So I’m trying to configure a simple setup to connect an ATV 4K + 4K projector + Beam while keeping 4K HDR 60Hz and 5.1 audio. It isn’t proving easy!  My projector is a 4K ViewSonic x10 with S/PDIF out and 2HDMI 2.0 (HDCP 2.2 HDR10) in. My Beam has two rear L/R Play:1s.

The ideal would be to have wireless sound to the Beam/Play combo but if I’m not mistaken AirPlay 2 only supports stereo not 5.1 channels so the audio signal has to come from the ATV via a splitter or another cable run from the projector. 

Shame Apple TV 4K has ditched including an inbuilt SPDIF output as on earlier generations of the ATV box, so one option is a 4K HDMI-audio splitter. However in UK most of these splitter boxes (approx £20 on Amazon.co.uk) only support 4K at 30Hz not 60Hz and some don’t support HDR10 etc. So this is already dropping down the image quality. 

The projector has an S/PDIF out, so I can use a long HDMI cable and the Sonos Beam bundled HDMI-optical connector to plug directly into the projector but this means another cable.

Am I missing a trick?