Jack audio connection kit to send audio over the network.

[J V]

Hello,

I'm running Loxberry on Hyper-V. Hyper-V does not offer soundcards to the virtualized system (there is a way to pass through some devices, but it is very limited), however I would like to run the Squeezelite plugin and have a "virtual squeezebox" (for a remote speaker).

The simple option would be to run Squeezelite on the Windows computer that hosts the Hyper-V Loxberry. And this works.... But I would like to keep the windows installation clean of server functionality (easy of recovery / portability / reinstallation). I came across Jack Audio Connection kit: https://jackaudio.org/ . Basically, it allows you to forward sound from one computer to another, over the network. This should be possible even when the "sending" computer does not have a soundcard, but by defining a loopback sound device. I've already found instructions here:

https://alsa.opensrc.org/Jack_and_Loopback_device_as_Alsa-to-Jack_bridge

Raspbian seems to contain the necessary packages, and I believe Squeezelite uses Alsa as its sound device; a loopback Alsa device should therefor show up. My plan now is to use Jack to forward the sound from Loxberry to the host (benefit is that it can be forwarded to any device that has Jack installed).

Not sure if it will work and will be useful, but I thought I'd share the info as I know many people here try to do things with multiroom audio, and this may be another tool in our toolbox.
(of course I will share findings/instructions as I get along)

Best regards,

Jörg

[Labmaster]

But whats the benefit compared to simply using a Squeezelite instance itself on another computer, platform, vm ....
Sorry. i don't get it ?

[J V]

I know it is a bit far-fetched, as somewhere there will have to be a receiver that runs Jack, so yes, it may as well run Squeezelite instead. But I'm trying to group all "server functions" together, so that if I have to reinstall Windows, I have less things to worry about and to reconfigure: reinstall windows, put a backup of the virtual loxberry back, configure Jack and off we go. And it seems like something fun to try, all libraries should be on Raspbian, so it is not really a hack even.
That is the main reason for me to try and put all the server functionality on virtual machines: I can make a backup of it and would not have to care about the real OS configuration.

Either way, I've learned a lot and discovered some interesting software from browsing here; it could be other people have better uses for a tool such as Jack but don't know it exists... I've just come across it recently, and even if I would not end up using it as described, it is one more tool in my software toolbox... just in case I need it .

Edit:
First step: Alsa loopback adapter installed and it is selectable in the Loxberry Squeezelite plugin.
Second step: Headless Raspberry (without X11) needs Jackd1 (Jackd2 won't run, something with dbus - Jackd2 can be compiled to run if needed)

Jörg