I’m reading a common thread to keep it simple… Use NAS for backup, if at all, and put the main library on local HDD, and use some computer-type device as the core. Simple is good. Regarding the core, I am interested in specialized device, e.g. sonictransporter, rather than a mac or pc, so i’m doing some research on that. The tricky part is figuring out how to wifi the core+rendu into the network. Airport express has only 1 LAN so it won’t work. Probably need some combination of a wifi bridge and switch. Also, my local ISP device is Xfinity Gateway, which is known sometimes not play nice with other equipment. That will give me something to get a headache about!
Anyway, thanks for the ideas!