AirPort Express + iPad + BBC iPlayer

Will this work?

I have an iPad and I want...

A) to play iTunes audio through proper speakers with airport express

B) to play BBC Listen Again (via the iPlayer app) and have the sound broadcast through proper speakers, again, via airport express

Is this possible? I know I can do both things with an Apple TV but will the AirPort Express also work?

I have just got one of these. Mines being collected & sent back on Friday.

Basically it buffers 2 seconds of audio in advance. Sometimes it holds the video for 2 seconds, but most of the times the video is 2 seconds ahead of the sound.

If you connect to a macbook the sounds even more behind.

I don't have an iPad, but with iMac and MacBook:

In reply to a post by xela:

A) to play iTunes audio through proper speakers with airport express

Yes, that will work, iTunes will happily play through an Airport Express.

B) to play BBC Listen Again (via the iPlayer app) and have the sound broadcast through proper speakers, again, via airport express

To the best of my knowledge, that won't work- the only thing that seems able to use the AEX is iTunes. Quite why Apple don't install it as just another sound device is beyond me

There are some amplifiers available that are (or can be) AirPlay capable, Marantz do one that I know of, but whether these would suit your purpose I don't know- I suspect they just "look like" an AEX so iTunes can play to them direct.

If I'm wrong, and someone knows a way to get other applications to play through the AEX I'd love to hear about it...

Looking at ukhardy07's post and talking to Olly on irc, it looks like it should be possible.

AirPlay mirroring will project the iPad onto an AppleTV with no problem - this includes sound and video. This works for iPlayer.app but is disabled in some apps like 4OD.

My questions was specifically about whether I could project sound only from iPlayer.app running on the iPad to an AEx. Lipsync wouldn't be an issue for radio so what ukhardy07's problems shouldn't apply to me.

You're right about OS X and AirPlay. It's only really possible to broadcast to the AEx with iTunes but Airfoil will supposedly hijack the audio from any app and broadcast it to AEx.

My goal in this scenario is:
( all music in iTunes/iCloud ) + ( AirPlay capable sound system in more than one location ) + ( Mac or iPad to control iTunes ) = ( access to complete music collection from anywhere via iPad and it sounds nice with good speakers )

Being able to play the BBC's Listen Again stuff through the main sound system using just an iPad is a bonus.

Sending iTunes (cloud included) from an iOS device to Air Play is easy enough (iMode 5 is my Airport Express device in the screenshots):

iPhone 5 Air Play
iPad 2 Air Play

Although Air Play is readily available to 3rd party apps, only a handful make use of it but not the BBC unfortunately (iPlayer or iPlayer Radio).

in iplayer, can you you not double tap the home button, scroll left, and get it to broadcast over airplay that way? That works for iplayer.app and my AppleTV.

In reply to a post by xela:

AirPlay mirroring will project the iPad onto an AppleTV with no problem

I didn't even know what "AirPlay mirroring" was, I had to look it up

Not too surprising really, my Apple TV is first generation (doesn't support it) and, as I said, no iPad here... I'll leave it to those who know

Thanks for the reminder about Airfoil though, I'd forgotten about it. Busy with other things at the moment, but I'll give it a try in a day or so.

Ah so that's where it went? Thanks a lot I've been looking for the little scrub bar icon all this time

i use an airport express to send itunes and spotify audio from iOS to my hi-fi.

a couple of nights ago, i had cause to send audio from the iplayer app so i know that works too

Edited by cookie (Fri 16-Nov-12 09:47:22)

Thanks - that's exactly what I'd hoped to hear

as xela says, you need to use the option in iOS to switch the output to airplay. there is no facility to do this from within the iplayer app AFAICT.

another thing - i have not been impressed with the quality when feeding an analog output from the AE to the hi-fi. i recently started using a Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus to handle the digital output and the difference is massive. it's very much better than i had hoped and i use it a lot.