Archatechs

We are back after our hard-hitting expose of the WIP-330. To keep things fresh we are going to take a break from VoIP this time around and discuss a way to control that whole house audio system from this post. If you have one of the newer Apple Macs you’ve probably discovered the included remote control. Some people have even had success with third party remotes. The problem with all of these is that they are infrared and that means you have to be able to see the receiver. What happens if you are jamming to your outside speakers or cranking the new Wolfmother album in your basement game room? Chances are you don’t have a computer near by to point that shiny little remote at. Don’t panic- we have a solution. In this article we are going to show you how to use a WiFi enabled web browser, specifically the Nokia 770, to control your tunes all over the house.

As always, keep those comments and questions coming! You can contact us at info@archatechs.com or by using the comment link on this page.

We have been playing with the Nokia 770 for about two weeks. Unlike the WIP-330 we reviewed, this is a remarkably robust first generation product. The 770 is not a cell phone, which is a bit of a deviation for Nokia. The 770 is strictly a handheld internet device that relies on WiFi or Bluetooth for its connection. It sports an amazingly clear screen and a pretty strong WiFi radio. We were able to get well outside of the lab and roam around outside with a good connection. While the 770 includes some other goodies, such as an RSS reader and e-mail client, we are going to focus on the web browser. It should also be noted that the 770 comes with a heavy price tag of $350. That being said, an older WiFi enabled PDA (such as an Compaq or HP iPaq Pocket PC ) can be found on ebay for right around $100 and should work almost as well.

The first step in our ultimate WiFi iTunes remote is to prep your computer. You’ve probably guessed that we are partial to OS X, but never fear we’ve got XP users covered as well. There are several programs for both Mac and PC to control iTunes via a web interface, but we’ve chosen the one for each that we liked the best. Both are shareware and run about $20.00 US Dollars, we think that’s worth it.

OS X:

Coverbudy will scan your library and display your collection by album. The interface is clean and the graphics for the album make it easy to browse. We wished that there was a browse by artist feature. Our only complaint is the small alphabetic sorting across the top of the screen. The letters A through Z appear in small print to allow you to quickly jump to the name of an artist. However they just weren’t large enough to use our fingers on the Nokia 770- and that means pulling out the stylus.

Windows XP:

PlayerPal is a nifty little web-based remote that mimics the iTunes interface pretty well. They do not currently have a skin (specific interface) for the 770, but the default browser skin worked pretty well. According to their site, a Nokia 770 specific skin is in the works.

Once you’ve made your selection and downloaded the application, its time to set up the web server. Since both applications have the server part built in, configuration is pretty simple. In coverbody you simply need to select Server from the Edit menu. Enable the two check boxes and you are good to go. You can also change the port here, but we left ours on the default. Playerpal was also pretty straightforward. After the first launch it will scan the library and built its catalogue. PlayerPal uses port 9999 and we again chose to keep the default.

If you don’t know your IP address, be sure to check you settings. In OS X you’ll find it in System Preferences in the Network preference pane. On Windows XP you can right-click on My Network Places then click the icon for your Local Area Connection. You IP address will be displayed in the details on the left sidebar.

The next step is to connect with the Nokia 770. We are making the assumption that you have already connected to your wireless network. Open a web browser window in the 770. If you are using coverbody the address will look something like:

http://<ip address of your itunes computer>:9994/

If you are using PlayerPal your URL will look like this:

http://<ip address of your itunes computer>:9999/

The Nokia 770 will connect to your computer and display the web interface to iTunes. From here we’ve found it useful to use the full screen more (the left most button on the top of the 770).

Screenshots:

Coverbuddy (OSX) on the Nokia 770

PlayerPal (XP) on the Nokia 770

Oh yeah, and what about VoIP:

You didn’t think we’d totally forget about VoIP did ya? Nokia has announced that the upcoming OS update for the 770 will include a SIP phone. They also recently announced plans to include a version of Google Talk which also supports VoIP. We’ll keep you posted when we get our hands on the update!

Editors Note:
This review originally appeared as a three part series on the old Archatechs blog. During our move we decided to condense it into the following post. There are still quite a few active comments scatter around the original three posts. While we'd prefer people comment on this post, you may wish to view those comments here.

