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Best private house concept for cost effective multiroom audio with 8 zones with hifiberry?

Schokla

November 24, 2021 21:58

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Hi hifiberry enthusiasts,

at the moment I am looking for the best cost effective solution to build a multiroom audio for my private house with the following solution approach und would love to get feedback from you, if there is a better and maybe even cheaper way to do this:

1) 8 zones (only 2 zones in kitchen I would like to be able to combine as "multiroom", for the others it is really just using these zones standalone).

I would need some music server for streaming and automatically playing "door bell sounds" via doorbird. 

My Solution approach:

* 8 raspberry pi 3B+ & hifiberry amp2 placed centrally in my electrical distribution box with cabling to the speakers in the rooms - for each an own power supply - for each hifiberry amp2 2x magnat ic62 or magnat ic(p)82 depending on bathroom or normal room and size (we don't need studio quality, it's really for standard background use, but i would like to have the possibility to turn it up if needed ;) )

* 1 raspberry pi for logitech music server (with own power supply) while using hifiberryOS as squeezebox

My Challenges:

* 9 power supplies! (I already read https://support.hifiberry.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/201844611-Power-Source-for-multiple-HifiBerry-Amp, so this should be possible to just use 1 bigger one, right?)

* 9 raspberry pis with hifiberry amp2 running 24/7 (altough music will be needed max. 5% of the year for each zone) consuming energy (i roughly calculated it and it seems to be at least several hundreds of euros per year).

* 9 necessary network ports for my switch

I tried out for one as proof of concept, that worked fine (also in regards to sound quality!). BUT... do you have another or a better approach? I already saw the hifiberry power controller, but is it possible to turn the raspberry pi also on/off via REST-API call or something external request (e.g HTTP, via KNX Automation/Visu server, etc.)?

Looking forward to receiving your appreciated feedback - thank you all in advance!

 

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6 comments

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  Schokla November 24, 2021 21:59

  I forgot to mention, I would like to use mainly spotify or airplay functionality to stream music via squeezebox (so i think using HifiberryOS in combination with LMS (for multiroom in kitchen) is a great option).

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  HiFiBerry team November 25, 2021 06:37

  Turning a Pi off via API is not a problem. However, turning it on is. There is nothing like WOL or similar on the Pi. If you already have a KNX setup, you can simply use external KNX switches to turn the systems on/off. That's probably the best solution in terms of power consumption.

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  Schokla November 25, 2021 07:45

  Hi thanks for your fast reply. I already have external KNX switch actuators, I am just afraid it will take too long to startup HifiberryOS until it is ready for streaming music again, I am afraid of the "Women acceptance factor" (WAF) ;) what would you say what is the shortest time to be ready after switching the system on (what are your experiences with fixed IP)? are there any optimization tipps for that? Did a quick research on the community forum but couldn't find anything in regards to that. 
  
  In General > is this the best way to do it with hifberry our would you recommend another, better solution approach?
  Thanks for your feedback!

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  John Steg September 13, 2022 20:03

  Ha, here I stand and dig out this thread. I am looking for a solution for playing the doorbird doorbell sound over LMS - did you find a solution?

  Although probably not relevant anymore: I wouldn't kill the RPIs by cutting power, your MicroSD cards will get corrupted eventually. If you cut power AFTER shutting them down with the api, then it's fine of course. Turning it on again will just make them start up again. I'd expect roughly 30 seconds of booting until it shows up in the iPeng App, which I use. While strongly recommended, fixed IPs are irrelevant in regards to time, DHCP will be assigned way faster than your wife thinks "fuck, this is slow". Shut it down at 11am, reboot at 7am, if wof is the key issue. Mine are always running.

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  Schokla September 17, 2022 16:50

  hi John, I decided to keep them running all time too. I did a rough cost calculation and as we have a PV system and as a consequence I came to the decision that that approach is okay for us.

  Regarding doorbird sound over LMS - I use the HTTP(S) call feature of doorbird to call LMS via http request to play the doorbell sound via  <IP>/status.html?p0=playlist&p1=play&p2=file....&player=....  I even use an own http request to define different volumes (depending on time of the day) (as you can send several of the http requests via doorbird time plan (Zeitplan) when callbutton is pressed). 

  This is was the most simple (and digital) solution approach so far I found for my situation at least. And... it works fine ;)

  As I see it another possible option would be to activate another relais using the "timeplan for actions?" (in German "Zeitplan für Aktionen") at doorbird EA controller and connect a binary input to it and find another solution approach to then play doorbird sound via LMS (eg via KNX binary input > homeassistant with KNX integration & homeassistant LMS integration).

   

   

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  John Steg September 25, 2022 19:28

  Hi Schokla, amazing. Thanks for your answer despite the age of the thread. I can easily understand the German, as I am German too ;). Your approach looks very good and easily doable. Meanwhile I decided against the Doorbird, due to the shitty camera quality and the mandatory cloud registration. Now I might consider it again, if it integrates so easily. I do have a KNX binary sensor, but overall that looks more complicated, as I would try to keep the door stuff off the KNX Bus as it increases the cost massively and all the solutions are somewhat shitty. Thanks for your input and the detailed description! Cheers!