Multi-room Pi audio
Get your Raspberry Pi playing music around the house.
YOU’LL NEED
• RaspberryPi4orPi400(one
unitperroom) • 8GB(orlarger)microSDcard, U3cardsrecommended.
Oneperroom • 3.5mmaudiocables • Amplifiedspeakersor
areceiverwith 3.5mm/phonoaudioinput • Powersuppliesforyour
RaspberryPis • Optional:Smartphoneortablet
MULTI-ROOM AUDIO SYSTEMScan cost a pretty penny, but who needs to buy an expensive set of wireless speakers when you can use some Raspberry Pis and any 3.5mm wired speakers to achieve the same effect? We’ll use our Pi 4s and speakers/receivers (with 3.5mm audio inputs) to play music from a streaming service perfectly in sync via Bluetooth from our phone, tablet, or computer. We’ll show you how to do this with a single speaker and Raspberry Pi and then replicate it in other rooms. This is an excellent project for repurposing old receivers. If you have a non-Bluetooth receiver with a 3.5mm jack input, you can connect your speakers to your receiver and your receiver to your Raspberry Pi.
Instead of Raspberry Pi OS, we’ll use BalenaSoundOS to make the Bluetooth connection visible (to our other devices) and eliminate the need for a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for our Pi.
Create a free BalenaCloud account at https:// htt // dashboard.balena-cloud.com/signup and log in. Open the Deploy a Balena-sound application page at https://sound.balenalabs.io/docs/gettingstarted. You must already be logged into your Balena account for that link to work. Click Deploy to Application and select Devices from the left column menu in your Balena-Sound Dashboard. Click Add device and choose Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi 400 or Raspberry Pi 3. Select the radio button for Development. If using Wi-Fi, select the radio button for Wi-Fi+Ethernet and enter your Wi-Fi credentials. Click Download balenaOS and a zip file will start downloading. Write this to an SD card, using Balena Etcher, or otherwise.
CONNECT AND UPDATE
Remove the microSD card from your computer and insert it into your Raspberry Pi. Connect the speaker to your Pi via the 3.5mm audio cable. Power up your Pi. Allow 15 minutes for your Pi to boot up and BalenaOS to update—only the initial boot requires this long update. You can check the status of your Pi Balena Sound OS in your BalenaCloud dashboard. If you’re using a Raspberry Pi 400, connect a USB speaker instead of the 3.5mm audio jack. Wait for your Raspberry Pi BalenaOS update to finish and confirm that all systems are running.
From your smartphone, tablet or computer, navigate to your Bluetooth settings and look for BalenaOS XXXX and pair it to your device. Connect the device as the sound output for your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Go to your streaming service and play a song. The music should stream via Bluetooth to your Raspberry Pi and play from the attached speaker.