Part 1 - The Mythical WIP330 Arrives (and gets reviewed)

For the true Alpha Geeks out there, don’t worry.We are going to wrap up our look at at interfacing Asterisk and iTunes soon. However, the good people at FedEx worked extra hard this week to bring the Linksys WIP330 phone to my door. This thing is so new that Linksys has not (as of writing) announced the phone on their consumer site- here take a look. We’ve been working hard to get one in our lab for over a month and interfacing Asterisk and iTunes soon. However, the good people at FedEx worked a half, and we are exited to provide one of the first reviews of the phone. In addition we are going to include a bit of a tutorial in using the WIP330 with Asterisk@home.

But first, why on earth are we so excited about a $350 phone? The WIP330 is a wireless (wifi) SIP phone. If you remember from our VoIP a year later post then you’ll recall that SIP is a standard for Voice over Internet Protocol. There are numerous SIP providers out there that work just like traditional phone companies- only they charge a fraction of the price. For a refresher take a look at these posts and our favorite tutorial site, Nerdvittles. The WIP330 is designed to look and feel like a ‘candy bar’ style cell phone, only it uses WiFi, or wireless networking for its connection. If you were to set up the phone with a SIP provider, or better yet your Asterisk@home server, then you’d have service anywhere you can find WiFi. Since you can get VoIP for as little as $5/month, and free WiFi is poping up in more and more places, this might just be a cell phone killer. For those of use who aren’t ready to ditch the celly, just think about traveling. More and more hotels are offering WiFi. With the WIP330 you could connect to your home Asterisk@home server and make calls just like you were in your living room! You can even receive and answer calls coming in to your home phone number. The possibilities are pretty endless. We know a lot of folks are looking forward to taking a WIP330 abroad for free calls back home!

What would a geek site be with out some TLAs to throw out there? What really drew us to the WIP330 was security. Most of the other WiFi VoIP phones on the market only support WEP wireless security, if anything. Without getting too deep into WiFi security, WEP, or Wired Equivalency Protection, has been shown to be extremely insecure. All it takes is a quick trip to Google to find tools that will break WEP. WPA is the modern standard, and with a very long, very random password it’s considered to be the most secure option available to consumers. Here at Archatechs we run our wireless access points with a 64 character password that includes a lot of random characters (like $^*(!, etc). Until the WIP330 came along, we haven’t been able to find a WiFi phone that would support our security settings. With the Windows CE operating system running on the phone, plugging in our password should be a matter of copy and paste. The WIP330 also supports 802.11g (where many other phones only support the 802.11b standard). G is a considerably faster standard, but the different between B and G shouldn’t matter to VoIP which doesn’t require a lot of speed (bandwidth) to begin with. Finally, the WIP330 has a built-in web browser, for places like hotels and Starbucks that require you to log in to a web page to get WiFi, this is really important!

So, on with the review? We are going to try something a little different here. We’re calling this a ‘live review’. From opening the box to connecting at the local Starbucks, we are going to write about is as we try it. Got your fingers crossed?

The box is farily nondescript, something one would expect from a professional, rather than consumer, product. Linksys has included a charger and some documentation for getting started. It appears to be the same doc that is available here on their website. We had no problem getting the battery in the device and powering it on. Things are starting to look good. The device immediately scans for an access point and was able to find both of our networks. Since we have our heavily locked down WiFi subnet. But the hope is that we can use the built-in web interface of the WIP330 to paste our WPA2 password and tie into the protected WiFi network. First we had to jump on our unprotected public network.

Attaching to the unprotected Public network was a breeze. Once connected, we found the phone’s IP address in our router. We pointed a web browser on a desktop to the IP and were pleased to find a linksys configuration page. The documentation doesn’t mention that the phone has a built-in web server- but it seemed like a good bet.

The WIP330 has the ability to store several wireless profiles. We were able to use the web interface to replace the default Linksys profile with one for our Private network. Now for the moment of truth, would it connect? Looks like that’s a no! Apparently the device is limited to a 27bit key and it appears not to like some of the characters we’ve used in the password. (To get an idea of what we prefer for WiFi passwords, check out Steve Gibson’s password page)

Oh well, the testing must go on. We’re going to try first with the weakened WPA password. This will allow us to use an accesspoint on the same subnet as the Asterisk@home server.

