airstudio new version?

[gcc]

hi, just bought the fidelio wireless a9000.
The speakers themselves are excellent.
however the airstudio app on both android and ipad really let it down.
the reviews for the apps on Google play speak volumes.
are there any plans to rework the app?
or are there any alternatives?
its a real shame as the app really lets down an otherwise great product.

[fromsomewhere]

hi, just bought the fidelio wireless a9000.
The speakers themselves are excellent.
however the airstudio app on both android and ipad really let it down.
the reviews for the apps on Google play speak volumes.
are there any plans to rework the app?
or are there any alternatives?
its a real shame as the app really lets down an otherwise great product.

Hi

You can try Philips MyRemote which is similar to airstudio or you can try Twonky Beam or Bubble UPnP app. I find bubble app really good for android.

[gcc]

thanks fromsomewhere I will give those a try. just also realised airstudio was consuming 20% of my S3's battery overnight and killed it from a full charge.
has anyone from Phillips looked at the poor reviews this app is? it seems to be marketing madness to provide such a poor front end to those good speakers, especially ad the likes of Sonos and Sony are producing the same product.
apologies for whining thanks again fromsomewhere.

[fromsomewhere]

thanks fromsomewhere I will give those a try. just also realised airstudio was consuming 20% of my S3's battery overnight and killed it from a full charge.
has anyone from Phillips looked at the poor reviews this app is? it seems to be marketing madness to provide such a poor front end to those good speakers, especially ad the likes of Sonos and Sony are producing the same product.
apologies for whining thanks again fromsomewhere.

Hi

The battery gets consumed if you are playing contents from your phone on A9. But if you are playing a playlist from spotify or playing an inet radio, you can start the playback of spotify or inet radio 7 then kill the app ( press back on yr S3 few times). The playback of the station will continue & yr battery will not drain. Also, do not leave the player & S3 "connected " by a line when you are not using it. Just cut the line. then battery will not drain. The airstudio can play a sharelist in the background . That is the best part of it. MyRemote or any other apps do not do it.

[gcc]

hmmmm,
when airstudio killed the phones battery the a9 was switched off at the wall.
maybe the app was polling for it over wifi..
Thanks for your reply.

[andreasm]

The AirStudio App starts a Twonky Server (at least on iOS, didn't check on Android) if you activate local sharing. This is kind of overkill and seems to drain the batteries really fast.

All in all the Apps are really "quick and dirty". The hardware is really great, and the sound also - but i don't understand why the apps, which are really essential for a wireless streaming box, are so loveless.

I'll use this thread to address my findings (leaving optical/design out of scope)

- The app is half native (share part) and half web-app (control part). This leads to a completly different user experience in both parts.

- No iPhone 5 screen size usage.

- why do need to select the speakers seperately in both parts. there should be only one screen (or menu) where i select the speakers. Also think about defaults, i think most users only have one speaker, or a main one.

- why is a twonky server started, isn't there an easier way? This might be a technical design problem but makes the app really bloated and cpu hungry

- the help is only working in some screens (share parts)

- the control part is a web app, this really feels stacked up. Especially on the iPad the screen estate is only used half. it is slow responding and has no native feel. It should be no problem to script the webpage from the speakers from within a native iOS or Android app and keep the design in the app. -> Also no Firmware updates required if the design of an app needs to be changed.

- the logic to assign the favorite button is really not obvious. why no extra setup screen for the buttons? feature suggestion: possibility to add playlists and stared list to a favorite button (spotify/deezer). Optional shuffled.

- why are only 10 results listed in the services lists (like album titles) and the rest need to be paged with a button. using normal scrolling like up to 100 titles should be no problem. at least like 25 results per page, as every album has more than 10 titles.

- there is no skipping or fast forward possible. this is really annoying espacially on spoken titles or podcasts.

- the music stops if i change from the spotify screen to the webradio screen. even if i don't select a radio station

- in sharing part no searching or fast scrolling (index letters) is implemented in lists. this is really annoying in large lists of titles or albums

- no timer or wake up alarm implemented. at least a shutdown timer (ie. stop music in 30 mins) should be available. nearly all old hifi receivers have this feature

I think i could go on a few more points and also have a lot of little things like wrong adjusted lines and spaces.

My question to Philips is: will there be a significant update of the app in the near future?
i'd really like to recommend the speakers to other, but at this time i'm considering if i keep the A5 or return it for another system.

If you are interested in a more detailed "bug-"report, i'm willing to support.

[gcc]

andreasm, thanks for adding further proof that these apps are not up to scratch.

I hope Philips act on it because they are really not doing themselves any favours looking at other forums.

Regardless of app problems, I picked up the second speaker that had come back in stock (an A5). This was in order to 'expand the system' as it says on the box.
It turns out you can't play music from one source to multiple speakers simultaneously!
So I have now given up with Philips and swapped to Sonos.
an equivalent system (that can play in sync) turns out to be over £250 cheaper too. though i'm sure this will be due to having one less speaker that are bound not to be quite as excellent as the A9.
thanks again for every
one's input and good luck!

[Philips - QK]

Dear andreasm & all,

Thanks a lot for your input and comment on the app.
We will look into your comments & suggestion in our app development. We shall update you once we have more concrete information from the team.

With thanks & regards,
Philips Moderation Team

[gcc]

Dear andreasm & all,
We shall update you once we have more concrete information from the team.
With thanks & regards,
Philips Moderation Team

Hi,
It nice to see Philips take an interest.
I would suggest copying all the functionality you can ( after checking copyrights! ) from the Sonos Syncing of music from a single source. Otherwise take the word 'expandable' out of your advertsing blurb.

-If you supported the same functionality, with your speaker technolgy Im sure people would be more than happy to buy your system in preference to sonos.

Regarding "more concrete information" I would suggest loaning a unit to each of your development team - with IPAD/ Android and let them try to actually use the system for real.
Even better offer AndreaSM some free hardware in return for more of their valuable input!

Then just give your software developers a realistic time frame to improve the app.
Afterwards trawl the forums for previously disgruntled users and let the world know you have taken user feedback seriously and addressed the issues. For a starter the Google Play and App Market sites would be a good start.

Good luck ...