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View Full Version : iPod Integration with Escient E40 Fireball



vwpower44
04-09-2005, 10:54 AM
Anyone know if you can plug an iPod into the front USB of a e40 Escient fireball. Thanks for your help.

Mike

The8thst
04-09-2005, 11:37 AM
I know the big software update for the E-40/120 removes USB support, but it adds some other great features.

You gain the server feature that allows you to map networks drives for content and upload.

So if you are looking to take music from the ipod and put in on the fireball you would map drive to //(fireball name)/upload and just drag and drop your mp3 or flac files into that folder.

To take music from the fireball and put it on the ipod you map the network drive //(fireball name)/content and go through iTunes and add that folder to its music library list. Then you can sync files to the ipod like any other file on your computer.


If you are looking for a specific feature let me know and I can maybe help.

vwpower44
04-10-2005, 08:41 AM
Customer has four iPods (his, and three daughters). He wants to be able to plug them into the front of his E40. Should I just use a separate dock for the iPod making it its own source? Also will the server feature work with a MAC. All of his computers are MAC's? Which also means he is using Airport Express for wireless internet. Will AE work for the E40's internet access? Thanks

PS. iPod integration is making a huge splash in my area. I just looked at three jobs this week where the customer wants their iPpod integrated into their DA system.

Mike

The8thst
04-10-2005, 09:07 AM
A couple options come to mind with the information you gave me.

First off, you will have to get a wireless access point to plug the Fireball into, there is no wireless card built in. I would highly recommend getting wire to the Fireball for networking though, if at all possible, it is much more stable.

You could put docks for the iPods in each room and have them be their own sources, but without getting the IR accessory and plugging that in everytime you set the iPod in the dock you will not be able to control it. If its a bedroom its not bad as they will probably within arms length anyways.
Depending on the control system it may be kind of a drag to know which iPod is docked at any certain time though.

Another option is adding each of the kids computers into the system as sources, they should have all the songs in iTunes that they have on their iPods, so they could just create playlists on the computer itself and keep the iPod only for portability.

This option might require an upgrade to the E-120 or even the E2-300 (but thats a big price jump). Have all the music libraries transferred to the Escient and use that as a central place to store all the files. Then wire the individual computers as sources and use the Fireballs web interface in digital zone mode. This would allow you to add multiple digital zones to the Fireball. Using a web gui that looks very much like the normal fireball gui you can have it stream files off the harddrive to any computer. This would also keep the iPod as only a portable device.

Another option for keeping everything centralized is to get a big harddrive in a NAS (network attached storage). It is a hard drive that connects straight to the network and can be mapped on any computer (including a mac). Then you use the local computers and iTunes as sources. This is a spinoff from the idea above, but would cost less than a big upgrade in Fireball models.

You could also use any combination of these. The only downfall to the digital zone idea is that you cannot play physical CD's by streaming them, it has to be ripped and stored on the harddrive.
To answer your question about the server feature and Macs... yes it works with those as well. Have a look at the E2 manual available for download at Escients website... it walks you through all the setup steps.

vwpower44
04-10-2005, 09:52 AM
Yeah I have done fireballs with WAP and have had great success, but i didn't know if there would be a conflict using Airport Express. I not to familiar with MAC. Also the house is 180 years old, so no runnning wires. I will probably just put a docking station for one iPod with main system. Does the file mapping of hard drives work with Macs?

Mike

The8thst
04-10-2005, 09:33 PM
Yeah I have done fireballs with WAP and have had great success, but i didn't know if there would be a conflict using Airport Express. I not to familiar with MAC. Also the house is 180 years old, so no runnning wires. I will probably just put a docking station for one iPod with main system. Does the file mapping of hard drives work with Macs?

Mike

Look at the last two lines in my previous post.

PennyG
04-19-2005, 08:37 AM
If our objective is to play the music from our Ipod through the whole house distribution system in a single zone, for an individual bedroom or such, I would think we would want to create a local source with the docking station in the room.

If our objective is to play the music from our Ipod through the whole house distribution system in all zones, for a party or such, and we already have a an E40, we could add it at the main system with a docking station. I just question the logic with that option. It is very quick and easy to transfer music files back and forth from the Escient products with the new software upgrade.

Remember that any computer that is connected to the router in the house can be used as a client and access the music from the Escient. This allows up to four computers in the home and the main music system to play different music from the Escient at the same time.

Many people have nice little speaker systems on the personal computers in their den or bedroom and this allows access to their entire music collection without disrupting anyone else using the music collection elsewhere in the home.

This also allows people to manage their playlists and then transfer the playlist to their Ipod. Sometimes that is even more fun than just plain listening.