Next, we used the Asterisk@home FreePBX web interface to setup an extension for the new phone. In the WIP330’s web interface we used the same information for the extension and password. We also had to change the SIP ports to 5060, what Asterisk (and most people) use as a default. At first the phone refused to connect. Things are not looking so hot! In the SIP menu on the phone we noticed a few settings that were not in the web interface. After we plugged in the outbound proxy and port things took off. The phone registered! We were able to make a few calls and the sound quality is great!

Detailed settings:

In the phone’s web interface there are several fields to fill out, here’s what settings to use for the WIP330 and Asterisk@home. To access this set-up page use a web browser and go to http://<your phone’s ip> also, pay careful attention to the ports we are using, they are important!

Don’t worry- there is more to come. But this is enough to get everyone up and running. Its taken us just over an hour to get our phone working and put this info together…oh and call our Moms, you have to call mom with a new phone! Hopefully these settings can get people up and rolling quickly with the WIP330 and Asterisk@Home.

On to part 2 of the review

Part 2 - The Mythical WIP330 Review, not all its cracked up to be

We had a pretty rough weekend with the WIP330. Be sure to check out our bottom line and the screen shots below.

First, lets start with what we liked:

• Audio Quality – everyone who used the phone agreed that it was comparable to wired VoIP phone. There are several codec choices available.

• Built-in web browser is actually useable. No one wanted to actually surf the web on it, but to clear a portal or sign in to a hotspot, it worked fine

• Hotspot profiles – ability to save credentials for paid hotspot accounts

• Bright color screen is very readable

• Web interface for (some) configuration and phone book

• 802.11g support

• Limited WPA support

• Wireless range – best of any WiFi phone we’ve tested

o We were easily able to roam around outside of the lab and pretty far down the street before we lost the signal

Ok, on to the issues list:

• Trouble joining open wireless networks – seems to be DHCP related

o The phone frequently just refused to connect, failing at “getting IP address”

o We were unable to join the open hotspot at the local mall

o When driving around town we were able to join some unprotected networks, but not all (could have been MAC filtered).

• Only supports 27bit WPA key – we found this to be a particularly frustrating problem. Since we could not get it to work with our WPA protected subnet we could not test if it would successfully hand off calls between access points.

o No support for RADIUS (hey, someone asked!)

• Though it runs windows CE, there is no access to most CE features. We think many readers will find this particularly frustrating. For the same price you could purchase a wifi enabled Windows Mobile PDA.

o EG: No VPN client

o No way to sync with a desktop PC for phone book

• Wireless Profiles – the phone supports profiles for WiFi networks but fails to auto-join known/open networks. In other words, if you have the phone working at home and take it on the road, you will have to re-scan and attach to your home network when you return. The profiles will save your security settings which makes the process a tad easier

o The phone should roam for open access points and attach when possible, a la cell phones!

• Interface – The phone is cumbersome to use. From the small buttons to the quirky menus.

o In a call you have to access a menu for functions like: hold, conference, transfer, mute, etc

o From the main screen you have to enter the menus for everything except the phone book. We’d like to see the 4 way direction control have a little more use. For instance, left should bring up missed calls and right should bring up outgoing calls.

o Pushing the talk button will bring up dialed numbers for re-dial, but they are in no discernable order. In other words, the last number you called is not always on the top of the list.

• The Mystery Button – on the side there are three buttons. The first two are for volume up and down, the 3rd button has no apparent function

• Unlike its little brother, the WIP300, the 330 has no e-mail client. That’s fairly inexcusable for a $350 phone running windows CE

• Battery Life- We think battery life would be ok, except from time to time the screen simply forgets to turn itself off!

o When functioning properly, we got about 7 hours of standby and 2 hours of talk time

o When the screen stayed on the battery life dropped to a quarter of what was expected

• Blue LED service light is lit constantly – not a huge issue, but may contribute to poor battery life

