How to start/stop playlists and control volume from anywhere in the room?

ianpwilliams

Established Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2006
Messages
227
Reaction score
6
Points
72
Age
48
Hi everyone, I'm going to go going to an event soon where we will have playlists playing through a PA system, probably three different playlists at different times.

I want to be able to start and stop the playlists, and also control the volume, from anywhere in the room, and I'm wondering what would be the best way to do this in terms of tech I would need.

I imagined that some sort of Bluetooth or WiFi setup would be required, and then something would need to be plugged into the PA system. I wondered if I could use my phone as the control device, but that could cause issues if I got calls etc.

I'm pretty sure I'll need to hire some kit, but that's fine.

Does anyone have any ideas please?
 
Your query is a bit vague.
If you can say where your playlists would coming from, somebody might be able to help you.
A Raspberry Pi with Volumio as an operating system, for example, could play local audio files from a HDD, via a USB DAC into a PA system.
Volume can be controlled via phone, tablet or laptop.
(Pi is about as cheap as it gets, Volumio is free, a decent USB DAC can be bought for less than £100).
 
That's what I wasn't sure about really. There is a PA system in the venue and I can connect anything to that. The venue said that "The pa system can be linked to a player using a 3.5mm to 6.5 mm mono lead".

At first I wondered if using my phone (or any smartphone) would work, as that could control the playlists and the volume. And then maybe something could be connected to the PA system and the phone could feed it through that via Bluetooth or WiFi (although I believe Bluetooth has limited range). But I don't know if that's possible.
 
"The pa system can be linked to a player using a 3.5mm to 6.5 mm mono lead".
...maybe the PA system is only mono then.
But yes, they just need a line-level signal - probably to go into a mixer of theirs.

A USB DAC (in the case of the Pi) or a Bluetooth receiver will have the necessary line-level analogue outputs.

If you don't require optimum quality sound, then you could forget about a DAC and just use the onboard direct analogue audio out of the Pi.
Pi / Volumio would be a bit of a learning curve - but would allow switching between multiple playlists and volume adjustment by wi-fi.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom