Streaming - Total fail (rant)


So in pre-covid days we had a different house which I had wired to support living room (big rig), family room (ADS L710’s) and outside speakers (Niles OS20). I could play the same music through all three speaker pairs for parties or just cruising thru the house/back yard. New house now, without the ability to wire multiple speakers in different rooms. Streaming seemed to be the answer. Using an Airport Express to big rig, a HomePod for the family room and a mini-Homepod for the front porch I used iPhone/Apple Music to stream to these speakers. They all worked individually.

So it’s Derby day and our first party in over a year (all double Vax attendees). I set up a couple of my favorite playlists for music. Folks arrive and I begin streaming. Within minutes the HomePod starts playing different music than what I’m playing on the phone, the mini cuts in and out, the Airport express loses ALL connection with my wi-fi, and Apple music seems to forget what playlist it’s streaming from. Needless to say, total streaming fail and no music as I can’t stay ahead of the problems. Probably lots of reasons - wifi issues ( yet I have a 200 mps plan), Apple music sucks, maybe streaming to three different targets is too much, etc. In any case, way too many problems - I guess my multi room musical experience is over. END of rant.
mcondo
Like your Double Vax comment. 
LOL. False sense of security. BTW I am vaccinated and did spend a month in India. Very scary. 
If your friends are like mine, they would stream from their phone and jack around with me all night. 
15 plus years with SONOS….never had any issues. I have 11 SONOS speakers including 2 surround bars and 3 subwoofers throughout my home. Great app interface with many streaming partners and radio stations to choose from and equally adept at playing different music in each zone. 
I used to run airplay and it drove from fkn nuts.  Have not used it in years and my life is better for it.  Had a friend who had some problems and I told him to can the airplay and he did and he thanked me.  Sonos is a good suggestion for simple strait forward and reliable although there nodes don't have a good a rep for SQ.  Lots of other options as well like Bluesound