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I have an Onkyo AV Receiver (model TX-SR707). I would like to redirect audio from my system such that it will output through the receiver - without having to hook up any wires.

Similar to how I can cast from my phone (or from Chrome on the laptop) to the Chromecast device hooked into the receiver, what combination of hardware and software would I need to be able to achieve this at a system level from my laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad t440p)?

Do I need a full-blown server hooked up to the receiver using the method described here - How do I set up live audio streams to a DLNA compliant device? - or is there a more lightweight hardware device I can use?

In an ideal world, I imagine going into Sounds Settings and selecting the receiver (or some intermediary device) as the output.

I'd guess the laptop would be in a range of 5 to 10 metres from the receiver.

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trent
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  • At the moment, no smart TV. I'd also like it to work with the TV off - I didn't think of that, but I assume it wouldn't be capable of playing audio with the TV off (but would be interested in hearing the TV solution). – trent Jan 03 '16 at 08:23
  • The only current network connected device is an xbox 360. But not really following the lightweight requirement. I guess I could stream through that? Was hoping for an independent device. – trent Jan 03 '16 at 08:27

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There are several different hardware and software solutions that can serve a wireless audio signal from our Ubuntu box to an audio receiver.

Wireless audio transmitter or Bluetooth

This is the oldest available technique working through an own wireless audio data transfer signal either by 2.4 GHz signal, or more recently through Bluetooth. For both techniques there are plenty of budget solutions coming with sender or receiver modules ready to plug in to our existing systems. In case our sender is already equipped with a Bluetooth module we will only need a single additional BT-module on the receiver side. This will be the most lightweight or least expensive solution.

Audio streaming through our local wireless network

To be able to stream audio to any audio receiver we need a device capable of connecting the audio receiver to our wireless network. It may be best to look for devices we already own to keep costs low. The receiveing device could be anything from:

  • a network-capable Smart-TV or BluRay/DVD-PLayer.
  • an outdated tablet-PC or smartphone.
  • a gaming console such as the XBox 360 you had mentioned.
  • an old first-generation Airport Express module.
  • a spare laptop or old computer capable of running a lightweight Ubuntu distribution.
  • a dedicated HTPC-box which could range from a RaspberryPi to a small factor mini-PC (e.g. NUC).

Receiving the audio streams through the wireless network

Depending on the hardware we chose we again have a choice of streaming methods depending on what the receiver supports.

  • Smart-TVs or an XBox can be attached as a DLNA renderer.
  • If possible we may receive our private Internet Radio we had created.
  • In case we run Ubuntu on the receiver side we can just use pulseaudio network streams.
  • Running xbmc/Kodi (or any other home theater application) on the receiver side lets us chose from several streaming methods including Internet Radio, Pulseaudio, or DLNA.
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Takkat
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