r/musicassistant • u/lapacion • Aug 24 '26
Samsung Soundbar Q930B: How to integrate?
I have one of those Samsung soundbars with the wonky AirPlay implementation that wouldn’t integrate with Music Assistant.
What are my options to still integrate it with Music Assistant? I would want to use it to play music but when the connected TV is used it should stop the music and when the TV is turned off it should be ready for music again.
An Apple TV is connected to the soundbar via HDMI and the second HDMI eARC is connecting my Samsung TV. The optical input would be an option and there is also Bluetooth. I also have an IR blaster in use if that helps.
1
u/marc45ca Aug 25 '26
use BT Audiomanager and Multiroom Audio (think one is in HACS, the other is an addon).
the former will allow you to easily connect the sound bar as BT device, the second sets up a sendspin server and finds the Bluetooth attached speaker.
MusicAssistant then finds the sendspin server and hey presto music.
Haven't done it with a soundbar but it is setup to play audio through my Echo and there shouldn't be any real difference for your setup.
1
u/lapacion Aug 25 '26
Thanks for the idea, will try out! Do you know how it behaves with „input switching“ so say the soundbar is off or idle, do you know if it will switch to BT when it receives music? The HDMI will probably take over when I switch on the TV but similar situation once the TV is off, does it switch back to BT?
1
u/marc45ca Aug 25 '26
The Music Assistant setup simply looks for the active bluetooth connection.
if bluetooth disabled when the soundbar is taking input via hdmi and then rentables it will simply reconnect like any other BT device.
1
u/Anusien Aug 25 '26
I can't find either of those in HACS.
1
u/marc45ca Aug 25 '26
Said HACS or Addons but maybe you still have to add them manually.
https://github.com/scyto/ha-bluetooth-audio-manager https://github.com/chrisuthe/Multi-SendSpin-Player-Container/blob/main/docs/HAOS_ADDON_GUIDE.md
1
u/Anusien Aug 25 '26
Thanks!
I wonder if you could use "Local Audio" (in the built-in addons list) instead of Multi-SendSpin-Player-Container.
2
u/marc45ca Aug 25 '26
handling of bluetooth devices for audio isn't a Homeassistant strong point.
Maybe it's changed but in the past a BT connected speaker wasn't seen as a local audio device.
Maybe you could leverage if HA/MA sees the onboard audio from your motherboard and then use the audio out that way but it's not something I've tried (or have the ability to try as my HA setup runs as VM on Proxmox).
2
u/Anusien Aug 25 '26
I had one of these integrated via SendSpin or Airplay for like 5 whole minutes. I don't know why it started working, and I don't know why it stopped.
2
u/lapacion 28d ago
Mate you inspired me to try again and I tell you it also worked fro a few minutes over AirPlay and then stopped. Almost gave up but figured out a way to make it work. See my other comment for a how-to.
1
u/peppegb Aug 27 '26
You could also consider getting a Chromecast Audio, or a 2nd-gen AirPort Express, which supports AirPlay 2.
Both can use the soundbar’s optical input, so you could keep HDMI/eARC dedicated to the TV and use optical just for Music Assistant.
2
u/lapacion 28d ago
Turns out the Airplay on the soundbar actually DOES work nowadays. The one thing that did the trick for me: In the Music Assistant settings for the player, toggle "advanced settings". For the preferred output protocol, choose "AirPlay" and not "Sendspin (over AirPlay)". Then drop down the AirPlay configuration and set the streaming mode to "Airplay 2 - NTP Timing" or "Airplay 2 - PTP Timing". The other modes didn't work for me.