Hello Sir

I think you accidently hit the center touch Mute function on the Playmaker.

Hello Sir

I think you accidently hit the center touch Mute function on the Playmaker.

BEOCET wrote:

I think you accidently hit the center touch Mute function on the Playmaker.

You raise a possible scenario.  But in fact one of my several tests was, in fact, to turn on the mute button and afterwards to unmute it, of which there are three ways, if I now recall correctly:

1. Press it again (unmutes)

2.  Increase the volume by touching the touch wheel (unmutes)

3.  Increase the volume by increasing the volume on the Beo4 (unmutes).

So I do not think that the mute button was the problem.

I am struggling right now too with the playmaker.

Noted It is clearly some sort of incompatibility with my wireless hotspot that I recently changed out but am not willing to update that thing again I rather reboot mi playmaker daily then jumping through hoops.

That just seems to be the nature of the game these days. stuff just doesnt always work. i started buying less and less for that reason, is just not worth going through the hassle for a lot of things.

Enjoy your playmaker, glad it worked out for you.

cheers

JK

The problem here lies with Airplay and not the Playmaker. So in that sense your dealer is correct blaming the wifi router.

The amount of data needed to be transferred during Airplay is quite large, so when using a wireless play device (iPhone) and playback device(Playmaker), then the stress on the network is doubled compared to a hard wired Playmaker.

Glitch free Airplay requires a really stable and high bandwidth capable wifi network. This is rarely easy to achieve! Often it requires setting a fixed IP for the devices used, and give them priority on the network. Its also really important to use the bands with the least amount of interference. This is especially important when living in an urban environment where wifi-networks overlap big time. 

I too had some really annoying problems with my A9 using Airplay. Changed my router, and tweaked my setup. This almost eliminated the problems, but not entirely. After Spotify Connect was introduced to the A9, I've never had any problem with playback. Which again points to Airplay as the culprit!

An easy solution would be if Apple released a N-network enabled Airplay chip. Currently this is only possible for Apples own devices, and all Airplay products from 3rd-party manufactures are forces to use the same Airplay chip, which at the moment only supports the much overcrowded and bandwidth limited g-network.

Mikael wrote:

The problem here lies with Airplay and not the Playmaker. So in that sense your dealer is correct blaming the wifi router.

The amount of data needed to be transferred during Airplay is quite large, so when using a wireless play device (iPhone) and playback device(Playmaker), then the stress on the network is doubled compared to a hard wired Playmaker.

Glitch free Airplay requires a really stable and high bandwidth capable wifi network. This is rarely easy to achieve! Often it requires setting a fixed IP for the devices used, and give them priority on the network. Its also really important to use the bands with the least amount of interference. This is especially important when living in an urban environment where wifi-networks overlap big time. 

I too had some really annoying problems with my A9 using Airplay. Changed my router, and tweaked my setup. This almost eliminated the problems, but not entirely. After Spotify Connect was introduced to the A9, I've never had any problem with playback. Which again points to Airplay as the culprit!

An easy solution would be if Apple released a N-network enabled Airplay chip. Currently this is only possible for Apples own devices, and all Airplay products from 3rd-party manufactures are forces to use the same Airplay chip, which at the moment only supports the much overcrowded and bandwidth limited g-network.

First of all you don't need a fixed IP for AirPlay to work. AirPlay doesnt even rely on IP-adresses but instead multicast DNS (Apple Bonjour) so just scratch that idea. 

Apple released the first AirPort Express in 2004, it featured the same wifi audio which was then called AirTunes, now AirPlay. It was a 802.11g (54Mbit) unit with a quite slow processor. And it worked GREAT. I have used several for many years without any issues what so ever. Now we have both 802.11g and 802.11ac with up to gigabit wifi speeds and now, ten years later people have problems with the Playmaker. 

No, the problem is not the router (if it is a Time Capsule/AirPort Extreme for example, which I use myself and that works great). The problem is very much probably in the Playmaker - or of course related to distance to the router, thick walls or such. I have a Beolit 12 and it features a very old 802.11g chips and probably has quite a small buffer for the streamed music so it can easily hick up but usually works quite good. Biggest problem is that it can lower the speed of the overall network (all my devices is 802.11n or 802.11ac today except for the beolit).  

Apple don't design wifi chips and they have moved on to 802.11ac in their computers. AirPlay is software. I guess B&Os implementation of it is poor. You say that Spotify Connect works good - this makes this assumption even more realistic since Spotify Connect is a program running directly on your A9 instead of your iPhone sending the music (just controlling it). 

