Create a multiroom iTunes music system Video

Create a multiroom iTunes music system Video Transcript

>> Everyone knows that the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch are great portable music players. But they can also double as remote controls for playing music on your home stereo. I am John Falcon from CNET, and I will show you how it's done on this Insider's Secret. ^M00:00:15 [ Music ] ^M00:00:27 [ Background Music ]

>> Products like the Sonos Digital Music System and the Logitech's Squeezebox both use an iPod-like remote control to access your computer's digital music collection over your home network and play that music through the big speakers of your home stereo system. But anyone with an iPhone or an iPod Touch can set a similar PC to stereo network music system and use their Apple handheld as a wireless remote control to access any iTunes-based audio. The setup can be as simple or elaborate as you'd like, it just depends on how many of the components you already own and how many additional ones you want to add to your existing setup. For starters, you need at least one music source. You can use the iTunes library on any Windows PC, or Mac, or the songs you've transferred to an Apple TV. If you're just listening on your PC speakers or those connected to your Apple TV, then you're ready to move on. But, if you want to stream your music to additional rooms in your home, you want to invest in an Apple AirPort Express. It's a wireless networking box that can double as a router, Wireless Access Point, wireless bridge, a print server, or any combination thereof, but it's got one more special feature. It can also play your iTunes music over your home network. Once you've got one of those components, a computer running iTunes, an Apple TV or an Apple AirPort Express up and running in every room where you want to listen to music, you're almost done. Each of them should now show up as an air tune speaker on your iTunes desktop. That means you can stream your iTunes music to any of those rooms in the house, either one at a time or simultaneously. Just click on the speaker icon at the bottom right hand of the iTunes window and check off where you want to listen. But you don't want to run back to your computer screen whenever you want to switch songs or playlist. It's much more convenient to use your iPod to control the action instead. Now this works equally well with an iPhone or as we have here, an iPod Touch. First, connect the handheld to your wifi network, then go to the App store and search for 'Remote'. Once you've downloaded and installed it, it's completely free, fire it up. To control a computer running iTunes, choose 'Add Library'. A four-digit code will be displayed. At that point, head over to your computer screen, open iTunes, and you should notice the iPod showing up in the 'Devisces' section of the left-hand nav. Click on it. Type the same four-digit pass code and you should get a confirmation message that your remote is now able to control iTunes. At that point, it's off to the races. Your iPod should be able to navigate through your PC's entire iTunes collection. The Remote app works with both multiple sources and multiple destinations. You can toggle between iTunes libraries on multiple PC's and multiple Apple TV's using the 'Choose Library' function on the remote setting screen. That music can be played on any air tune speaker as well. It uses the same sort of menu found on iTunes. There are limitations to this setup, of course. You can only stream your choice of music to multiple rooms simultaneously but you can't use the iPod to send different choices to different rooms. And you can't send any audio from the iPod itself, only music that is already on the PC or the Apple TV will work. Apple says the theoretical limit of the system is 16 total components and each one you add will zap some of your networks bandwidth. That said, most of us are probably only gonna be looking for is if it covers two to four rooms, and this is an all-Apple solution that's the only that guaranteed with music purchased from the iTunes store. That's it for this Insider's Secret. I'm John Falcon from CNET, see you next time. [ Music ]