Soundtouch 20 and Airplay 2?

[Frenzy McFly]

Hi 
I am one of the customers hanving an SoundTouch 20 (1:st gen) with Airplay support. Reading your explanation that only those speakers with bluetooth will get Airplay2 support make me confused. My speaker obviously was capable of Airplay, and as you are well aware of that Apple just updated their discontinued Airport Express. A product over 6 years old! Surely that Airport Express isnt more capable than your Soundtouch 20, a product that is newer and cost four times more than the AirPortExpress.  Can you give me a reasonble answer to why you can´t update the first gen SoundTouch 20? 

[Greg_B]

Hello Frenzy,

It's a matter of timing and product development timelines. When we initially released SoundTouch in 2013 we built in Airplay capability according to Apple's specification. Fast forward a few generations of SoundTouch to the Series III. When those were in development, Airplay 2 had yet to be announced. We made some hardware changes to take advantage of then-current advances in networking technology. This significantly upgraded the capability of SoundTouch products, adding Bluetooth among other things. Then Airplay 2 was announced last year and our existing SoundTouch Series III meets the technical specifications to accommodate the feature via firmware update coming in 2019.  That's the long version.

The short version is that all SoundTouch products with the necessary hardware to receive Bluetooth will also be updated to Airplay 2. All those without are not able to receive the update because the hardware and firmware contained in the original systems were designed to Apple's original Airplay specification. 

I hope that helps. If you have any other questions, please let us know!

Best Regards,

Greg - Community Support

[DJDavidD]

This is a good explanation. Is there anyway you can let us know which hardware is able to support AirPlay 2? I have ST10 speakers and a SB300 and sub. Will those work? Any specific way we can check our hardware if there are multiple versions?

Thanks

[Joel_D]

Hi DJDavidD,

Thank you for the questions.

The SoundTouch systems that will have the capability for Airplay 2 are the ones with Bluetooth. 

The SoundTouch 10's and SoundTouch 300 are included in that list.

Best Regards,

Joel - Community Support

[DJDavidD]

Awesome - thanks Joel!

[Joel_D]

Hi DJDavidDm

You're welcome, let us know if you have any other questions.

Warm Regards,

Joel 

[Carro]

Hi there. Do you have and ETA for the 2019 AirPlay 2 firmware’s?

Regards

[Wgw]

What about SA-4 amplifiers? Will they get AirPlay 2?

[Tony_A]

Hi Carro,

No updates currently for Airplay 2 with our SoundTouch systems just yet, but we'll be sure to make an announcement on the Community as soon as we hear anything. 

Warm Regards,

Tony A 

[Tony_A]

Hi Wgw,

Thanks for posting on the Community!

The SA-4 will not receive an update for Airplay 2 because it does not have the required hardware for it.  

Warm Regards,

Tony A