I’ve had a household network, both wired and wireless, for quite some time and I keep discovering new uses for it.

A year or so ago it was digitally stored music, you know MP3s and the like. To make it more interesting I decided to combine it with a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. Of course this requires expenditure and my partner might not be too thrilled. The way to proceed was clearly to demonstrate how this musical format had something to offer her… iPod! She walks to work and has always wanted to be able to drown me out with her favourite tracks whenever she likes, so a shiny new iPod shuffle seemed like the way to go. To cut a long story short, it worked. She is now totally sold on anything musical prefixed with an ‘i’. The new NAS has a directory containing all our music library in Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, the iTunes default, and is accessible for all the machines running iTunes on my network. Additionally, Synology are intending to bring out a firmware upgrade to enable my NAS to operate as an iTunes server.

But what about me?? I don’t always want to have to sit in front of a computer to enjoy the tunes. I want to be able to listen to music too! To this end I’ve been looking a various interesting devices to help me enjoy my music anywhere in my house and garden without the aid of headphones. The number of options on the market today is amazing and the services on offer thanks to wireless networking and ADSL equally so.

Unfortunately, there’s no whole house solution available that will let be enjoy my purchased iTunes collection! You see Apple has a copy protected version of ACC for these and for some reason doesn’t want anything not running iTunes to be able to use them. So, until Apple relents this musical experience is stuck on the desktop! Please change your mind Mr. Jobs, please.

Still the rest of the collection is accessible and the most interesting options?

  • Sonos is a genuine wireless whole house audio system. It can access the music files on my NAS and stream it to any player via its own secure wireless network. I could expand the system as I saw fit and supposedly the sound quality is high. You might have guessed that such a system is also relatively expensive, but it looks great.
  • The Pinnacle Soundbridge internet radio is pretty much what it says, allowing you to listen to international radio station streams over an internet connection, especially good with a broadband router. It can stream digital audio from a handy computer as well, so I think my NAS would work. This all takes place over you home wireless network which is fine except it can only manage WEP encryption. Call me paranoid, and you wouldn’t be the first, but I prefer something a little stronger these days. WEP seems like a bit of an unnecessary security risk. Also I like the idea of a radio, especially a wireless one, being portable. The Soundbridge needs a mains power supply, so much for portable music in the garden! There is one possibility though… a hugely over-priced alarm clock replacement. Expensive but a lot better than my current grey irritating box.
  • Finally, I could use an external USB soundcard to connect my laptop to the living room Hi-Fi, but that only solves the problem in the living room. I don’t think the neighbours would enjoy this version of whole house audio.

And I’ve only been talking about audio. The world of multimedia is even more stuffed full of spectacular toys which will require much, much more research. I may be struggling to find the solution to my musical dilemma, but looking is too much fun to miss out on. Making protected ACC more widely accessible would remove the last fly from my ointment. But persuasive though my earlier plea might be I think I might be in for a long wait.