How in the Tech

Sharing audio output over the local network

By Adam Myers ⋅ March 19, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Multimedia, Networking

You are probably loosely aware of the concept of sharing files or printers from one computer to another, over the local network. After all, it’s a pretty common scenario even on the home front. What you may not be familiar with is sharing other types of resources – like sound perhaps.

The concept of sharing audio between multiple computers isn’t directly comparable to the logistics of sharing a printer. In the situation of sharing a printer, there exists one printer and more than one computer. Sharing sound is a bit different; you aren’t actually sharing a physical device like a printer, or in this case a sound card, rather you are sharing the audio stream. It’s rather similar to broadcasting a radio station. This problem is of a limited scope but it’s quite well defined and most definitely fits someone’s problem definition.

SpeakerShare is a free Windows and Apple application that can accomplish the sharing of one audio stream across a local network. Putting it bluntly, SpeakerShare can use one computer’s sound output and play it through speakers connected to a remote computer. Has that got your head racing with ideas now?

Sharing is accomplished using Apple’s Bonjour service which is installed alongside iTunes – or separately if you are not an iTunes user. A common client/server architecture is followed which allows for one server to handle multiple clients, or speaker sets as the case may be. Installation and set up is a snap; download and install on the server and each client, configuring the role of each though the interface. That’s it! The lone drawback is the stream is buffered a second or so which results in some lag – an annoying problem if the server and clients are in the same listening circle.

Download SpeakerShare