Audio Video News

Roon Labs has announced that its subscription-based music management software now supports streaming from Chromecast devices.

Audio-only devices such as Google Home, Google Home Mini, Google Home Max, and Chromecast Audio now automatically appear in Roon’s Settings screen under the Audio tab and support gapless playback of high-resolution music (up to 96kHz/24-bit) from Roon. On video-enabled Chromecast devices such as Chromecast Ultra, Roon also displays album artwork, artist photos, and track information in addition to audio.

Roon supports grouped playback on Chromecast devices via the Google Home app. Users can set up groups of devices, which appear as additional audio devices in Roon alongside network players and other hardware devices.

“So for example, you could group a few Chromecasts into a “Whole House” or “Living Room + Patio” zone, enable them as separate Zones in Roon, then play to them freely,” the company explained.

Standard Chromecast controls also work when using Google hardware. “This means that Android devices display Play/Pause controls in your notifications, and both Android and iOS devices offer transport controls via the Google Home app,” Roon said.

The Chromecast update also includes bug fixes and improvements to other protocols Roon supports, including Sonos playback, AirPlay 2 compatibility, LMS discovery, and Devialet AIR on Expert Pro. The updated software now also incorporates the latest version of the MQA Core Decoder and improves the way Roon handles partial albums from Tidal so users can find complete albums from Tidal tracks that have been added to the system.