I need to be able to send sound separately to multiple (c7) speakers, that are wired in some way. Will I need some sort of external sound controller to manage this? I had been planning to use wireless speakers for this to get around the numbers limitation but it’s seeming it will not be too viable. All the 8 channel speaker output things for the pi seem to be discontinued. Perhaps I’m looking at the wrong things? Sound is not really my area.
What sound are you looking to send? Same thing to each? Media from HA or something else?
What speakers are they? Passive? Active (with amp)?
Question is a bit vague.
sorry, I barely know re speaker specs! Up until today I had been planning to use wireless speakers - media from HA, and different things to each, and not have to get involved with any of this stuff.
The guy mentioned passive speakers but if we have to have a local amp in order to make this happen then that’s a thing, nothing’s been installed yet. The quality doesn’t need to be mega, it’s for ambient sound effects in a large enclosure with some speakers outdoors. Ideally need to be able to expand the number of speakers/channels.
perhaps this should be in configuration?
Should it be in sync or not?
If it does not have to be in sync, then a small ESP device might be enough.
If it has to be in sync, then a Raspberry Zero 2W with a sound-hat, like one from HiFiBerry.
HifiBerry have different versions, both with and without amps.
You might need to set up some server for the sound playing.
It could be a server with one or multiple MPD players and maybe MyMPD as a GUI that then stream to sockets for IceCast2 for simple HTTP streaming and/or SnapCast for in sync streaming.
I run such a setup with 3 MPD players for my home, which means I can play 3 simultaneous songs and then just move my speakers around those with a click in HA.
no, it doesn’t have to be in sync, but it needs to be wired. Ethernet would be OK though I suppose. I was hoping to avoid setting up a whole other server or even devices, I just wanted to send some wavs from HA if possible. I was even wondering if maybe just some sort of switchable relay to passive speakers on the end of normal audio cable? Is that mad? I may need to play through multiple speakers at once (different things) but it doesn’t have to sync in any way
I think you could use something like an Orange Pi PC.
It comes with a mini jack for sound output and an ethernet port for network connection.
You can then install Debian or another OS on it, mount the the HA folder through a Samba share or other protocol and have it act as a media player in HA that can play from the config folder.
You just need an active speaker with a mini jack connector.
This is the easy setup.
If you are ready for some tinkering, then look here:
Thanks, it all just feels so much more complicated than it seems it should be. I guess I thought I could just plug some sort of amp hat or usb amp into the pi running HA, and pipe the wavs through that. All this extra faff is extremely sub optimal. There’s already too many ESPs in this project!
If you find a supported USB sound card, then you can do that and you will have the ability to play one sound, maybe two if you make two mono sounds combined to a stereo and use a channel each for a separate speaker.
You then need a setup for the other 6-7 other sounds, which can not be handled by HA.
I guess the keyword here is ‘supported’ ie probably not this https://www.amazon.co.uk/LEAGY-External-Sound-Card-8-Channel/dp/B07VSHCGWD
A sound card like that would normally take a 7.1/8 channel input.
You want 8 separate channels, so you need to have your 8 media players mixed into there own mono signal, if they are not such from start and then mixed into each there channel on the 7.1/8 signal to be used as input for the sound card.
It is possible, but not in HAOS.
well I could have a library of prepared files, I won’t need too many separate sounds per speaker. So I’d mix up sound1_(0-7) sound2_(0-7) and just play those in the media player to target each speaker…?
Then it might work.
I do not know if the sound card require special drivers though for it to work as a 7.1 sound card.