Viewing current status of zone that is playing - using logitech media server as music streamer

[Darien]

hello.  i am a new user of control4.  not sure if this is the right place to ask this so forgive me if this is the wrong place.  

hey so i was wondering if anyone else is using control4 with logitech media server.  i know there's no plugin/api here but was wondering if anyone was using control4 to turn their system on to listen to the lms endpoints, how they have it set up.  my main issue is that due to no integration, it's really a "dumb" screen.  

so i have 7 end points:  a transporter and 6 touches via an array of audio matrix's.  so in control4, when i am selecting which end point to listen to, the issue i am having is that there's no indication of which end point is already playing and where.  so it's a guessing game.  i know it would be impossible to show in control4 what actual music is playing, but i would think there is at least a way to see on the page what end point is playing and where it's playing?  maybe through custom or experience buttons (just saying this via googling)?  maybe there's some sort of script that control4 can send out to the ip addresses of the touches to see if they are actively playing?  not sure but thought i would try...

what i would think control 4 could show me is in the screen that i am selecting which audio source, so under "listen," is there a way to change the icon to like an icon with a checkmark to designate which one is "on?"  An end user had to press the music source earlier to play from a different room.  if something was playing in a room and now that room is off, and no other rooms are on, the safe assumption is that the end point isn't playing...  it would also be great if it could tell me which room it's currently playing in.  if i am already in a room that music is playing, it shows the source at the bottom which is great.  but when you're in a room that isn't playing, it shows nothing.  you have to hit the "session" button to see, then remember what is playing where, hit the back button, then chose what to do.  that to me seems like a ridiculous workflow.  

is there a way to show the session information at the bottom of the screen of any room?  and show it relative to what you are trying to do.  for example, in a room, if you can only listen to music and not watch apple tv, then just show the current session information of what can be listened to only.  also, if a source is not available in that room, no need to show the session information of a source you cannot select...  

thanks in advance...  
 

[Amr]

1 hour ago, Darien said:

hello.  i am a new user of control4.  not sure if this is the right place to ask this so forgive me if this is the wrong place.  

hey so i was wondering if anyone else is using control4 with logitech media server.  i know there's no plugin/api here but was wondering if anyone was using control4 to turn their system on to listen to the lms endpoints, how they have it set up.  my main issue is that due to no integration, it's really a "dumb" screen.  

so i have 7 end points:  a transporter and 6 touches via an array of audio matrix's.  so in control4, when i am selecting which end point to listen to, the issue i am having is that there's no indication of which end point is already playing and where.  so it's a guessing game.  i know it would be impossible to show in control4 what actual music is playing, but i would think there is at least a way to see on the page what end point is playing and where it's playing?  maybe through custom or experience buttons (just saying this via googling)?  maybe there's some sort of script that control4 can send out to the ip addresses of the touches to see if they are actively playing?  not sure but thought i would try...

what i would think control 4 could show me is in the screen that i am selecting which audio source, so under "listen," is there a way to change the icon to like an icon with a checkmark to designate which one is "on?"  An end user had to press the music source earlier to play from a different room.  if something was playing in a room and now that room is off, and no other rooms are on, the safe assumption is that the end point isn't playing...  it would also be great if it could tell me which room it's currently playing in.  if i am already in a room that music is playing, it shows the source at the bottom which is great.  but when you're in a room that isn't playing, it shows nothing.  you have to hit the "session" button to see, then remember what is playing where, hit the back button, then chose what to do.  that to me seems like a ridiculous workflow.  

is there a way to show the session information at the bottom of the screen of any room?  and show it relative to what you are trying to do.  for example, in a room, if you can only listen to music and not watch apple tv, then just show the current session information of what can be listened to only.  also, if a source is not available in that room, no need to show the session information of a source you cannot select...  

thanks in advance...  
 

Yes am using LMS through Fusion Research’s Ovation Music System, https://www.fusionrd.com integrated to C4 using their developed C4 driver, streamed into one of EA5 inputs to be able to have it across all audio zones.

I have no issue with meta-data, ur post is so long, am trying to read through it!

[Darien]

thanks amr.  so it sounds like you have one streaming sources across all your audio zones, correct?   I have 7 streaming sources.  not all sources are available at each zone, but at least three are available at each zone.  (I have a house hold of 6, my wife and i work out of the home, and we have two elderly moms with us so different music is on all the time).  And do you have a LMS device going into the EA5?  or is it a Fusion device into the EA5?  I just don't want to shell out the money to replace all my 7 streaming end points...  

[Amr]

1 hour ago, Darien said:

thanks amr.  so it sounds like you have one streaming sources across all your audio zones, correct?   I have 7 streaming sources.  not all sources are available at each zone, but at least three are available at each zone.  (I have a house hold of 6, my wife and i work out of the home, and we have two elderly moms with us so different music is on all the time).  And do you have a LMS device going into the EA5?  or is it a Fusion device into the EA5?  I just don't want to shell out the money to replace all my 7 streaming end points...  

I have many streaming sources they all sent to an input of a controller, I have beside the Ovation, BlueSound Node and a Sonos Amp, most services available at all the sources + what is natively available in C4.

The Ovation Duet+ have 3 outputs, u can build an LMS with 8 outputs and use it to feed your 24x24 Audio Amp if u have such thing

Your use case is different, but I find LMS is amazingly good after all these years and community support is incredible really!

[Darien]

16 minutes ago, Amr said:

I have many streaming sources they all sent to an input of a controller, I have beside the Ovation, BlueSound Node and a Sonos Amp, most services available at all the sources + what is natively available in C4.

