Is this a fact or just a deduction from the absence of Beolink Multiroom capabilities on the new Balance?

Maybe the company is just segmenting the speaker lineup with products that integrate in BL Multiroom and have Deezer, TuneIn, etc. and others that rely exclusively on Airplay2 / Chromecast with no built-in audio apps.

Hope it's just this way (let's cross fingers)

Styrizo wrote:

Is this a fact or just a deduction from the absence of Beolink Multiroom capabilities on the new Balance?

Maybe the company is just segmenting the speaker lineup with products that integrate in BL Multiroom and have Deezer, TuneIn, etc. and others that rely exclusively on Airplay2 / Chromecast with no built-in audio apps.

Hope it's just this way (let's cross fingers)

John from B&O Manchester made the statement on a YouTube video.

Styrizo wrote:

Is this a fact or just a deduction from the absence of Beolink Multiroom capabilities on the new Balance?

John from B&O Manchester just announced it. Going forward no new B&O-products will feature BeoLink/Multiroom. So from now on it's a legacy product. I just hope the Eclipse MK2 will have Multiroom, then the whole TV-lineup (Harmony/Eclipse/Stage) will have Beolink for the time to come...

Ha! (well not really)...but I did try and warn of this many times here.

As I said 18 months ago, I was told that a decision had been made that the primary control paradigm would be shifting to AP and CC.

That clearly spelt the end for B&O's own mutli-room protocol - and that transition seems to be happening now.

Thankfully existing NL products are generally fairly robust, from an expanding / reducing the experience point of view, so I wouldn't be too worried about (theoretical) lack of support going forward. And who's even to say B&O will drop support for NL products any time soon.

Many questions pose themselves about any future physical remote they are rumoured to be producing.

 

I guess this means they can source ready-made electronics for the whole network part. No need for bespoke parts including BeoLink. Makes development faster and cheaper. They can concentrate on the design and more importantly on the sound aspects.

Sandyb wrote:

Many questions pose themselves about any future physical remote they are rumoured to be producing.

I second that. Curious whether it will essentially be an AP2/CC controller?

(Noteworthy that BeoSound Balance is not compatible with BeoRemote One or the Essence Wheely. The last one is especially weird as the Essence remote mirrors the top plate controls of BS Balance.)

Yeah, welcome to a new world I guess.

So here's another question.

If you have some of their high end speakers, like 17/18/5/50/90s and have an audio source connected to it - lets say a streamer, be it own brand or other - how do you expand the experience to other rooms. As those speakers are not AP themselves. I guess if the streamer is AP capable, then it will work. But a vinyl player connected to 50's for example? Hmm.

I get it with TV's - as all future B&O type TV's (they're not Beovisions any more, not in any meaningful sense) will have a speaker part a la Stage, which is Airplay equipped. And in this case, a broadcast or movie playing on this setup with sound coming from the Stage lets say, I'm guessing a Balance (for ex) can join via AP.  Although licensing restrictions may apply depending on the content - SKY TV's app on iOS and OSX places restrictions on what can be airplay'ed.  Another wrinkle - not entirely under B&O's control, and you could easily find yourself stuck.

Anyway, the absence of any built in sources in the Balance does point to the future - one where they have conceded multi-room control over to Apple and Google. Inevitable I guess, though its not quiet clear to me why both couldn't continue to coexist in the way they have over recent years.

 

 

Sandyb wrote:

I get it with TV's - as all future B&O type TV's (they're not Beovisions any more, not in any meaningful sense) will have a speaker part a la Stage, which is Airplay equipped. And in this case, a broadcast or movie playing on this setup with sound coming from the Stage lets say, I'm guessing a Balance (for ex) can join via AP.  Although licensing restrictions may apply depending on the content - SKY TV's app on iOS and OSX places restrictions on what can be airplay'ed.  Another wrinkle - not entirely under B&O's control, and you could easily find yourself stuck.

Alas, you cannot Airplay from the HDMI sources of the Stage/Harmony/Eclipse. The trouble with Airplay is that you can only start/stop streams from an iOS/macOS. No other sources than a streaming app.

Multiroom from the LG-era onwards will be an audio-only affair.

With airplay your streaming device needs always to be connected to wifi... when you leave the house for a sec, the music just stops ... this is unusable for me... i have BO stuff in almost every room. In every room is also a beoremote which makes it very easy to join the other rooms... i do this also with my Domintell home automation system via the gateway, this works prefect.

I really do not their decision to drop their miltiroom in the future...