Mike,

Sorry for the top post but I ant to save the context since this was a
while...

I checked what "a typical" PIC ethernet based board would do in throupout
and a Modtronix SBC65EC would handle about 1.2Mbit for UDP. So with a 50%
compression your idea would be possible to implement using pretty low cost
stuff.

Cheers
/Ake


On 4/11/06, Mike Hord <mike.hord@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ever since I saw the mp3elf (which I posted to the list), I've been
> thinking about how to go about running audio between the rooms
> of my apartment.  The end goal is to have a console next to my
> bed and next to my chair in the living room, and a connection
> from those consoles back to my PC, which is playing the actual
> music.
>
> At first I thought about streaming files over ethernet and decoding
> locally.  The problem there is that network latency makes it
> unlikely that all three locations could ever be hearing exactly
> the same thing at once, and things'll get crackly and bogged
> down if I start surfing the web and using up bandwidth.  Maybe.
>
> So now, I'm thinking about implementing a small TCP/IP device
> which would be capable of fetching current/next/prev song info
> from the computer (there are Winamp plugins that allow this,
> easily), controlling Winamp (again, easy), and displaying that
> data locally on an LCD.  The problem of audio is still there,
> and in fact a little stickier now, because I'd hate to run TWO
> cables back to my PC.  So my thought is, why run two?  I
> can get more than enough speed for what I need out of two
> pairs of CAT-5e cable (right?), so what about using the other
> two pairs (or one of them, at least) to transmit SPDIF-ish
> audio from one room to the next?  I just have to make a
> special cable for it, no problem there: two pair into RJ-45,
> balance to RCA (or whatever; I'll have to make a buffer
> and amplifier to take the weak little SPDIF that wants 75
> ohm and turn it into a big, beefy signal that'll cross rooms.
> The connection to that buffer can be whatever I want on the
> output side), and RJ-45 at the other end with the port coming
> in routed as needed on the PCB.
>
> The question I DON'T have an answer for is, will it work?  Can
> the two signals coexist in the same cable?  I know SPDIF
> requires specific terminations, etc., but since I control the
> receiving end, all I have to do is ensure the integrity of the
> digital data at the other end.  It doesn't have to be SPDIF
> signal levels (hence the SPDIF-ish label).  If I'm using an
> OTS SPDIF decoder (as opposed to doing it in whatever
> processor I'm using), I can always drop the signal level back
> to where it wants to be locally.
>
> Am I crazy?  Opinions?
>
> Mike H.
>
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