Airport Express not playing on zone only in System Ouput

What I want to accomplish is to have my music playing in two different zones at the same time.

In the Bedroom through an Apple device Airport Express (under DHCP the current IP address seeing in AirPort Utility is 192.168.0.123, in the Roon setting under Airplay I see this IP address 169.254.71.52. This is connected into my amplifier through an Optical connection.

And in the Living Room through an AppleTV (192.168.0.110)

When I group those two zones, I get music in the living room but not in the bedroom (I suspect the IP address 169.254.71.52 might be an issue.)

I can hear sound in both zone from iTunes or from Tidal (one at the time)

If I set in System Preference under Sound the Output is set to Airport Express and in Audio MIDI Setup to Airport express, then there is music playing under the zone labeled as System Output in Roon.

On top of that I have also a Bluesound Node 2 and this works perfectly.

My understanding is that “it is only possible to group Zone with other zones of the same type (e.g. Airplay with Airplay)” in this case Airport Express with Apple TV.

So here is where things start to get interesting!

When I try to create a zone, my only option is System Output (goes to Airport Express using an Optical Connection) and Node 2 using a Coaxial connection (both wirelessly).

And Guess what? I can output the same song at the same time to Airport Express (Airplay) and Bluesound Node 2 (non-Airplay) I took a 15 sec video to prove it.

This however does not solve my issue, as both are in my bedroom….

How do we resolve this issue?

Hi @Sebastien_Rochon ----- Thank you for report and sharing your feedback with us. Both are appreciated!

To help aide in my evaluation of this issue may I kindly ask you to please verify the following information for me:

  1. Can you please provide the details of the device currently hosting your Roon core.

  2. Can please confirm what generation of Airport Express you are working with.

-Eric

It is a MacBook Pro 2011 i7 16 Gb running the latest OS Sierra. The Airport Express is a 1st generation.

Thanks

Saby

Hi @Sebastien_Rochon ----- Thank you for verifying that information for me.

I believe that the issue here is the first generation Airport Express as Roon supports AirPlay devices starting with the AirTunes2 protocol (circa 2011). Some very old devices like the original Airport Express will not work.

-Eric