Multi room audio project

I thought my latest project might be of interest on the forum.  
 
I had an ageing TEAC AG-980 amplifier that has 4 zones.  I had never been that happy with it. I had planned to use the serial port to control it via HouseBot home automation software, but I could never get this to work, so had to resort to IR to control that could be very temperamental at times.
 
In the past, I had looked to see about upgrading to something better, like Sonos for example, but I could not justify the costs involved.  Finally I have a set-up I'm happy.  It's fairly crude really.  Each zone consists of an Lepy amp, ChromeCast Audio and a USB ethernet adapter.  The option of syncing all the rooms together works surprisingly well.  
 

 
I have all the geeky details here : http://digitalgeek.me/blogview.php?id=68

Hey, that's great!  I'm getting ready to install a multi-room system from HAI, but this blows my mind.  I'm wondering why I'm going to run all that wire, drill holes, terminate drops, etc.

What does the control software look like?

dementeddigital said:

What does the control software look like?

Click to expand...

 
It's all controlled from Android.  The ChromeCast app will allow you to define the zones, for example, I have Study, Bathroom, Kitchen and Garden.  Then I have a group called House, that will play Study, Bathroom and Kitchen in sync.  
 
There are a lot of apps that have CCA support.  I mainly use TuneIn and Google Play Music apps, once open you just cast it to a zone/group.
 
So far pretty happy with it. I have also been really impressed with the little Lepy amps! 
 
There is a nice write up on how the multi zone bit works here: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3033923/personal-technology/chromecast-audio-revisited.html

That is amazing. Interesting to know about.

Looks brilliant.
 
Has anyone tried this with a Russound system? I bought this house with a partially installed CAV 6.6,and the biggest weakness I can find besides a shoddy installation is inability to stream (or cast) music from your device to the system. Obviously Bluetooth would be the protocol of choice, since nearly all modern devices support it, particularly as an audio output. The down side is serious lack of range, which makes it unusable.
 
I have been looking at solutions utilizing wifi, which has sufficient range, but keep coming up short. For instance, Roku 1 has RCA outputs but doesn't support casting, while Roku 3 supports casting but has only HDMI outputs. Apple TV is expensive and a jealous god, and I require multiplatform support.
 
Any experience with a Russound?

I bought a chromecast audio, connected it directly to a Russound source input, and it works well enough that I have ordered 3 more. Insanely good suggestion, A11an, looks like you have hit upon the one thing that keeps older Russound hardware from being obsolete (you can be sure Russound doesn't want this to get out, think of all the upgrade revenue they'll miss). Since you control directly from your device, no need to transmit MP3 tag info to the controller, or send control signals to the Russound either. No need to pull more wire in the house to provide distant Bluetooth audio, or buy expensive Russound Bluetooth devices for single room coverage.
The only issue so far, is that due to a Google marketing decision, you can't directly cast from a PC to a chromecast unless using Chrome browswer. This has been well discussed on the Spotify forum, their app doesn't work.

You should put this kind of stuff on https://www.youtube.com/ as well. I've used the ChromeCast app for a similar project, but I'm not on your level.