The best solution I can recommend is to connect the playmaker to ethernet instead of wifi or exchange it for perhaps an Airplay express connected via A.AUX to a Beosound-unit.

B&O retailers often rely on telling people to replace their routers with a Cisco router. I think they should fix their hardware and software instead of telling people to buy new routers. 

That might be true, but the fixed IP are needed if you want to prioritise some device on the network.

Since 2004 the quality of streaming and number of features have change drastically. You can't really compare a 2004 protocol with a 2014 protocol. 

Im not saying the Airport router is the problem, but the setup (setup also included distance to devices etc.). I too use a Airport Extreme and that have fixed most of my issues. As I mentioned in my previous post, Airplay devices doesn't support N or AC, only G. The only exception to this are the AppleTV and Airport Express. Every manufacture of 3rd party Airlplay devices are forces to use the same Airplay chip. It's true that Apple doesn't make the chips, but if you want that "Airplay" badge on your package, then you have no choice.

When I still used Airplay to stream music to my A9 there was a huge difference is stability between my iPhone 5 and laptop. My iPhone had serious hick ups in the sound, while it never happened when using my laptop. So blaming the Playmaker is just too easy! And don't jump to the conclusion that the Playmaker is the culprit just by hard wiring it to the network. This might seem as the case, but remember that you at the same time half the amount of data transferred over wifi.

The main difference between Spotify Connect and Airplay is the amount of data needed to be transferred over WIFI. Spotify Connect allows the A9 to stream the music directly from Spotify, while Airplay requires the music to be streamed to the iPhone and then pushed to the A9, i.e. double traffic. Everything I've seen points to bandwidth problems.

Mikael wrote:

The problem here lies with Airplay and not the Playmaker. So in that sense your dealer is correct blaming the wifi router.

Thank you for your extended comments.

Unfortunately, I cannot agree with your comments.  The Playmaker now works flawlessly with our AirPort Base Station/Time Capsule router; but for two weeks, it refused to perform at all under this same setup.

Also, the Playmaker failed to work with our Cisco RV220W wireless that I brought from the boat on the advice of B&O.  The Playmaker only began to work on the Cisco after an Aux-In was plugged into the Playmaker.  Immediately after sound was first produced via the Aux-In, AirPlay on the Playmaker subsequently began to work on the Cisco RV220W.

And afterwards, AirPlay on the Playmaker has worked just fine on our regular AirPort Base Station/Time Capsule router.

Mikael wrote:

The problem here lies with Airplay and not the Playmaker. So in that sense your dealer is correct blaming the wifi router.

The amount of data needed to be transferred during Airplay is quite large, so when using a wireless play device (iPhone) and playback device(Playmaker), then the stress on the network is doubled compared to a hard wired Playmaker.

Glitch free Airplay requires a really stable and high bandwidth capable wifi network. This is rarely easy to achieve! Often it requires setting a fixed IP for the devices used, and give them priority on the network. Its also really important to use the bands with the least amount of interference. This is especially important when living in an urban environment where wifi-networks overlap big time. 

I too had some really annoying problems with my A9 using Airplay. Changed my router, and tweaked my setup. This almost eliminated the problems, but not entirely. After Spotify Connect was introduced to the A9, I've never had any problem with playback. Which again points to Airplay as the culprit!

An easy solution would be if Apple released a N-network enabled Airplay chip. Currently this is only possible for Apples own devices, and all Airplay products from 3rd-party manufactures are forces to use the same Airplay chip, which at the moment only supports the much overcrowded and bandwidth limited g-network.

I do not agree to the above.

From personal experience my conclusion is that these are Playmaker issues, and not general Airplay issues. Maybe when you are lucky, and live in a free standing house with cardboard walls and no neighbours, you are able to get it working reasonably stable. But I haven't succeeded, as a network professional, with enterprise class cisco wireless equipment. Migrated to Sonos, no issues whatsoever. Also using an Appletv, airplay without any issues, exactly the same environment, never lost one single connection, and never had the airplay button unavailable on any device. It just works. And that should be the case with the playmaker also.

Regarding the fixed ip-address, tried that, although knowing it could not make a difference, and it didn't. Only thing that helped whas rebooting the Playmaker (again)

I spent a few months troubleshooting the issues. My advice now would be to spend max a week on issues, and migrate to something that works if not solved completely. Playmaker has very basic functionality, and there are plenty alternativs.

Joost