• Voicemail support not implemented

o The #1 key has a voicemail icon. However, it doesn’t do anything special. Pressing and holding simply does nothing. Phonebook items are not speed dials, so dialing 1 on an Asterisk@home system just rings the first ring group.

o No message waiting indicator – there should be a on-screen icon as well as a change in the service LED, this was not the case

• Intermittent DNS issues – not always able to resolve our Asterisk server by host name

• No NTP support- despite having a setting for NTP server in the menus, it simply refused to pick up our network time and date. We tried a Linux server, windows 2003 and OS X box. The WIP330 just didn’t want to set the time via NTP

• No support for STUN – STUN is a great service that can help overcome many firewall issues associated with VoIP

So, should we tell you what we really thought? All in all this is actually a quality WiFi SIP phone. The problem is that it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It is on par with most other SIP phones we’ve tested. If you are used to even a free cell phone, you’ll be disappointed in the features (or lack there of) in the WIP330. If you have been waiting for advanced security options, it looks like the WIP330 still doesn’t fit the bill. However, for the die-hard road warrior this thing has some merit. The ability to clear a captive portal- you know those web pages that make you agree to terms of service on free hotspots?- is pretty nice. If you are a user of something like T-Mobile Hotspots then you’ll appreciate the browser and the Hotspot Profiles feature.

For the home user looking for a WiFi VoIP phone we still like the Hitachi Cable IP5000. The range isn’t quite as good as the WIP330 and it doesn’t support WPA, but it is a bit more stable. For the home enthusiast on a budget, we’d still recommend a good ole fashioned cordless phone attached to an ATA (analogue telephone adaptor). An ATA, like the Linksys PAP2, will allow you to attach a standard phone line to a VoIP system. You’ll lose some of the cool digital features, such as menus for transfers and hold, but you can let Asterisk manage those features for you. Pressing the # key with Asterisk@home will give you a dial tone where you can transfer or park calls. The Zyxel 2000 is another WiFi sip option that you can find for about $100.00 online. Be warned, it has even less options than most 1980’s telephones.

The Bottom Line:

The WIP330 is just not ready for the average consumer- especially newcomers to VoIP. Configuration issues combined with a lack of features will simply result in a lot of frustration. Nevertheless, with a little patients and some geek-knowhow road warriors may get a lot of benefit from with WIP330. If you travel abroad, it could pay for itself (and your time working with it) pretty quickly. Imagine jumping on a free hotspot in Paris and making calls like you were home in Washington DC – for free!

It should also be said that the firmware on the device says 1.0. This device is so new that it’s difficult to find much information on it. We suspect Linksys rushed it out the door (shame on them) and that future firmware updates will improve the functionality a lot!

Housekeeping:

Last time we said that we had to enter the SIP menu on the phone to set the outbound proxy. It looks like that can be set in the web-based configuration, its labled as the NAT menu.

Screenshots:

The Box

Docs and CD

Front

Back

WiFi Menu

Main Menu

SIP Settings

On to part 3 of the review

Part 3 - WIP330 Review Addendum

Just when you thought we were done with the WIP330…After a few more days of testing we have become increasingly disappointed. The phone simply fails to ring 9 times out of 10. We have confirmed that we can ping the phone however it simply ignores the call.

Folks, steer clear of this turkey until Linksys issues a few updates to work out the bugs!

That being said, if you are determined to use the Linksys WIP-330 with Asterisk or Asterisk@home then check out our configuration gude (from the review part 1). The web interface makes it much easier.

Update - Windows Drivers

Big thanks to Hevad for bringing this to our attention with his comments on this post:

https://archatechs.wordpress.com/2006/05/19/the-mythical-wip330-has-arrived-and-gets-reviewed/#comment-22

It appears it is possable to modify the INF file included with ActiveSync for windows CE to sync the WIP330 to a Windows XP machine.

We were able to download, unzip and install Hevad's drivers with no problems. Simply download the drivers from here. After you've unzipped them, plug in the phone via USB. It will ask for the drivers, just point it at the INF file from the zip file.

From there you can explore the device. The config files are in the WIP330 folder. Like Hevad points out: your password is stored in clear text, so be careful.

