Mounting an Android or iOS tablet on the wall, provides customers the ultimate experience for controlling their multi-room audio. But what if you want your tablet to only be able to control the specific room it is located in? Or even a specific room using a specific source?
Configuring the CasaTunes App settings is often overlooked by integrators, yet it can offer a simple way to customize the behavior of the App to better suit your customer’s needs.
To access the CasaTunes App Settings, you can either access them from the CasaTunes App or from the Apple Settings App. To access them from the CasaTunes App, select Menu > Settings > App Settings.
Keep in mind the settings below only affect the device you are configuring.
In the CasaTunes App Settings, if you scroll down to the ADVANCED SETTINGS section you will find the following settings can be configured:
Select Sources - This setting will enable or disable the Select Source option from being displayed in the menu options. Sources tend to be a source (pun intended) of confusion for customers, so sometimes it can be better to assign a single specific source to a room. Also keep in mind there are several ways to filter sources. If there is only a single source available (ie. one non-hidden source), then CasaTunes automatically hides the menu option to select a source. In addition, using CasaSetup > Advanced Settings, you can assign specific sources for each room, and you can assign specific music services to specific sources, or even explicitly assign a single music service to a specific source.
Select Rooms - This setting enables or disables the Select Rooms option from being displayed in the menu. When this option is disabled, customers cannot change the current room using the CasaTunes App. This is desirable when you want to dedicate a specific control device to control a specific room. Also, when you disable the Select Rooms option it will also disable the Group Rooms menu option (since Group Rooms provides a way to change the current room which is undesirable when this setting is disabled).
Using these two settings we can configure a tablet device to control a specific room using a specific source. First, select the room and then select the source for the room, then in the App Settings for the tablet device disable Select Rooms and disable Select Sources and your tablet will be locked to the room and source you selected. If you plan to use AirPlay or SpotifyConnect in the room, then you must also configure the room in CasaSetup to only use the selected source.
Finally, there are a few additional settings I would like to discuss that were recently added to the iOS App. These are Display Settings, Enable Shared Volume Controls and Display Menu on Room Name Press.
The Display Settings option will enable or disable the Settings option from being displayed in the menu options. If you want to prevent customers from changing the CasaTunes Settings you can disable this option, however, we recommend you first enable password protection for your CasaTunes Settings and then disable this option. This way, even if the customer re-enables the Display Settings option they will still be unable to access the CasaTunes Settings unless they have access to the password. In addition, unlike configuring ADVANCED SETTINGS, setting a password for your CasaTunes settings is enforced across all devices (not just the device you are currently using) and is the recommended way to lock down your CasaTunes settings.
If you are currently in a room, and you want to listen to the same music in other rooms, you can simply select Group Rooms from the menu and check those rooms you want to share the music with. We call this creating an ad hoc room group. If Enable Shared Volume Controls is checked, and you press the volume button in the App, then CasaTunes will display the volume for all rooms in the ad hoc group, as well as a master volume for conveniently changing the volume for all rooms in the ad hoc group at the same time. Unchecking this option, allows customers to be able to only change the volume for the current room.
When you press on the room and/or source name in the App header, CasaTunes either displays a menu similar to the menu items found when you press on the tray button (if Display Menu on Room Name Press is checked), or it will allow you to quickly select a different room by displaying the list of rooms to pick from (if Display Menu on Room Name Press is not checked).
By using these App Settings you can customize the behavior of the CasaTunes App for your customers.
