[ANSWERED]Airfoil with Indigo 6.0.7

Hi,

Running Airfoil 4.8.3 on my iMac (Mavericks) alongside Indigo 6.0.7. I want to 'speak' through Airfoil to speakers elsewhere in the house. Having real problems.

I've written a short action that 'speaks' the word "Hello". I've 'activated' one of the speakers in Airfoil and have told Airfoil to listen to Indigo client. When the Indigo client has focus and I click the 'Test' button in the action group editor, I hear the sound on my iMac not the Airfoil speaker - indeed the Airfoil equaliser (at the bottom of the Airfoil screen) registers no sound.

I've also tried aligning the Indigo Server app to Airfoil and then running the execution group automatically - again, I hear the sound on my iMac not on the remote speaker.

Interestingly, assigning Airfoil source to 'System Sounds' works fine from both the Indigo client and the server. Airfoil also works perfectly when bound to any other sound app I choose to think of - Garageband, iTunes, etc.

I've enabled debugging and having scanned the log, the only pertinent log data is as follows:

Code: Select all

Airfoil Debug                   runConcurrentThread: update()
  Airfoil Debug                   update method called
  Airfoil Debug                   update: Airfoil is running
  Airfoil Debug                   update: application sources: [app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').application_sources.ID(0), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').application_sources.ID(1), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').application_sources.ID(2), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').application_sources.ID(3), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').application_sources.ID(4), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').application_sources.ID(9)]
  Airfoil Debug                   update: device sources: [app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').device_sources.ID(5), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').device_sources.ID(6), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').device_sources.ID(7)]
  Airfoil Debug                   update: system sources: [app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').system_sources.ID(8)]
  Airfoil Debug                   update: speakers: [app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').speakers.ID(u'com.rogueamoeba.airfoil.LocalSpeaker'), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').speakers.ID(u'7CD1C3C65908'), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').speakers.ID(u'5855CA051920'), app(u'/Applications/Airfoil.app').speakers.ID(u'90840DE9C452')]
  Airfoil Debug                   update: Computer (com.rogueamoeba.airfoil.LocalSpeaker) - Connected: 0
  Airfoil Debug                   update: adding to newKnownSpeakers for id: ID-com.rogueamoeba.airfoil.LocalSpeaker value: (u'Computer', u'disconnected')
  Airfoil Debug                   update: Living Room (7CD1C3C65908) - Connected: 0
  Airfoil Debug                   update: adding to newKnownSpeakers for id: ID-7CD1C3C65908 value: (u'Living Room', u'disconnected')
  Airfoil Debug                   update: Living Room Apple TV (5855CA051920) - Connected: 0
  Airfoil Debug                   update: adding to newKnownSpeakers for id: ID-5855CA051920 value: (u'Living Room Apple TV', u'disconnected')
  Airfoil Debug                   update: Kitchen (90840DE9C452) - Connected: 1
  Airfoil Debug                   update: adding to newKnownSpeakers for id: ID-90840DE9C452 value: (u'Kitchen', u'connected')
  Airfoil Debug                   update: setting speakers pref to: Item : (dict)
     ID-5855CA051920 : (list)
          Item : Living Room Apple TV (string)
          Item : disconnected (string)
     ID-78F7BEF04FE4 : (list)
          Item : Control Panel (string)
          Item : unavailable (string)
     ID-7CD1C3C65908 : (list)
          Item : Living Room (string)
          Item : disconnected (string)
     ID-90840DE9C452 : (list)
          Item : Kitchen (string)
          Item : connected (string)
     ID-com.rogueamoeba.airfoil.LocalSpeaker : (list)
          Item : Computer (string)
          Item : disconnected (string)


Any thoughts?

Jeremy.

[jay (support)]

It's the IndigoServer app located here:

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/Library/Application Support/Perceptive Automation/Indigo 6/IndigoServer.app

That needs to be set to the source. Not sure why that's not working if that's how you have it configured. Note - if you don't have the Instant On extra installed in Airfoil then you have to restart the source application for the sound to switch whenever you change the source.

Hi Jay,

Yes - Instant On is installed (the one that ships with the latest Airfoil release)

Yes - IndigoServer.app is selected as the source

I'm as equally unsure! !

J.

[jay (support)]

I just tried it here on two different Macs and it's working - not sure what else it could be.

I have this problem as well. I just upgraded to Mavericks last week and this is the one thing that seems not to work.

For clarification: Trying to speak an announcement from Indigo, I only get the sound from my iMac, but it does not transmit to my Airport Express.

a) This worked before updating to Mavericks, so it's not an entirely new process to me.
b) The source is set to IndigoServer.app
c) Airfoil DOES seem to transmit sound from other apps (Safari, System Sounds) to the Airport Express correctly.

So, there's something I'm just not catching here. Airfoil just won't transmit Indigo sounds since I updated to Mavericks.

Any ideas? Anyone else having this issue?

[jay (support)]

So, I just tried it again and now it's no longer working. I honestly have no idea what's going on. If you set the source to "System Audio" it works. The Indigo Server application isn't doing anything out of the ordinary when performing speech. I have to believe this is a Airfoil/Mavericks bug since previous versions work and we haven't changed anything about how Indigo speaks in many years.

