RMAF 2015: Roon "most talked about", change of name for RoonSpeakers?

Roon Software Discussion
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Chris Connaker of Computer Audiophile has posted his recap of RMAF 2015.

Chris said:

BY far the most talked about topic at RMAF this year, at least in my circles, was Roon. Only a Elac and Sonore were showing RoonSpeakers audio endpoints and RoonServers at the show, but many manufacturers were waiting with bated breath to get their hands on the Roon software development kit (SDK) to implement these technologies. Everyone from DAC and component manufacturers to loudspeaker manufacturers was talking about enabling Roon on products. I have a feeling we will see Roon enabled components everywhere from our favorite HiFi dealers to BestBuy in the next year or so.

Of course Small Green Computer were also showing RoonServer running on Linux in their microJukebox.

In an article about Auralic’s Aries Mini at RMAF 2015 DAR’s John Darko dropped the following tantalising paragraph:

“Roon? Wang is still waiting on supply of the RoonSpeakers code. When I later met with Enno Vandermeer and Rob Darling of Roon Labs they explained how the ‘RoonSpeakers’ name was going away but the Linux OS code is almost ready to travel down Interweb wires to third party manufacturers like AURALiC.”

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Chris was referring to this demo as “Sonore” because SGC was demoing in the Sonore room. Sonore did not have a RoonServer demo of their own.

In an article about Auralic’s Aries Mini at RMAF 2015 DAR’s John Darko dropped the following tantalising paragraph:

Yeah, the hardware devices will be deemed “RoonReady”.

We are planning to use the RoonSpeakers name to refer to the software implementations (apps/packages we release for mac,pc,android,ios,linux,rpi,…). So the RoonSpeakers apps will be like software RoonReady devices.

The underlying audio streaming protocol/technology is called RAAT (Roon Advanced Audio Transport).

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Exciting times at Roon!

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I can just see someone devising a Comprehensive Advanced Audio Transceiver (CAAT) which will be RAAT enabled. (Roll on the Tom ‘n’ Jerry references …)

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I noted that the Elac Roon Server device has a customized version of Roon. Will Elac’s customers be able to get normal Roon software updates?

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And when will regular Roonies get Tune-In ?:pray:

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One could well imagine an upgrade path from the customised Elac version to full-on Roon.

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Agreed. It’s really a massive pain not having radio in Roon.

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One could, but one could also imagine a situation like Android where most devices are rarely, if ever, updated because it is up to each manufacturer to take in, merge, and distribute the changes. With a lot of software, this is a complex task. So, I’m really asking Roon, what is your plan for handling software updates on customized versions of the server?

Besides that, I believe the Elac version is the full Roon Server plus custom additions.

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So, I’m really asking Roon, what is your plan for handling software updates on customized versions of the server?

We intend to make sure that the ELAC products do not wind up as some strange stagnant ghetto, and we are well aware of the software update nightmare that can result when these things are handled poorly.

ELAC is a demo right now–not a shipping product yet, so some of the details have yet to be finalized before their launch. We will share more once we’re able to.

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