Is Roon compatible with remotes with buttons?

I have yet to get Roon in my life but it is hopefully something that will happen soon. Whilst having a beautiful touch screen interface and all that information available is the biggest attraction of Roon, there are occasions when listening to music, with my eyes closed, that I don’t really want to have to wake my phone/iPad to skip a track or change radio station.

Is there a solution that allows a basic IR remote or Apple TV remote to function with Roon for track skipping? What I would most want it for is changing radio station. I have a Meridian F80 in my bedroom and regularly skip back and forth between the DAB stations in a sleepy daze. It would be nice if with the addition of the Sonicorbiter SE, I could take advantage of the higher quality internet radio stream but still easily swap between channels without having to wake up enough to navigate my phone.

Is there a solution out there?

Thanks
Oli

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+1 as a feature request. Being able to use my Harmony would be great.

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+1 from my side too.

Would like to add that rs232 and/or LAN remote codes would be great for installers as well. I think LAN codes could work with the IP address of the Roon remote if the Roon client listens at it.

I will add a tag for @brian to see if he can shed any light on it.

Bryston BDP-1 buttons will pause, play, skip forward/ back, and stop Roon tracks.

I also checked my RE dongle/ipad remote. It worked on the Bryston BDP-1 as well.

Roon Ready devices that have buttons that can control Roon, do so. It is part of the certification process. If you find a Roon Ready device that does not, please do let us know so we can get that remedied.

As for third party devices, I currently am working on the upcoming Roon API, and using it, I have multiple devices controlling Roon.

For example, I’m using a USB Griffin Powermate at the moment :slight_smile:

Hoping we can get this out in the next non-bugfix release…

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Awesome. I am waiting on the new Mabook Pros to launch so that I have something powerful enough to run Roon, so hopefully not long after they come, the API will be out and I can find a suitable device.

Hi @danny,

I understand that Roon Ready devices can control the Roon playback over their own hardware buttons and/or remote controls.

But how’s about Roon Ready devices that don’t have buttons and/or remotes, like Totaldac d1-server or microRendu for example, and can ‘only’ be controlled via the Roon apps?

For example I use http://www.touchapptech.com to control all hardware over IR, RS232 and LAN, but I need to switch to the Roon app to control play, pause, skip etc…

Will there be a way to integrate Roon commands into such kind of third party remote setups in the future?

Thanks
NOA

Roon API will provide 2 things here:

  1. an extension using Roon API can control Roon functionality such as the transport controls
  2. Roon can control another device by having an extension register itself as an external source control or external volume control. So you can control volume or source switching/standby from within Roon.

example of #1: a remote device or app can control Roon in almost every way Roon can control itself.

example of #2: Roon can do volume/source switching/standby for your device via RS232, network, IR, or some other mechanism.

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It seems crazy that we’d want another remote to control Roon!
For me, controlling Roon is predominately done by an iPhone or iPad. Sometimes these are left in another room or ‘borrow’ by a child but mostly if I really want quick control of Roon I am out of luck. Picking up my phone for example means unlocking it, launching the Roon app and going through the process of waiting to reconnect to my library. If this happens without hiccups that’s only 10 - 15 seconds but 90% of the time the app won’t reconnect so I go through the extra few steps of joining ‘another’ library. Typically 30 seconds at least. Not long in the scheme of things but annoying nonetheless.

Will there be a solution to IR control of Roon server running on a PC (Mac mini in my case)?

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Just an aside, but when I get the Waiting for Library on my iPad and it doesn’t connect right away, I double click the home button on the iPad and swipe Roon away. I then relaunch the app and it usually connects instantly.

Much faster than selecting another library.

Cheers, Greg

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Just to offer a different perspective here: it takes <1 sec consistently on my iPhone 6S, from unlock to connected Roon. Last-gen iOS devices are ridiculously fast in touch-ID unlocking and WiFi reconnect. (AC network, no extenders).

If I run roon on a mac, will the Apple TV remote control roon, or does it just work with native Apple programs?

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Cheers, Rene. I must look more carefully at my network then. I had assumed for some reason that the reconnect issues was not an uncommon experience (I have 2 current and 2 last gen ios devices connected, AC too). On reflection, my experience probably points to a server or network config on my side.

Back on topic sorry.

Thanks @danny, clear now.

I’m with en1omb and would love for Roon to work with my Apple remote.

The ability to quickly and easily pause playback or skip through a playlist/Roon radio would be hugely helpful. Apple remotes are inexpensive and pretty common, at least for Mac users. Hopefully Roon can add support.

Scott

Running Roon on a vintage Macbook Air 2009, renewed with SSD and removed of all bloatware possible, which is quite a lot, this machine is fully controlled by a Vintage Denon remote; RC 974. This (legendary) remote also controls a Marantz HD DAC1 and its original Denon Surround Receiver, as well as whatever I put into the chain.

The physical buttons on this remote are clearly to be preferred, compared to control via a smarphone touchscreen that is often doing other things.

I have a 2011 iMac 27" (Win7 under BootCamp).

I am using the original Apple Remote with ROON to control Play/Pause and skip to next track.

The Apple Remote requires a Mac with an IR port (most Macs made after 2005).

I use the Explorer2 DAC, and AISO drivers, which bypass the iMac audio, to drive my speaker rig. But if I use the headphone out, the Apple remote can also control the volume.

No special setup needed.

Excellent news. Thanks

Apple remote that comes with Apple TV also controls pause/play/etc when playing Roon through Airplay. There’s a bit of delay in the response but it works!