LMS set up guide and BBC sounds for ultra

[Cheenis]

From a few searches it seems the best way to get BBC sounds content is through LMS, but despite searching on Google and this forum, I can't find a user friendly set up guide (from scratch) on the ultra unit. I'd also like to connect up to my music collection on my NAS. Is this best done through lms?

Overall aim I want is to set up so it's super easy to use BBC sounds, Spotify and networked music. Spotify is covered any views and guides on the other two are very welcome,!!!

Thanks!!

 

[Mr Ee]

Welcome.

What nas do you have?
You don't setup lms on the ultra itself, but your nas may support it.
Your nas may also have its own music server, or be able to have something like minimserver installed on it to play your own files.
Lms can be used for your own files too.
Best is very subjective...

 

[Cheenis]

Welcome.

What nas do you have?
You don't setup lms on the ultra itself, but your nas may support it.
Your nas may also have its own music server, or be able to have something like minimserver installed on it to play your own files.
Lms can be used for your own files too.
Best is very subjective...

I've got a Synology D218+. Assuming I set up lms on it (I did that many years ago for a squeezebox radio I had, but I also have a brain injury so forget this kinda stuff). How do I access BBC sounds on the ultra? Is there some sort of local front end that makes it easy? My wife will want a similar experience to using the BBC sounds app on her phone or shell just cast it, I'd be willing to go through a bit more hassle, but we listen to radio 4 & 6 quite a bit so would like a shortcut, as well as the search for catch up stuff.

Totally agree on the subjective side of things, looking for a guide so I can trial it all. My music library on there is a lossless iTunes library if that makes a difference.

Thanks a million for your response! Really appreciate your help and guidance.

 

[slartibartfast]

I've got a Synology D218+. Assuming I set up lms on it (I did that many years ago for a squeezebox radio I had, but I also have a brain injury so forget this kinda stuff). How do I access BBC sounds on the ultra? Is there some sort of local front end that makes it easy? My wife will want a similar experience to using the BBC sounds app on her phone or shell just cast it, I'd be willing to go through a bit more hassle, but we listen to radio 4 & 6 quite a bit so would like a shortcut, as well as the search for catch up stuff.

Totally agree on the subjective side of things, looking for a guide so I can trial it all. My music library on there is a lossless iTunes library if that makes a difference.

Thanks a million for your response! Really appreciate your help and guidance.

There is a BBC Sounds plugin for LMS. The home page looks like this. It is fairly straightforward to use. Probably easier than the BBC Sounds phone app

 

[Mr Ee]

I just spent a not-as-pleasant-as-it-ought-to-be hour plus installing Lyrion Music Server on my Qnap nas.
There are so many very bad guides on how to do it out there with supposedly self-explanitory steps. Even a "beginner's guide" I found was less than useless!
I recall having similar issues installing the old lms on it a year or two ago too.

Unless the LMS gods here smile on you, I guess the best you can do is try searching for an lms for synology guide and seeing if the D218 supports it.
Have you enabled a media server on the nas? Is there an 'app store' in the nas screens where you can choose from a list of approved apps to install? There might be a different media server app there.

What happens if you open the Browse screen in the wiim app and choose Home Music Share - do you see your nas in there?

 

[slartibartfast]

I just spent a not-as-pleasant-as-it-ought-to-be hour plus installing Lyrion Music Server on my Qnap nas.
There are so many very bad guides on how to do it out there with supposedly self-explanitory steps. Even a "beginner's guide" I found was less than useless!
I recall having similar issues installing the old lms on it a year or two ago too.

Unless the LMS gods here smile on you, I guess the best you can do is try searching for an lms for synology guide and seeing if the D218 supports it.
Have you enabled a media server on the nas? Is there an 'app store' in the nas screens where you can choose from a list of approved apps to install? There might be a different media server app there.

What happens if you open the Browse screen in the wiim app and choose Home Music Share - do you see your nas in there?

Docker seems to be the modern way to install LMS on a compatible NAS. Docker looks complicated to me

 

[simbun]

My wife will want a similar experience to using the BBC sounds app on her phone or shell just cast it

I assume you're casting from the Spotify app so why do you want to avoid her casting from the BBC Sounds app? Do you only listen from home?
The native apps are nearly always better than those providing integrations.

 

[Buryme2wice]

Docker seems to be the modern way to install LMS on a compatible NAS. Docker looks complicated to me

I had to use Docker with my DS220j - although synology label it as something else - Package Centre I think. It was a bit of a pain, the biggest issue being the permissions as I just couldn't get LMS to see my music folders. Setting up a separate login profile specifically for LMS was the answer to that one.

 

[vdp]

Docker (compose) can make things easier and isn't complicated. But for a single app I wouldn't bother learning it.

LMS (Lyrion) method of installation and managing these add ons is imo 20 years outdated. Had a quick look at it and might look closer but it is a downside. Yes you can figure it out but that shouldn't be required...

 

[Burnside]

The easiest way is probably getting a raspberry pi and installing piCorePlayer and using LMS on that - while it does involve a little faffing around (in my experience), it’d be a lot easier than messing around with Docker etc.