And while I can't be positive, I'm almost positive I checked this before with 10.9.0 and it worked but now that I'm at 10.9.1 it doesn't. I may be mis-remembering though. There is nothing more we can do at this point though - Rogue Amoeba would need to be contacted.

I've given up on Airfoil. It's just too unpredictable when looking to deliver a consistent service.

[jay (support)]

That's too bad - I've been using it successfully for many years. Though, my server is still on 10.6 so maybe that's it...

Well, it IS an option for me to hardwire directly to my whole house audio system. My problem there is that I also use the computer for other stuff. If I could find an Airfoil-esque app that would let me direct Indigo sound out the headphone jack and everything else out the speakers that would be perfect (anyone know of such a thing?)

Alternately, I'm thinking of going with a 3.5mm splitter from the headphone jack, and then some external speakers, while also hooking up to the whole house audio. Airfoil is a more elegant solution though.

Ok, so here's what I went with...

I decided to wire the computer's output directly to the whole home audio. So now announcements are handled well. Zone turns on, announces, shuts off as intended. No AirPlay buffering issues. Perfect.

As for actually using the computer's audio... Well, the computer is in my study, and one of the zones for my whole home audio is in the study. Since I have a plugin to control the audio, I just set a quick trigger to turn on the system in the study on the right output every time the study light gets turned on (and to shut it off when the light goes out). Now all computer audio just comes in over the whole home audio system instead of the iMac's built-in speakers. In the rare event I use the study with no light on AND want to hear the computer, I'll have to turn it on manually. No big deal here.

I've have had all the same problems as the other people in this thread. I had posted to the Mavericks compatibility thread thinking that it was a problem IndigoServer and Mavericks which it very well may be. I have indigo running on my GP computer so using system sounds wasn't a viable option for me. I have Airfoil voicing my DSC alarm system via a wifi speaker near the keypad. My work around has been to use the app "Play Sound" (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/8479/play-sound) [is working fine with Mavericks] which I was using before to play a message to my neighbors thanking them for feeding our pets when they house sit for us. Have it triggered by their disarming user code. When they disarm the system with their code all the animals start talking to them. I know, I'm weird but what the hell if you can do it why not? Anyway all the other alarm dialog was handled with the configuration setup in the DSC plugin which went through indigoserver which it looks like Mavericks has broken. To use Play Sound you have to record your messages to an aiff file which I've done through the computer and recorded them through audio hijack and save as an aiff file. In the actions I use the airfoil actions / change audio source / Play Sound, just to make sure airfoil is on Play Sounds, then Server Actions / Script and File Actions / Execute Script and run a small embedded Applescript ( tell application "Play Sound" to play "Ultimate:Library:Application Support:Perceptive Automation:Indigo 6:Scripts:Welcome Home.aif" ) so now my alarm system is talking to me again. I did get a little concerened though when I went to arm the alarm and it came back with, "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that"

I've got the same problem. No speech from Indigo is making to the speakers through AirFoil. I have Airfoil set to play all system sounds (not ideal) but all the other system sounds like volume change beeps, etc get played through the remote speakers no problem. I tried making the Indigo Server app the source, nada. Other apps like iTunes work fine.

I'm running Marvericks 10.9.4, Indigo 6.0.13 and Airfoil 4.86

This was working fine last week. I can't hunk what I changed in the config since then.

I've tried restart the Mac, Stopping an distorting the indigo Server Reloading, disable and re-enabling the plugging, resetting the speaker list. Nothing makes a difference.

Happy to provide logs, debug info copies of configs, even do a shared screen session if any of that will help.

Best

H

PS. Just noticed that if I type something in the "Talk" box at the bottom of the action dialog then hit the "test" button all works fine. It's just not working from the "Pause iTunes and speak" action. Could this be an iTunes 11.3 thing?

[jay (support)]

We haven't changed anything about how the IndigoServer performs it's text to speech (TTS). In fact, testing on Mac OS X 10.9.4 shows that the AppleScript say command isn't working from any app we've tested (AppleScript Editor, Script Debugger) so we believe the problem is that Airfoil isn't redirecting any TTS (if anyone else has an app that can do text to speech we'd appreciate you testing to see if it's TTS is getting redirected by Airfoil).

I've submitted a problem report to Rogue Amoeba so we'll see what they have to say about it. I don't believe it's anything we can do in the IndigoServer app but we'll see if they can give us some guidance.

[jay (support)]

I just tried having Safari selected as the source, then selecting some text on a page and selecting Speech->Start Speaking and it doesn't work either - so I'm pretty sure this is an Airfoil bug with TTS.

Looks like you're correct - sob! I spent quite a bit of time trying to get this one working; at least their support answered quickly and promptly.
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Thanks for getting in touch with us. Unfortunately, this is now harder than you'd think -- Mac OS X 10.9 and later have changed the way Text-to-Speech works, such that it's not played as part of any app on its own. Instead, it's part of a separate process managed by the operating system - the speech synthesis daemon.

Airfoil currently can't capture that process right now directly, but we're looking into it.
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So hopefully we'll have a solution soon. I just wish I could run a simple audio cable from my receiver to my amp! Not possible unfortunately.... Is there an app out there that will just open a connection to the remote airplay server and squirt some words? That would be nice!