Just started looking at the first public beta for the new macOS - Big Sur - and notice that the new Control Centre, which is reached via an icon in the menu bar, shows controls for the current item playing in Roon. At first I thought I was seeing Apple Music info but have shown it to be Roon info. Limited to Play/Pause and FF/REW but it does show thumbnail album art and give the track, artist, and album info.
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I guess that machine is acting as both Roon Core and Output?
Not at all. It is a pure remote machine. Core is on a Linux machine on the other side of the house and output is to a pair of KEF LSX wireless speakers via RAAT over wifi.
Hmm, Iâm not an Apple person, but that is both interesting and perplexing that Apple can recognize a RAAT stream.
I guess once RoonBridge converts to a stream to the KEF DAC, then it doesnât matter how it got there.
Roon added support for such a âNow playingâ control widget a while back. It appears that the work they did for current macOS versions is still valid for Big Sur.
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No, as I said the music is going from a server to the endpoint directly over wifi. The endpoint is a pair of KEF LSX active speakers which contain their own DAC and amps.
Aha, it seemed from the OP that this was a new and unexpected widget.
Yes, understood. I had amended my post accordingly.
Oh, OK - I hadnât seen this before in Catalina. Will have to check in my main (non-beta) machine. I do think that the positioning within a direct menu bar dropdown is an excellent way to access this.
Just checked - and you are right. It sits in the âTodayâ tab of the Notification Centre - I must admit not a place I ever look hence not having seen it there before. Seems slightly easier to access under the Big Sur layout with less clutter.
I agree itâs an improvement over Catalina.
Boy, thank for identifying that option in Notifications. Since I havenât tried the Public Beta of Big Sur I just looked it up in Catalina. That is a handy tool to keep on the screen while browsing the net. Easy to skip crappy tracks in the queue. 
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The definition of a hidden gem 
To wake up an old thread, Iâve updated to Big Sur, and thereâs now a nice menubar player option for Roon (when active). Very handy!
To make it appear, check in the new Menu Bar preferences:
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With Big Sur I can get it to pause the track playing in Roon but not get it to resume without going back to Roon.
I have no issues with pausing and resuming from the control center. Roon has to still be running though on the computer obviouslyâŚ
Yes, closing or hiding the Roon window breaks it, even if the app is still running. As long as the Roon window is open, it doesnât need to be in the forefront (active) for pause to resume from the menu bar widget. Baby steps, lol. Perhaps a future Roon update can fix this? Liking Big Sur so far.