The Ovation Duet+ have 3 outputs, u can build an LMS with 8 outputs and use it to feed your 24x24 Audio Amp if u have such thing

Your use case is different, but I find LMS is amazingly good after all these years and community support is incredible really!

and it's the ovation software that is your integration with control4 and that controlls your sonos, bluesound, ovation?  can you sync between them all?

[Amr]

6 minutes ago, Darien said:

and it's the ovation software that is your integration with control4 and that controlls your sonos, bluesound, ovation?  can you sync between them all?

It’s C4 who does all this, LMS hold many music sources like Sonos and BS, u could use local AVR’s as a zone to your LMS players, it can be controlled with C4 for AVR’s players won’t be integrated thought.

There is no driver written that integrates LMS to C4, no one build it, I want to learn LUA to be able to get my drivers up and running I have a couple of required ones!

[Cyknight]

My question would be, what is it that you're listening to?

 

Control4 does not have a feedback option on what hard source is in use where built in as such. (though it's 'zone' page will tell you what is playing where) - when it comes tou aduio, in a normal C4 setups, you wouldn't HAVE to select a source per-se, you select a stream or file, and C4 automatically routes it using available sources to do so.

 

So again, what is it that you're really listening to, because it may simply be easier to change the source from LMS to something that you already have in place (so no major cost) vs trying to back-door something.

[Darien]

On 4/29/2023 at 10:52 PM, Cyknight said:

My question would be, what is it that you're listening to?

 

Control4 does not have a feedback option on what hard source is in use where built in as such. (though it's 'zone' page will tell you what is playing where) - when it comes tou aduio, in a normal C4 setups, you wouldn't HAVE to select a source per-se, you select a stream or file, and C4 automatically routes it using available sources to do so.

 

So again, what is it that you're really listening to, because it may simply be easier to change the source from LMS to something that you already have in place (so no major cost) vs trying to back-door something.

in my mind to make it easier, it doesn't matter what I am listening to.  I've got three/four logitech media server streamers to choose per room in every case, and just want to easily select which one and not disturb someone else's listening.  so it's a choice of, ok streamer 1 is on so i am choosing to listen to what another person is listening to, or streamer 2 is not being used so i'll pick that one and choose my own music...  what's happening now is that everyone is choosing streamer 1 and then changing the music that someone else is listening to and you know how that goes in a large family...  

[Cyknight]

20 minutes ago, Darien said:

in my mind to make it easier, it doesn't matter what I am listening to.

I mean what types of services are you listening to.

I understand the friction point here as such, but there may be more than one way of doing this.

 

At any rate, can you confirm all of the LMS endpoints are 'simply' wired in to the overall C4 audio system? The simplest solution may simply be to not have them named 1-6, but assign an LMS a name per person: then each person just uses 'their' LMS.

[SpencerT]

1 hour ago, Cyknight said:

The simplest solution may simply be to not have them named 1-6, but assign an LMS a name per person: then each person just uses 'their' LMS.

This is how I used to do it on my old Elan system with Sonos connects because there was no way to do source pooling on Elan (at least not that we could figure out). Worked surprisingly well with 4 of us in the house. 

[Darien]

1 hour ago, Cyknight said:

I mean what types of services are you listening to.

I understand the friction point here as such, but there may be more than one way of doing this.

 

At any rate, can you confirm all of the LMS endpoints are 'simply' wired in to the overall C4 audio system? The simplest solution may simply be to not have them named 1-6, but assign an LMS a name per person: then each person just uses 'their' LMS.

sure to answer spencer and knight...  in order of amount of use, we have my personal collection of about 60k songs of which most are 320 mp3's and about 20% are lossless 96/24.  From there, we use Deezer lossless, Tunein Radio, Radio Paradise lossless, Podcast, Live Music Archive, and more sparingly Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Pandora.  All via logitech media server application.  the LMS "server" is running on my QNAP NAS.  None of the logitech media server streamers are connected into control4 directly; they are connected to an audio matrix and/or an AVR directly and that audio matrix is connected to control4.  

I guess I could "label" each lms endpoint as an individual person.  but there are complexities in my system that make that challenging unless I had a ton more streaming end points.  (I actually have two different systems as my house is a two unit house -- main house and accessory dwelling unit -- think granny pad -- of the main house, i have an end point that is only used in the basement/theater attached to a marantz AVR and an end point that is only used in the attic for a solid-state vintage system -- a marantz2270, marantz 6320 and a logitech transporter and harbeths).

so in my case, i am really just talking about three logitech streamers that are in play for a segment of the home (main floor and the 2nd floor with all the bedrooms, not including the accessory dwelling unit, there's a guest bedroom in the basement so that one too for the three streamers at least for now).  this is all to say that i have complexity...  i work out of the home, my wife works out of the home, and i have two moms here are well -- one in the main house and one in the accessory dwelling unit.  and we are like grasshoppers...  always moving around...  

[lippavisual]

Use an experience button to turn red when “whatever name streamer ” is in use and turn green when not in use.  Pretty easy visual to display.  Can even get more elaborate and create variables for each streamer and track that.

show the experience buttons on the same listen page.

[SpencerT]

6 hours ago, Darien said:

and harbeths.

Sorry. all I read was "blah blah blah Harbeths". 

[Darien]

1 hour ago, SpencerT said:

Sorry. all I read was "blah blah blah Harbeths". 

i know i know...  first world problems...  

[Darien]

2 hours ago, lippavisual said:

Use an experience button to turn red when “whatever name streamer ” is in use and turn green when not in use.  Pretty easy visual to display.  Can even get more elaborate and create variables for each streamer and track that.

show the experience buttons on the same listen page.

how does control4 know when the streamer is in use?  

[lippavisual]

When device is selected, set variable to true, else- set to false.