UPDATE: This thread was originally titled "Command line utility for controlling B&O products"
A while back I wrote a utility to control B&O products. I did this primarily because I wanted to understand how the B&O app communicates with B&O products, and better understand their capabilities, so that I could potentially write a replacement app. I recently found the motivation to clean that code up and have put it on GitHub: https://github.com/andy-js/beoutil
The last several updates to the B&O app have removed features, like the ability to view the play queue on a device that is in standby, as well as modify it, and begin playback from any point in that queue. I don't know why they did this, but I suspect it's because the newer Mozart based speakers are lacking functionality and it looks better to not expose that in the app. For me this makes the B&O app much less useful than it used to be. My utility provides a way to access this functionality again. It also has full support for multiroom audio, allowing you to borrow sources from other products, expand a multiroom experience, etc, all things that have become more difficult in the latest version of the B&O app.
B&O have also pushed out updates to the older speaker's firmware which have removed features. I was dismayed to discover that they removed support for using a Deezer playlist as a timer, which allowed you to use a speaker as an alarm clock. I'd hoped to include support for this in my utility but the functionality is simply not there anymore on the speaker side. I think this is really poor form, they should've at least asked for confirmation before installing an update that removed features. Hopefully they will get better about this in the future.
For now I've abandoned my plans to create a third-party app and have instead started working on a web based GUI for B&O products that will be able to run on something like a Raspberry Pi. Imagine something a bit like sonos-web for B&O products, though the UI is going to be something other than the typical iTunes style UI that both sonos-web and the B&O app have. I think this style of UI just does not work for multiroom audio, especially when there are a large number of speakers. Eventually I expect this will be a total replacement for the overpriced BeoLiving Intelligence. I have other features in mind which I think will be game changers, but I'll reveal that later. I plan to make this freely available with the source code.
A while back I wrote a utility to control B&O products. I did this primarily because I wanted to understand how the B&O app communicates with B&O products, and better understand their capabilities, so that I could potentially write a replacement app. I recently found the motivation to clean that code up and have put it on GitHub: https://github.com/andy-js/beoutil
The last several updates to the B&O app have removed features, like the ability to view the play queue on a device that is in standby, as well as modify it, and begin playback from any point in that queue. I don't know why they did this, but I suspect it's because the newer Mozart based speakers are lacking functionality and it looks better to not expose that in the app. For me this makes the B&O app much less useful than it used to be. My utility provides a way to access this functionality again. It also has full support for multiroom audio, allowing you to borrow sources from other products, expand a multiroom experience, etc, all things that have become more difficult in the latest version of the B&O app.
B&O have also pushed out updates to the older speaker's firmware which have removed features. I was dismayed to discover that they removed support for using a Deezer playlist as a timer, which allowed you to use a speaker as an alarm clock. I'd hoped to include support for this in my utility but the functionality is simply not there anymore on the speaker side. I think this is really poor form, they should've at least asked for confirmation before installing an update that removed features. Hopefully they will get better about this in the future.
For now I've abandoned my plans to create a third-party app and have instead started working on a web based GUI for B&O products that will be able to run on something like a Raspberry Pi. Imagine something a bit like sonos-web for B&O products, though the UI is going to be something other than the typical iTunes style UI that both sonos-web and the B&O app have. I think this style of UI just does not work for multiroom audio, especially when there are a large number of speakers. Eventually I expect this will be a total replacement for the overpriced BeoLiving Intelligence. I have other features in mind which I think will be game changers, but I'll reveal that later. I plan to make this freely available with the source code.