Part 1 – the setup

This week we are going to look at a quick and dirty (and I do mean dirty) way to control Apple’s iTunes software with Asterisk server. If you’ve been a good nerd and followed the start-up guide over at Nerdvittles then you should have a nice Asterisk box up and running. If you are truly of the geek at heart you may have even followed our lead and set up at least one AirPort Express audio zone. Well, the Airport thing works great if you are with in reach of the computer driving the whole mess. But what if your computer is in 2^nd floor office and you are rocking out to the new Bruce Springsteen album in your basement and you want to switch tracks to Froggy Went a Courtin’?

We guess you could walk upstairs and change songs. But honestly, we are geeks and vehemently predisposed to a hatred of physical activity, especially climbing stairs, right? Don’t worry, with our PhoneTunes script and a few other tools, you can just pick up your phone and change the track with a quick phone call!

If you feel like a dork just reading this (imagine how we felt typing it?) just hang in there. There are some practical uses to this example too. Besides presenting a good example for how you can make your phone work for you, there are some real uses. We at Archatechs like to listen to our music a ear-bleeding volumes and frequently have a frantic dash to mute the volume when an important call comes in. With our PhoneTunes script you can have asterisk pause your tunes as soon as a call comes in. Once you hang up Asterisk will resume the song and your head banging can continue. We’ve also used a modified version of this script to play a particular MP3, the sound of a phone ringing, when we are outside, via our outdoor speakers. Then again, the boys down in the Archatechs Labs burn easily…

This one is a little involved. It requires some knowledge of the Linux and Mac OS X command line. If you haven’t played with tools like SSH (for secure remote login) and BASH scripts before, you may just want to sit this one out. Remember, you can always drop us a line at info@archatechs.com if you are in the

Central Virginia area and interested in help with any of our projects.

Requirements:

• 
  
• iTunes running on a computer running Mac OS X
• 
  
• Our Script
• 
  
• The iTunes Remote Control from Acmetech
• 
  
• Asterisk@Home
• 
  
• A lot of patients
• 
  

Preparing the OS X Box

We prefer to create a special user account in OS X just for controlling iTunes. Since we’ll be using SSH with key-based authentication, a dedicated user can provide a little bit of protection.

1. 
   
2. Download the iTunes script by Acmetech. You can get it from us or them.
3. 
   
4. save it in the home directory of your user as itunes
5. 
   

Prepairing the Asterisk Server

The first step to create a Frankenstein-like harmony between your phone and your audio system is to set up a few things on the Asterisk side.

SSH into your Asterisk server. You’ll want to first change to the Asterisk user.

su – asterisk

Now we can create the SSH keys. SSH, using key-based authentication, will allow the Asterisk server to execute commands (programs) on your OS X- without human intervention. This can be a security hazard if not handled properly. We assume that if you are attempting this at home then you know what you need to do to secure you own set-up.

ssh-keygen –q –f ~/.ssh/id_rsa –t rsacat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keyscat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh USER@YourMac ' cat -\>> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'

You will be prompted to enter a phasephrase. Leave it blank. Both times.

Make sure to replace USER with the user you wish to use on OS X and YourMac with the full DNS name or IP address of your mac.

Installing PhoneTunes

Dedicated nerds though we may be, there is one thing we are not: programmers. However, we have attempted to make this process as easy as possible (did we mention the installer script coming soon?). We’ve created a little installer script that should help you get up and running. That being said, all you experienced BASH scripters out there will no doubt find many areas for improvement. Bring it on! Seriously, drop us a line at info@archatechs.com and let us know what you’d change. (yeah, and we know a case statement would look a lot nicer, anyone want to write it?).

You can download the PhoneTools scripts here, or run the following commands from your Asterisk box (make sure you are still the asterisk user):

wget http://www.nickdawson.net/archatechs/phonetunes.tgz

tar –xpzf phonetunescd phonetuneschmod +x installphonetunes.sh

At this point you’ll need to open the phonetunes.sh file and fill in the variables at the top of the file. They should be apparent.

Finally, you can run the installer.

./installphonetunes.sh

Since this is nothing more than a text file containing a BASH script, feel free to open it first and poke around. Make sure you are comfortable with what it is going to do.

Setting up the extension:

You can do some of this in FreePBX (the web-based front-end to Asterisk@home) but we found it was just faster to edit your config files manually.

SSH into your Asterisk server. You'll want to edit the /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf file. But first we need to make a backup!

Cp /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf \ /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.bak

Now we can do the editing...

nano /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf

Scroll down towards the bottom. Just before the line that looks like this:

[from-internal-custom]

paste the following:

[custom-phonetunes]

exten => s,1,goto(custom-phonetunes,1,1)

exten => s,2,background(custom-phonetunes)

exten => 1,1,AGI(phonetunes.sh|1) ;play

exten => 2,1,AGI(phonetunes.sh|2) ;pause

exten => 3,1,AGI(phonetunes.sh|3) ;advance

exten => 4,1,AGI(phonetunes.sh|4) ;rewind

exten => 5,1,AGI(phonetunes.sh|5) ;status

Now, scroll down a bit more, below the [from-internal-custom] and look for include => custom-speed-dial

Just below that, paste the following line

exten => *30,1,goto(custom-phonetunes,s,1)

Of course, you can change *30 to anything, such as 488637 (for itunes).

Once that is done, save your extensions_custom.conf and reload asterisk:

asterisk -r this will bring you into the Asterisk command line

reload the reload command will load your changes into your Asterisk server

I've you've poked around in the phonetunes.sh script you've probably noticed the first argument it checks for is 9 and we are only using 1 – 5 for our controls above.

That's the subject of our bonus feature for next time.

Whole House Audio for $300 (or less) per Zone

We are going to take a break from VoIP to talk about another way to geek out your pad- Whole House Audio. There are a variety of systems out there that will allow you to play music in different rooms throughout your house, some even allowing different rooms to listen to different things at the same time. High-end systems typically offer the most flexibility but can cost $5,000 for the base unit and $1,000 for each zone (or room). Sonos makes a very net little product that does whole house audio for about $500 per zone but requires you shell out $1,200 for their starter package (and it has some unfortunate limitations). Bose also has a system that is in the same price range as the Sonos. But we have a better plan- get music in any room in the house, for less than $300 per room!

Oh, and as always, if you’d like a little more information about our projects feel free to contact us at info@archatechs.com. If you are in the Central Virginia area we are available for consulting and installation of projects like this one

So what is the budget conscious geek to do? I suspect a lot of readers will be familiar with Apple’s itunes software- its that nifty program that organizes your music and lets you load them onto an iPod. Likely still, many of you know about Apple’s Airport express- the $120.00 wireless router that can also stream music to a stereo system. For those who haven’t checked out the Airport Express surf on over to Apple’s site and read all about it. For $120.00 you get a little box that create a wireless network AND plays music from your computer. That’s a pretty slick multi-tasker in my book. In addition Apple has quietly updated the Airport Express and the iTunes software to allow playback to more than one location at the same time.

Ok, so that sends music over the network to a stereo, what if I don’t have a stereo where I want music?

Here’s what you will need:

• Apple Airport Express - $120

• Sonic Impact T-Amp - $30

• Speakers (we’ll talk about what kind) - $100

• Speaker wire - $3

First, think about where you want the music. For locations like a kitchen or master bathroom, inexpensive in-wall speakers may provide more than enough sound. For your home office you may want to invest in something a little more expensive, like bookshelf speakers. If you want audio outside, be sure to purchase outdoor speakers (these have worked well for us)

We have three examples for this project: a family room sound system, a basement using bookshelf speakers and outdoor sofit-mounted speakers. Each location is a little different and should give you an idea of what you can do.

Once you have your locations picked out its time to talk about speaker wires and controls. You will probably want to consider mounting a volume control somewhere handy too. For in-wall or wall mounted speakers on a first floor you may be able to ‘fish’ the wires down the wall cavity to a crawlspace or basement. In a similar manor, on a second floor you may be able to utilize your attic. For our living room application we are going to manage the volume through the existing sound system. However, since the basement and the patio are relatively far from the computer we’ll mount volume controls in each location for local control.