Casting from the BBC Sounds app might honestly be the easiest way, and given the audio resolution that the BBC uses you won’t suffer any loss of quality.

I’d also raise a feature request ticket via the feedback section in the WiiM Home app to ask WiiM to consider a BBC Sounds-like implementation in their app instead of the basic list of stations they currently provide.

 

[Hiphiman]

The easiest way is probably getting a raspberry pi and installing piCorePlayer and using LMS on that - while it does involve a little faffing around (in my experience), it’d be a lot easier than messing around with Docker etc.

Casting from the BBC Sounds app might honestly be the easiest way, and given the audio resolution that the BBC uses you won’t suffer any loss of quality.

I’d also raise a feature request ticket via the feedback section in the WiiM Home app to ask WiiM to consider a BBC Sounds-like implementation in their app instead of the basic list of stations they currently provide.

@Cheenis, if you really want to go down the LMS route I would second recommending piCorePlayer. This time last Christmas I managed to get an RPi LMS setup up and running using this with little knowledge, but with the help of prominent forum contributors from here, some of whom appear to have changed their moniker since then . I am sure the thread would be helpful:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/wiim-pro-raspberry-pi-4-8gb.1150/

Happy New Year!

 

[Burnside]

@Cheenis, if you really want to go down the LMS route I would second recommending piCorePlayer. This time last Christmas I managed to get an RPi LMS setup up and running using this with little knowledge, but with the help of prominent forum contributors from here, some of whom appear to have changed their moniker since then . I am sure the thread would be helpful:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/wiim-pro-raspberry-pi-4-8gb.1150/

Happy New Year!

I don’t know who you’re talking about

 

[slartibartfast]

I don’t know who you’re talking about

That explains a lot. I thought it was weird

 

[adias]

That explains a lot. I thought it was weird

Indeed it can explain a lot.

 

[Cheenis]

I just spent a not-as-pleasant-as-it-ought-to-be hour plus installing Lyrion Music Server on my Qnap nas.

Indeed! I've had the same experience on the synology and totally agree that these things are unnecessarily inaccessible.
It was actually really quite easy in the end. I used this guide: https://lyrion.org/getting-started/beginners-guide-synology-docker/#configure-lms which was almost right. They talk about 'container manager' but that didn't exist on mine, instead I searched for docker on the package centre (synology's app store) installed it and went from there. I had some permission issues which I solved eventually, but as I just gave read/write to everything I couldn't say exactly what it was that fixed it. A more patient individual would be able to work it out on their set up.

Once up and running I have to say I'm super impressed. Connecting it to the ultra happened automatically; i.e., it searched for any LMS on my wifi network, found it and connected. I've downloaded an app for my phone called 'squeezer' which has given me a nice interface and the BBC sounds plug in was easy to find and intuitive to set up.. I've still got a lot to learn about setting up the WiiM unit and app. I'd like to set up spotify playlists as a preset rather than it be linked to a track, not least because these are dynamic playlists that change every 2 weeks. Right now it looks like I'll just run everythign through the LMS and squeezer as I find it nicer than the wiim app. I'll trial it with the boss (my wife) tomorow and see what she thinks

 

[Cheenis]

Massive thank you to everyone that responded here, they all gave me little clues as to how to get this sorted. I've been in and out with family stuff over the past few days, hence my slow replies!

The pi thing was never an option for me personally, but it's certainly a good option for many. I'm just glad that whilst it wasn't a 5 minute job, a few patient steps got me set up on the synology nas.

 

[Cheenis]

I assume you're casting from the Spotify app so why do you want to avoid her casting from the BBC Sounds app? Do you only listen from home?
The native apps are nearly always better than those providing integrations.

My understanding is that whilst you're using the spotify app as a remote control it's actually using the native spotify connect rather than a chromecast stream from your phone. With sounds it would have been chromecast and thus you're on the lower bit rates... please correct me if I'm wrong. Ultimately there is now the option, either use squeezer or cast it.

 

[adias]

I perused the Lyrion site… Allow me to ask the LMS braintrust on this thread the following:

If I install the LMS server on a MacOS machine running 24/7…

1 - The LMS server will access music stores on that MacOS machine and relay it those to an Ultra as a LMS client.

2 - I can install on the MacOS LMS server apps, such as BBC Sounds, and links to Internet radio stations, and relay those to the Ultra LMS client.

Did I get (1) and (2) right or there’s more to it to implement those functions?

 

[castalla]

For 2. LMS runs on your Mac PC. Features such as Sounds, Spotify, Internet RADIO, etc. are implemented as LMS plugins. The Ultra will appear as an audio player within LMS.

A key plugin is the Material skin interface. You can access the LMS interface using a browser.

Here's what my LMS homepage looks like

 

[adias]

For 2. LMS runs on your Mac PC. Features such as Sounds, Spotify, Internet RADIO, etc. are implemented as LMS plugins. The Ultra will appear as an audio player within LMS.

A key plugin is the Material skin interface. You can access the LMS interface using a browser.

Here's what my LMS homepage looks like
View attachment 15754

Thanks! Are those plugins (Material Skin Interface) available for MacOS?