I would put the device on the core if it does not really need to be on the MD.
I would always try to expose the audio as a stream, this allows us to seamlessly send audio to both squeezeboxes and MDs.
There is a spotify library iirc? Is that what you intend to use. Either way, it should be possible to implement several spotify clients within the same Spotify device, right? So it might not be necessary with several devices.
If possible, I'd use xine to play the stream on MDs, and then there be no reason for the spotify device to be on the MD itself. All of this is depending upon a spotify device that allows us to access the audio stream in some way, ofcourse.
Don't know the exact process of adding screens, but they need to be added in the Screen table in the database. I think this is used, at least as reference, in qOrbiter too.
After adding an entry in the table, and committing it to sqlCVS, you go ahead create a new Screen_xx.xml file in qOrbiter (from how I understand qOrbiter).
Yes, I'm planning to use libspotify.
Apparently libspotify delivers audio as PCM data. I suppose that this will need to be converted to proper digital in some way and wrapped in some streaming protocol to make it network accessible (any idea?).
hmm, sounds a fair sized task. Thats definitely my aim though, anything else seems weak.
On using xine. I suppose that there would need to be some scenario set up that would startup the spotify stream and direct xine to play from that. So the constraint on the network format is really what xine can consume (and what the squeezeboxes can support, and my ability to convert PCM data to a network stream, blah).
This is something I'm interested in, how would the architecture of that hang together? I mean, on the orbiter I'd press a button that will trigger a scenario (I imagine) that will send a command to both the spotify device and a xine device on a particular MD. Right?
I like the multiple accounts within a single device. I'll work towards that I think.
If I wanted to direct the audio across multiple media directors/ zones, how would the scenarios work for that?
Sorry for mixing a few idiot questions in. I'm still full of holes when it comes to how bits of the system work (learning fast though :-))