The infrastructure:

The Airport Express can operate in a verity of modes. For example, it can work as a wireless receiver where it sits on a wireless network solely for the purpose of streaming music. It’s great that apple included this, but frankly we here in the Archatechs Labs have had some problems with the unit’s reception in that mode. We recommend hard-wiring the Airport Express to your Ethernet network (you don’t have one? Don’t worry, that article is coming soon!). In a wired configuration the Airport Express can both create a wireless network and stream audio. How’s that for bang for the buck? That does require a little thought about cables. You may be faced with either a long cat5 (Ethernet or network) cable, a long run to the amplifier, or a long run of speaker wire. We like to minimize all three if we can help it.

The Living Room:

To keep things neat and tidy in the living room we wanted everything to live within the A/V cabinets. We ran a cat5 cable from the switch in the basement, through a crawlspace and into the back of the cabinet. From there it was a breeze to plug the cat5 into the Ethernet port on the Airport Express. Next we connected the audio output to a spare input on the back of the audio receiver.

The airport was also set to create a wireless network. Previously the homeowner was relying on an access point in the attic over the second floor to cover the whole house. By using the same SSID (wireless network name) and security settings we were able to extend the existing wireless network.

One zone down for only $120 and change for the cables.

The Basement:

Since there was an easily accessible outside wall on the other side of the TV in the basement we chose that as the location to run our network wires. We were able to follow existing cable TV wiring through the exterior wall and into a low-voltage electrical box. We even used the same box as the cable TV and reconfigured it using Leveton QuickPort products to service the cable and the network. From there we plugged the airport express into network jack. Time for audio.

Since the Airport Express doesn’t contain an amplifier, we have to have some way to get the audio from the tiny white box to the speakers. Introducing the Sonic Impact T-Amp. The T-Amp has been somewhat of an internet darling lately for its supposed amazing quality for the price. It is a small box about the size of two decks of cards that really does produce some nice sound, and all for $30.00. It does not come with a power supply, but you can pick one up a Radio Shack or online for about $10.00. The device has a standard ‘heaphone style’ 1/8th inch phono jack on the back. It comes with a male/male cable which is perfect for connecting to the audio output on the AirPort Express. Once you make that connection, you simply tie the right and left speakers in with standard speaker wire. We like 16 gage for pulling in walls, but you could easily use 12 gage for a little better quality.

Our picture here shows the network wire pulled through the wall and connected to the AirPort Express. The AirPort Express is also connected to the T-Amp via a 1/8th inch male/male phono cable. Note: this does not represent finished level of work, we just wanted to show the install process.

Outside:

The outside speakers are very similar to the basement setup. Again we are using a T-Amp and AirPort Express to drive them. In this case we don’t want to place anything, besides the speakers, outside and exposed to the weather. Since the homeowner had already pulled the speaker wire during construction it was simply a matter of routing them to back to the network cabinet. The Airport and T-Amp both fit quit well in the cabinet.

Since we already have one AirPort creating a wireless network in the basement, it would be counter productive to use the Wireless feature of this AirPort Express. (Note: you can have several access points near each other, but make sure they use separate channels. If they are too close in proximity or channel, you may get interference and have problems.) With the settings adjusted to only function as a streaming music device, we connected the AirPort, T-Amp and speakers. In this application the homeowner intends to control the volume inside from the computer. However, it is entirely possible to place a volume control in a weatherproof, exterior junction box.

That wraps up our discussion on the hardware. In the next installment we will briefly discuss setting up the AirPorts’ software and the iTunes software. We will also show you a few solutions for wireless remote controls for you new whole house system.

A few more zone examples:

here we have installed a waterproof speaker in the shower of a master bathroom. Again we used a T-Amp and Airport Express (in the attic above the shower) to drive the speaker.A volume control was mounted, in reach, on the outside shower wall.

This master bedroom renovation called for a hidden surround sound and theater setup. Using the theater reciever on the oppsite side of the TV wall we simply plugged the AirPort Express into a spare optical input. That's right, the AirPort express can also send music via a toslink fiber optic cable to a compatable sound system.

A weatherproof outdoor speaker

A volume control in an outdoor enclosure. After installation the ruber gaskets are trimmed for a 'clean' look.

Typical interior in-wall speaker and volume control. In this instalation the T-Amps and AirPorts were all mounted in a utility room. Each zone, or room, had its own local volume control.