Most of our customers have a tough time grasping the idea of streaming media without the internet.  At home, we are used to receiving our music from Spotify or Apple Music, and our movies from Netflix and Pay-Per-View with the luxury of high-speed internet.  But what do we do when we don’t have a reliable internet connection?  Well, we have to stay local.  Instead of receiving our media from online services, we have to download it and store it locally.

Where do I store all my tunes?

The easiest place to store music is on a digital device that your already may own.  Your smartphone (Android, iOS), a tablet (iPad, etc), or a computer are all compatible with most of our systems.  With the music stored on you device you will have the ability to send the media wirelessly using the built-in technology of Airplay or Chromecast.  The video to the right is an example of how easy it is to send music from your iPhone to any Airplay compatible device.

I don’t want to take up space

What if you don’t want to take up all of that space on your phone or tablet, just for music?  Let’s say you have thousands of iTunes songs and another few hundred CDs.  This amount of data would take up valuable space (on your phone and your boat!).  One of our favorite products is our NAS hard drive with Plex media server built-in.  This enclose, taking up the space of about 10 DVD cases, can literally hold over a million songs!  Once all of the music is stored on the NAS hard drive anyone with permission can access and play music from their own personal device in their own personal space on the yacht.

How do I replace my existing equipment

One of the most popular systems that we find on yachts is a Bose Lifestyle surround sound with multiple zone amplifiers (models SA-2 or SA-3).  On a system like this you need an amplifier and a zone remote control (PMC-2) to control each audio zone.  The remote controls work on RF technology, so if they don’t have a clear connection, they don’t work.  The space wasting amplifiers each take up about the size of a loaf of bread.  But they are installed because they do not rely on the internet, have a CD/DVD player built in, and have small speakers.  

Solution: The VSSL audio system is an all in one amplifier and WiFi media streamer. One component sized module allows you to control up to 6 zones independently.  VSSL uses Airplay and Chromecast media streaming allowing any operating system to control the music in the respective audio zone.  It also has an RCA output to go into the existing Bose Lifestyle (or any other brand) system to bring all of your music to the salon. 

Let’s bring this to a real world scenario:  It’s a perfect evening.  You and two other couples just finished dinner in downtown Newport and decide to go back to the boat for a nightcap on the deck.  Your kids are down below with the babysitter watching a movie in the salon and you have no intention of bothering them.  Time for some music!  Your boat has a dedicated iPad loaded up with a couple thousand of your favorite music albums.  Simply open your Music app, press the Airplay button (see video above) on the app, and select “Deck” as an option.  Boom!  Your Smooth Jazz playlist is now playing though your deck speakers.  You have complete control of the volume and music selection.

Now your wife is tired and is ready for bed, but the rest of the deck party is not over.  She goes down to the state room with her phone which has her own favorite tunes loaded up.  Nothing helps her sleep better than listening to her favorite Yanni playlist.  She opens her music app, navigates to the Yanni Playlist, and sends it to the “Stateroom” speakers.  Without disturbing the deck party, she has independent control over her music in her room.  Everyone is happy!