Shotgun topic: ways to stream music I own on Sonos Beam (full-time RVer)

  • 21 August 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 54 views
R

A little background - my wife and I are retired and full-time RVers. I am also a former part-time musician with a decent ear. Since I can’t have my transmission line speakers, big amps, and Squeezebox system in the RV, I’m adopting newer technology. I have just swapped out our Polk Audio soundbar and sub with a Sonos Beam (Sub Mini to arrive in two days… but don’t tell my wife). I have uploaded a bunch of music to YouTube Music and have set up the music library on my laptop to play on the Sonos (both methods sound SO much better than blue tooth to the old sound bar!). The problems are these: 1) we are stationary right now with 200+ MBps broadband for internet. When we are on the road, we rely on a 4G MiFi hotspot for connectivity and speeds depend on whatever tower is available. Thus, when traveling, streaming from the laptop will be the most reliable approach - but I don’t want to leave the laptop running 24/7 to do that. My beef with YT Music is that the interface is 19th century and has no support for genres. I’m not a fan of Apple nor their products, so I would prefer not to pay for Apple Music. I could set up a (relatively) inexpensive NAS easily on our current gateway; I’m not so sure how that would work with the hotspot since it only has one USB-C port for either charging or connecting external storage. Is there a “one size fits all” solution for our situation or do I just need to reconcile myself to YT Music when we have good connectivity and stream from the laptop when we don’t?

Thanks!

Rob

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5 replies

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

You could use a travel router to centralize all internet connections in your RV. I do not see really see a big difference between running a NAS or playing form a laptop in an RV - maybe for a mobile environment a laptop seems more suitable for me. You could try using plex on the laptop, apart from Plex not allowing folder view on Sonos it could give you a bit more control over your music.

buzz

Some routers support USB sticks. This could save power and space.

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

For RV use I’d pay attention to how any NAS you look at deals with power interruptions. Having to shut one down before pulling the plug would get old fast. Having one get scrambled at every park-power failure would be frustrating too.

R

For RV use I’d pay attention to how any NAS you look at deals with power interruptions. Having to shut one down before pulling the plug would get old fast. Having one get scrambled at every park-power failure would be frustrating too.

That’s a good thought. We have a significant LiFePO4 battery bank with an inverter. It runs the residential refrigerator and other critical things when not connected to shore power (or during a power failure). There is an always-powered outlet in the “technology corner” where any NAS equipment would be located.

Since posting yesterday, I’ve found a USB NAS interface which will accept up to four USB external hard drives and connect to an Ethernet port on the gateway. I got a used one off eBay for $30 so, even if it doesn’t work out, it’s a pretty cheap experiment. 

Thanks,

Rob

 

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Our RV inverter (about 10 years ago) was great at providing power but a bit slow in switching on at power failures so we ended up using an UPS to hold our sensitive electronics over power glitches.

We used the antique Linksys USB drive NAS devices with good luck. 

https://infogalactic.com/info/NSLU2

My back hated our lead-acid batteries and envies your LiFePO4 ones!

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