Will you please consider adding support for Google Cast (Chromecast casting) to Google Nest / Google Home speaker groups and Chromecast Audio enabled speakers from WiiM Pro?
That is, for the WiiM Pro to be able to act as a Chromecast audio casting source device (audio output/transmitter) instead of a Chromecast audio receiver target device (audio input). I know that WiiM Pro can today only act as a Chromecast audio receiver and cannot transmit/cast from physical audio input (via Line-In or Optical-In) to Google Nest / Google Home speaker groups and Chromecast Audio enabled speakers.
The reason for requesting this feature is that I am thinking about buying a vinyl record player (a phonograph/turntable/gramophone with analogue audio output) to play LP records / vinyl records and want an easy way to use it as a Google Cast (Chromecast casting) streaming source using some kind of network streamer to digitize and cast the audio stream to Chromecast Audio devices and Google Home / Google Nest speakers that we have, including Google Home speaker groups for multi-room audio.
* Record player (with preamp built-in) analogue output -> analogue input on WiiM Pro to Chromecast casting -> Google Home speakers
Others might want the same feature for other reasons, whether that be streaming audio discs from their Audio CD players, Super Audio CD (SACD) players, DVD-Audio/DVD-A, or other physical music collections.
The problem with this is that I can not seem to find any commercial network streamers that are sold today that natively support streaming audio to receivers using Chromecast (Google Cast protocol) such as Chromecast Audio and Google Home / Google Nest speaker.
FYI, there are several non-professional DIY workarounds out there, like using the "Vinyl Cast" (VinylCast) app by Allen Schober in combination with a USB audio card on an Android device, or a Raspberry Pi with applications/scripts like Darkice or Icecast, but such solutions are either inconvenient or relatively complex to setup and maintained, so I would prefer to just buy a network music streamer that supported this feature out of the box.
Tip to WiiM developers;, you should be aware that a few of the DIY solutions out there depend on "AirConnect" project by philippe44 as it is an open-source library to achieve this indirectly by presenting Chromecast receivers (as well as UPnP/DNLA players) as virtual AirPlay receivers, so perhaps WiiM could do look at it too as a workaround if you can not find a way to implement native Google Cast (Chromecast casting) support? Anyway, audio to Chromecast receivers can still be streamed in plain FLAC (or re-encoded as FLAC) to get the highest audio quality that Chromecast audio receivers support. Suggest that WiiM developers at least check it out here -> https://github.com/philippe44/AirConnect
PS: I already read that the WiiM Pro newer firmware now supports AirPlay Cast to support casting from WiiM Pro to Apple HomePod and other AirPlay / AirPlay 2 enabled speakers, however, that does not help me personally (as we do not have any AirPlay speakers or AirPlay enabled receivers). I also know that we could just record and fully digitize all our vinyl records as lossless FLAC files and then stream those FLAC files over the network, but that would completely defeat the nostalgic feeling of playing physical vinyl records on a vinyl record player, (and yes I am aware that streaming LP records / vinyl records kind of partially negate the nostalgic feeling of playing physical vinyl records but as we already have a Chromecast audio based speakers for multi-room the convenience wins for that, but we still want to be able to use physical media for the music records in out existing setup without replacing all our Google Home / Google Nest speakers).
That is, for the WiiM Pro to be able to act as a Chromecast audio casting source device (audio output/transmitter) instead of a Chromecast audio receiver target device (audio input). I know that WiiM Pro can today only act as a Chromecast audio receiver and cannot transmit/cast from physical audio input (via Line-In or Optical-In) to Google Nest / Google Home speaker groups and Chromecast Audio enabled speakers.
The reason for requesting this feature is that I am thinking about buying a vinyl record player (a phonograph/turntable/gramophone with analogue audio output) to play LP records / vinyl records and want an easy way to use it as a Google Cast (Chromecast casting) streaming source using some kind of network streamer to digitize and cast the audio stream to Chromecast Audio devices and Google Home / Google Nest speakers that we have, including Google Home speaker groups for multi-room audio.
* Record player (with preamp built-in) analogue output -> analogue input on WiiM Pro to Chromecast casting -> Google Home speakers
Others might want the same feature for other reasons, whether that be streaming audio discs from their Audio CD players, Super Audio CD (SACD) players, DVD-Audio/DVD-A, or other physical music collections.
The problem with this is that I can not seem to find any commercial network streamers that are sold today that natively support streaming audio to receivers using Chromecast (Google Cast protocol) such as Chromecast Audio and Google Home / Google Nest speaker.
FYI, there are several non-professional DIY workarounds out there, like using the "Vinyl Cast" (VinylCast) app by Allen Schober in combination with a USB audio card on an Android device, or a Raspberry Pi with applications/scripts like Darkice or Icecast, but such solutions are either inconvenient or relatively complex to setup and maintained, so I would prefer to just buy a network music streamer that supported this feature out of the box.
Tip to WiiM developers;, you should be aware that a few of the DIY solutions out there depend on "AirConnect" project by philippe44 as it is an open-source library to achieve this indirectly by presenting Chromecast receivers (as well as UPnP/DNLA players) as virtual AirPlay receivers, so perhaps WiiM could do look at it too as a workaround if you can not find a way to implement native Google Cast (Chromecast casting) support? Anyway, audio to Chromecast receivers can still be streamed in plain FLAC (or re-encoded as FLAC) to get the highest audio quality that Chromecast audio receivers support. Suggest that WiiM developers at least check it out here -> https://github.com/philippe44/AirConnect
PS: I already read that the WiiM Pro newer firmware now supports AirPlay Cast to support casting from WiiM Pro to Apple HomePod and other AirPlay / AirPlay 2 enabled speakers, however, that does not help me personally (as we do not have any AirPlay speakers or AirPlay enabled receivers). I also know that we could just record and fully digitize all our vinyl records as lossless FLAC files and then stream those FLAC files over the network, but that would completely defeat the nostalgic feeling of playing physical vinyl records on a vinyl record player, (and yes I am aware that streaming LP records / vinyl records kind of partially negate the nostalgic feeling of playing physical vinyl records but as we already have a Chromecast audio based speakers for multi-room the convenience wins for that, but we still want to be able to use physical media for the music records in out existing setup without replacing all our Google Home / Google Nest speakers).
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