Hi Randy, sometimes all the different permutations can get a little confusing. I'll try and put some order to it.
A squeezebox "system" logically consists of three parts: player, controller and server. Various pieces of hardware implement various parts of this. The players are: classic (SB3), transporter, receiver, radio, boom and touch. The controllers are: controller, radio, touch Notice the overlap. Some boxes contain both a controller and a player in the same box. All the players can be controlled by any controller. The controllers talk over the network to the server and from the server control the players. Most of the players (except the receiver) contain a display which can show what they are playing. (again except for the receiver) they come with an IR remote which can be used to control the player you are pointing it at, but they only work for what you point them at. (not quite true, the touch can control another player using its IR remote over the network, but thats a little esoteric) The controler, radio and touch all have a similar controller functionality (with different user interface). This control function can control any of the players. The radio and touch have both a controller and player in the same box. Normally they are connected together, but they don't have to be. You can control the touch player from a radio or a controller if you wish. The touch controller can control a receiver. On top of this there are other control options which can control any of the players: The server software has a "web interface" which is a web page that you can access from any browser on any computer that can access your network. Desktop computer, laptop, cell phone, just about anything that has a web browser. There are dedicated programs that run on many different computers that can control a player as well. These all talk to the server which talks to the players. A very popular one is iPeng which runs on an iPhone or iPod Touch (control a touch from a touch!) This means you can control a squeezebox from an iPhone using either the web browser or iPeng. (iPeng is much better) Server: The server is a program that runs on a computer of your choice. Just about anything can run the server software. Your collection of music resides on the computer's disk. Many people use a NAS box which contains a small linux computer and run the server on the onboard computer. The server computer DOES have to be on for a squeezebox to get at your own music, but it does not have to be on to access some internet feeds such as Pandora. The computer on the touch is powerful enough that it can run a slimmed down version of the server on its own. It has a USB port so you can plug in a USB drive with your music. That server in the touch can serve the music to any of the other players so you don't even need another computer. There is also a "virtual squeezebox" which is a program that runs on your computer and sends music to the computer speakers. So if you are out on the patio with your laptop (in range of the router!) you can still listen to the music over the laptop speakers or headphones. So there you have the "squeezebox system", there are lots of different parts that can be configured in MANY MANY different ways, all that flexibility can be a little daunting! One of the best ways to deal with this is to first think about where you want music to be in your house and how you would like to control it, don't think about any specific device yet, just think about "if I could do it anyway I want, what would I like?" Then see if there is a set of hardware options from the above list that lets me do it. Given all this flexibility also comes expandability. You can start small with one box and grow as you desire. Most of us started with one squeezebox and then grew the system as we realized how much we like it. I hope that helps! John S. -- JohnSwenson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=70113 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
