I’ve written about AirTunes in the past. Since late 2004, I’ve played with Apple’s wireless audio technology as a feature of iTunes and the Airport Express. I never tried it in concert with Apple TV, but for a couple years, I enjoyed three separate zones of home audio using two AirPort Expresses and a Mac mini. In the context of offering a solution for simple music playback across the home, it has always been a great solution.

For those who don’t know, AirTunes lets people stream music from any computer running iTunes to any AirTunes receiver located on the same local-area network. So you could have AirTunes receivers (up until now, only the AirPort Express and Apple TV), in any number of rooms in your house, and using iTunes, or an app from Apple called Remote, control what music is sent where. Users could then listen to music from any audio system plugged into either of their AirTunes devices, which presented basic line-level audio signals.

Well, today was a big day. Widely reported elsewhere, Apple announced a host of new products in their latest keynote address (new iPods, new Apple TV, iTunes 10, and an iOS 4.2 preview). Layered into the announcement was the fact that AirTunes has now been “re-branded” as part of a larger wireless media feature-set from Apple, newly dubbed AirPlay, which also encompasses video and photo sending around the home.

The AirPlay story is embellished by their website and press release, and is the feature most relevant to wirelessaudioblog readers. Apple announced that AirPlay speakers and audio systems will soon be available from third-party manufacturers. iHome, Denon, Marantz, JBL, and Bowers & Wilkins are all now readying systems that will use AirPlay to receive audio from a user’s iTunes library, and when iOS 4.2 releases later this year, receive audio directly from many hundreds of millions of portable audio players. (!!!)

After working in the wireless audio category for 6 years, it’s gratifying to see the technology get situated for wide-spread adoption. The fact is, the Apple team is a band of user-experience aficionados, but as we all also know, they are commercially brilliant as well. So there is finally real hope that more people will realize some of the promises of wireless audio for multi-room home audio networking. By opening up AirPlay to third party accessory makers, Apple opens the door for more affordable, lifestyle focused product concepts to reach the masses. For product makers that have been wrestling with existing wireless audio technologies – home-grown wireless audio solutions (i.e. Logitech, Sonos), RF ASIC-based solutions from STS or Avnera (Klipsch, Panasonic, Sony, Best Buy) – AirPlay is offered as a technology solution that not only has Apple’s robust wireless audio protocol inside, but also the promise of Apple’s market-making, 3rd party developer support. The accompanying marketing platform is composed of strong messaging from Apple and a huge installed-base of complimentary AirPlay products, i.e. Apple’s iTunes, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch…

Readers of wirelessaudioblog know I work in product development now at iHome. One of our most exciting projects this year has been designing and developing our first AirPlay speaker. Apple’s technology enables us to deliver a product that is uniquely wireless, uniquely AirPlay, and particularly beneficial to existing iPod, iPhone, iPad customers, i.e. iTunes users. The iHome AirPlay wireless speaker will reach the market this holiday season, and it offers consumers the ability to send iTunes audio to any room of the house, multiple rooms of the house, and control it all with Apple’s Remote app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

I’m really excited to see AirPlay mature in this way, because it’s always been an impressive, promising take on wireless audio. Now Apple has put the full commitment of their third-party hardware developer support team behind it. This should keep things really interesting, and I’m actually really looking forward to see what other device-makers have planned.