Mac users some great shareware like Audio Hijack Pro, Audio Hijack, and Nicecast, and some nice freeware like SoundSource, LineIn, and Detour all of which I highly recommend.
Airfoil 2 also allows you to also stream audio from other applications like EyeTV, Real Player, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, Widgets, Griffin’s RadioShark, Safari, or just about any sound your Mac can play to multiple Airport Express in total sync. Just pick the application from the drop down list, browse to the one you want, or choose audio device or system audio. Finally, I have “piped in” music throughout our home without running wires all over the place!
Airfoil 2 is simple to install and Rogue Amoeba offers a free trial before buying. Before purchasing Airfoil, noise is overlaid on all transmissions longer than 10 minutes. But a very adequate method for testing the software before purchasing. Upon downloading and installing Airfoil you will be prompted to install the extras including Instant Audio HiJack. This so you can instantly go from playing your audio locally to your Airport Express without restarting your open applications each time.
Once installed all you need to do to is start playing your audio in your application like iTunes, start the Airfoil application and choose which Airport Express units you want to play your audio on by clicking the “speaker icon” for the room on the Airfoil interface. You can also have Airfoil automatically start playing out to any Airport Express you want by just setting up Airfoil’s preferences.
Use the Airfoil Speaker menu to quickly transmit to all or any of the Airport Express units you may have available, or just use the keyboard shortcuts. The “Link Volume to System” makes the volume of all your remote speakers connected to Airport Express units controlled by your Macs volume control. When it is un-checked the volume is separate from your Mac’s volume control and can be adjusted separately on the Airfoil interface.
Airfoil 2 allows you to monitor your audio locally on your Mac, if you desire. The local audio will be out of sync with the Airport Express audio when monitoring locally. This is one reason iTunes mutes your local audio when using AirTunes and playing out to an AirPort Express. It is useful to be able to monitor the audio locally. Airfoil 2 gives you an easy way to toggle between monitoring audio locally or not. Just toggle monitoring under Airfoil’s Audio menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Command (Apple key) + E.
Monitoring On
Monitoring Off
Airfoil also includes a nice global EQ and volume control. Just click the EQ button on the Airfoil 2 interface, the one with the sliders on it.
You can adjust the volume per Airport Express using the separate volume controls for each room on the Airfoil 2 interface.
Airfoil 2 has advanced source settings that allows for setting Airfoil to insert silence or noise between tracks and set hijack and device settings. The advanced settings are available under the Airfoil Audio menu.
There is no problem playing “protected” tracks purchased from the iTunes Music Store this way, after-all, you are still using iTunes so the same rules apply. Apple so far, has only allowed you to use the Airport Express with iTunes. They have not made the Airport Express available to any other applications or solutions. By using Airfoil 2 you are now able to use the Airport Express with just about anything your Mac can play.
Airfoil 2 also features full AppleScript support, so you can integrate other applications into Airfoil, or automate its uses however you may like.
Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil 2 may help Apple sell some more Airport Express units. At least until Apple shows up with a new solution. For the small price of Airfoil 2 it is well worth getting it now and is you already have multiple Airport Express units it is a “no-brainer”.
There is no version of Airfoil for Windows and I am not aware of any Windows solutions like Airfoil. One of the reasons I use Macs is the quality of the shareware and freeware that is available. Windows users the might consider checking out this website.
