[UnderWing]

I'm building a Media Center Server, likely to use MythTV. I have configured this in the past, that's not the problem. It will be an always on computer, mounted on a rack in a closet. In fact, the closet is for the server, plus every other networking and A/V equipment in the house. Distributed TV and such. We also have overhead speakers, and an amp with 12 "zones" in our house, and 6 channels (inputs). It's easy to plug into the amp, it'll take headphones or computer line-out level audio. Our technology contractor (he installed amps, speakers, network and racks) lent us a SqueezeBox, which is an internet radio/network audio streaming device. Nice, but expensive. He's willing to let us use his until we have an alternate source. Unfortunately, he really doesn't specialize in server-based things like my application.

Basically, my challenge is this: I want to give seperate audio to each channel, coming from a large music library on the media server. Command-line to change songs would be fine, but I want different songs on each channel. The aforementioned SqueezeBox has server software that works well enough, but they are expensive... far too expensive to have one dedicated to each channel. I don't know how to do this whatsoever... If there is a network streaming device that would allow for server-side control of one device at a time, while allowing multiple devices to stream simultaneously, and is not incredibly expensive, please give me a link. If there is a way without secondary devices, please tell me as well. I really appreciate the help.


UnderWing