Can Airplay speakers be specified by IP Address?

Question

I have spent a lot of money on TP Link powerline adapters for my airport expresses only to discover to late that they do not reliably transmit multicast packets, so Bonjour discovery on my network is extremely unreliable, and audio|acacia can't find certain Airports. Is there anyway to enter their IP Address, which are static, into audio|acacia?

Comments

What model of TP-Link adapters are you using? Do they not send multicast packets at all, or just not all the time? Is there perhaps a setting with the devices to enable multicast traffic? If multicast isn't working properly, there is a possibility that audio playback wouldn't work properly either. Are you able to play to the AirPlay devices using iTunes or an iOS device without issues?

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4 x TP Link pa411. They just seem to be unreliable for discovery. One can almost never be discovered when connected over powerline, but as soon as I tell it to join over WiFi and I disconnect the ethernet, it's visible and rarely drops off, if ever. But when they are visible over the powerline they can be streamed to, with no buffer issue at all. And the utility to manage them is very limited, no options for multicast. On Amazon, Netgear make some adapters that use the same chip, and a buyer mentioned they'd returned them due to the fact they wouldn't work with Airplay: http://www.amazon.com/review/RYF7NANX1TX91. They don't often appear in the AirPort Utility but I can use the "configure other" option and connect directly using their IP addresses.

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I'd return them if you still have the chance. I doubt this feature will ever be supported. That is unless many users request it because they are having the same problem.

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Have you tried installing the experimental firmware for the TP Link PA411s that better support multicast? The firmware can be found here: http://www.tp-link.com/no/article/?faqid=484

Answer 1

Unfortunately no, not currently. It's too small of a use case to bother supporting such a feature at this time.

FYI, audio|acacia needs to retrieve more than just an IP address for the AirPlay device from Bonjour. It also needs to retrieve information required for setting up streams. This includes determining what bit rates, sample rates, codecs, packet formats, and encryption methods are supported by the AirPlay device.