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3A Concept

3A is basically a concept and you are free to choose any number of the used components or exchange them for any other of your choice. Be aware though, not fully sticking to the concept will probably not give you all the 3A benefits. But feel free to do you whatever you like and mix and match until you're happy with it, because that's our ultimate goal.

Design goals

3A is based on a number of design goals which must be fitted and anchored into the concept.

  • Flexible - use any modules you like, don't use the modules you don't like
  • Convenient and easy to use - should be operated by a moderate knowledgeable computer person
  • High quality - reach high end
  • Scalable - in storage capacity, number of clients, etc.
  • Extensible - add new functions easily
  • Robust - (user) fault tolerant

How does it work?

To get an idea how the 3A concept works, some explanation in a nutshell. Some might say, each part in the concept does already exist. While that may true, we truly believe that combining all those different elements into one architecture, this can give you a positive value of enjoying your music!

  • On a PC client a CD will be ripped, encoded and tagged
  • File format is lossless (flac) which means that not a bit is lost
  • Files are stored on a dedicated server
  • Tag information (artist, album, songs, genre, etc.) is stored in the lossless file
  • All files are stored centrally an a dedicated file server, so all files (lossless and lossy) are always available.
  • The server checks for new lossless files or change of tag information
  • Changed lossless files are automatically translated or transcoded to a lossless variant (mp3, ogg, etc.)
  • Music playing through dedicated streaming hardware: Squeezebox
  • Music playing through dedicated streaming software: SoftSqueeze
  • Music playing through file sharing and generic audio software at choice like iTunes, WinAmp and the like.
  • Music files for a portable audio player, can be copied from the server through a PC client
  • Files are backed up on a external backup device

Components within the concept

PC client

A PC is used as a client to perform several different tasks: ripping, encoding and tagging (RET) of audio files, listening to an audio stream or to gain access to files from the repository. All these tasks can be done from one PC (laptop or desktop), but also, tasks can be distributed among multiple PC's.

Ripping, encoding and tagging (RET). The followings task takes place: ripping (extracting data from CD), encoding (translate extracted data to a useable audio format) and tagging (give the audio file some useful information, metadata, in the form as tags; typically, information about artist, album en track titles are the most important tags). Music files are encoded lossless, so no information is lost. Disadvantage of this technique is that files occupy much disk space; nowadays, with huge disks (300 GB) for a reasonable price (e. 100,-), that's hardly a problem. For the ripping part, we make use from state-of-the-art software to extract the maximum from each CD; see implementation for details. Encoded files are stored automatically onto the dedicated audio server.

Listening. The audio stream must be listened to with a dedicated software based streaming client.

Gain access to files from the repository. From PC clients, connected to the dedicated audio server, audio files from the repositories can be accessed to play them directly with generic software like Windows Media Player, WinAmp and others. Also, files can be downloaded to portable audio players, presumably in a lossy format.

Dedicated audio server

On the server server all music files, both lossless and lossy are stored, so (general) file serving is it's first task. Because of this, the server is also usable for storing any other file like photo's or word processing documents.

The server also has the task for transcoding lossless (flac) audio files into a lossy format (mp3 or ogg). This transcoding takes place automatically and on-the-fly: as soon as a lossless file is placed as a result of a rip action or changed, that file will be transcoded, preserving all existing tag information.

The server has software for streaming (lossless) audio files to a streaming client, both hardware and software.

Dedicated hardware based streaming client

This is typically a single piece of hardware which is capable of processing a stream of music.On the client, querying takes place on the server. Then, the dedicated streaming client receives an audio stream from the server. The audio stream is offered to an existing audio setup.

 

External digital/analog converter

It's possible to connect dedicated hardware based streaming client directly to your audio set, because it has a built in digital/analog converter (DAC). Though it's sufficient in most cases, quality level can be further enhanced to any thinkable level which means high end, by using an external DAC.

Network

A network is needed to connect al these different components to each other.

Implementation

If you want to see the way we have currently implemented this concept, see implementation.

Advanced Audio Architecture