Tech Talk: Making the music flow

WE have been slow in Britain to catch on to new ways of playing music. I know people who still have a radiogram in the corner of their living room. But the rest of the world has moved on since the LP, CD and even the iPod. Today you can play your music in full hi-fi direct from the internet.
By David Behrens
Published 12th Dec 2011, 00:00 BST

The technology isn’t new. In fact, it’s 10 years since Philips released a box they called Streamium for more or less the same purpose. But it didn’t catch on; wireless networking was unfamiliar then and we preferred the technology we knew.

The Californian Sonos system may change all that. It can fill your whole house with music, creating “zones” which can play the same or different songs simultaneously, while you cue them like an orchestral conductor from your computer, smartphone or an LCD remote.

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The music itself comes either from the collection on your PC or from a music subscription service like Napster and is carried wirelessly around your house by your wi-fi network. You can use your existing amplifier and speakers or buy bolt-ons from Sonos to do the same thing.

The drawback is the price: £350 for the main unit (one per room) and another £400 if you need the amp. The remote is free if you use a Sonos app on your phone or tablet, but if you want the dedicated one it’s £280. The Philips Streamium, which is still available, though not widely, is quite a bit cheaper.

There are other ways to stream music and you can do much the same job – though less elegantly – by cabling your PC or laptop out to your amp and speakers. Or you could do what I do, and stream music to a set-top box under the TV, which is then wired to the hi-fi. A single remote controls the whole thing, including the selection of music.

An increasing number of set-top boxes do this and the next year will see many more with the promised roll-out of the BBC/ITV joint venture YouView, which streams media to your TV whether from the internet or other computers in your home. Some televisions also have the functionality built in. The irony here is that the one person in our house who should have embraced all this wireless technology – a 17-year-old – prefers the retro sound of vinyl from my belt-driven turntable. There’s just no pleasing some people.

Related topics:BritainBBCITV