Hi guys, I’ll describe what I want to achieve… Thought I’d get a solid design concept together before buying parts.
Intention:
Raspberry Pi based Plex Client to be hidden in a kitchen cupboard with no screen or keyboard / mouse. This Pi is intended to be the audio source for kitchen speakers. it sits on my LAN, so all control will be over TCP/IP.
I want to control this pi using my tablet / phone PLEX app, or my PMS web app on a laptop, just as if I was playing music locally using the tablet / phone / laptop, but the audio output comes from the Pi in the cupboard. Ie: so the app I’m using is interacting with the player in the cupboard rather than the local device.
Is there any way of achieving this in a nice seamless manner, so my family can get on with it easily? ie, pick up the tablet, select and play artist / album / playlist, job done.
I also run Kodi and OSMC on TV’s, but I’d love to use PLEX for this application, as I think it’s user interface for music is superior to Kodi.
Ideals:
I only want to have the commands (“play this album”; “volume up / down”; “stop”; “play this playlist”; etc…) travelling across the WiFi to the client Pi, and then the Pi talking directly to the PMS to stream the media directly across my wired network, keeping traffic off the Wifi, and minimising the amount of hops the data has to take.
Network Topology:
Gigabit Ethernet switch is the heart of my network and connects via CAT6 cable to:
- Raspberry Pi in cupboard
- Plex Media Server computer
- Wireless Access Points
- NAS
- Router
I have installed a few ceiling speakers in the kitchen diner, wired back to this same cupboard, ready for three amplifiers to operate from this source. in the cupboard I’ll have three mains switches, and three volume controls to keep it simple to use. so initial setup for the evening will require visiting the cupboard, but general volume and playing controls will be from the remote device.
Bodge-tastic, non favourable options:
One horrid option I would hate to try to make work (and be family friendly), would be to install Raspbian with desktop gui on the Pi, have chromium start up automatically, and make the PMS web page the home page… then remote desktop to the Pi to use the PMS web interface… but I can see this just being a nightmare, and very un-user-friendly.
Another not so great option is to install Kodi / osmc on the Pi, and “cast” to it form the tablet app (if i can make Kodi / osmc accept casting from PLEX that is). I don’t like this option as it requires the data to take the following path:
- from PMS
- via CAT6
- to Switch then out via
- CAT6
- to the WAP
- then via WiFi
- to Tablet
- via Wifi
- to WAP
- then via CAT6
- to Switch
- and once more via CAT6
- to the Raspberry Pi
Instead of going directly from the server to the player via wired network.
Traffic-wise, the data would be going twice across the network, which is an inefficient use of resource.
The WiFi links in the chain are also a weak point that can cause hiccups.
Many thanks, Scott.
