Audio over Ethernet using PulseAudio

In my opinion the best new technologies builds on robust and proven other technologies. A lot of stuff builds on Ethernet and IP these days and so does Pulseaudio.

Pulseaudio is a sound server that comes with the current Ubuntu, that is a layer between applications and the sound card driver. It interfaces nicely with ALSA and OSS, so no worries about getting hardware supported!

“Great, another useless layer, what do I need that for!?” Chances are you do not need it at all, but in some situations something like this integrated in your system might come in handy…

An example: I have fileserver and work computer in one room. Only the fileserver with MPD has speakers, so they don’t use space on my desk. I simply hear all audio through the fileserver speakers. Pulseaudio just sends all that is supposed to go through my work computer’s soundcard through the fileserver’s.

Another one: Partay! I want music in the whole apartment, so I let the fileserver multicast the music. In the livingroom the mediacenter receives everything and plays it through it’s speakers. And believe it or not this works perfectly, there is no audible offset in playback between rooms (if you follow this advice)!

The only thing missing is an actual ethernet soundcard, that could replace the computers receiving and decoding the streams. Slingbox & Co are getting close to what I want and these guys have some other cool hardware, so I wrote them and actually got positive feedback… let’s see what the future holds.