Not a mackie issue - AirPlay disconnecting

[JohnMHoyt]

I use our ipad to play break music, which streams to our Apple airport express, which has its audio output run to the dl32r.

Been working well for years, but lately, it’s been disconnecting randomly or taking a lot longer to connect.

Seems to be after applying the latest iOS...

Anyone else seeing this? 

[dpdan]

Hi John ,
I am using iOS 12.4.1 and don't have that issue...
I also have one additional Airport Express router with me at all times and an Airport Extreme.
You may have an Express that is going out.
   

[JohnMHoyt]

Hi John ,
I am using iOS 12.4.1 and don't have that issue...
I also have one additional Airport Express router with me at all times and an Airport Extreme.
You may have an Express that is going out.
 

Tried another router, so I don't think that is the issue.   It seems to be affecting only my iPads with 12.4x on it.  The one iphone that is on 11.x still has no trouble... hrmmm   but I don't want to use that phone, as it's one more device to keep on stage and charged, etc

[dpdan]

hmmmm

[JohnMHoyt]

I tried disabling bluetooth like was suggested on a long thread of people having similar issues.   It seems to connect much faster, but, after my band played a set, and it was time to start some break music - yep, it had disconnected again.
None of the iPads are disconnecting on wifi, we never lose our Mackie connection, just the airplay connection goes away.

Last week, it stopped playing the break music in the middle of a song when it disconnected... which was unfortunate because people were dancing and I was in the bathroom - embarrassing.

[dpdan]

I do not know what could be your problem..... you could try using your iPhone for the break music. If it has no problems losing connection then indeed it is your iPads running 12.4.1
but all my iPads are running 12.4.1 and I do not have that issue at all.
Weird...

[JohnMHoyt]

At a wedding a few weeks back, I had our sax player sync up and play the requested songs on his iphone and it had no problem either.

My fingers are fat and getting the songs queued up in time so there is no dead air is hard on the iPhone. sigh.

Maybe this new OS will fix my problems...   Wonder if MF will work well on it.

[WK154]

I think you are overlooking a lot of other reasons that your iPad can loose connection over time. Overcrowding of the airwaves is the most common especially with a unit long in the tooth. Not knowing the version of equipment leaves me guessing but the Airport Express is long overdue for replacement if you are looking for reliability in a more crowded environment. The a/b/g/n version is two versions behind the current routers and that is the 3rd generation and last  Airport Express version. Streaming music has its own issues and proprietary protocols such as Airplay leave a lot of unanswered questions as well. l would suggest going with a current V5 Bluetooth approach. You will find a lot of outdated material on the Internet on Bluetooth  that is misleading. I am using  Bluetooth V5 units that are low latency AptX with 24bit 96Khz which is clearly overkill for what you need.The range on these are 100M (330 ft.) just like WiFi and with a far more robust protocol than IP/UDP which Airplay is based on.  Its easy enough to test this by playing break music in a frequency quiet location and I bet it will play just fine without disconnects. Tomorrow you could also try iPadOS13 to see if that would also solve your problem or make it worse. Understand that iPhones are using a more current version of WiFi most likely WiFi5 (ac) or WiFi6 (ax) unlike Airport Express WiFi4 (n).

[JohnMHoyt]

I think you are overlooking a lot of other reasons that your iPad can loose connection over time. Overcrowding of the airwaves is the most common especially with a unit long in the tooth. Not knowing the version of equipment leaves me guessing but the Airport Express is long overdue for replacement if you are looking for reliability in a more crowded environment. The a/b/g/n version is two versions behind the current routers and that is the 3rd generation and last  Airport Express version. Streaming music has its own issues and proprietary protocols such as Airplay leave a lot of unanswered questions as well. l would suggest going with a current V5 Bluetooth approach. You will find a lot of outdated material on the Internet on Bluetooth  that is misleading. I am using  Bluetooth V5 units that are low latency AptX with 24bit 96Khz which is clearly overkill for what you need.The range on these are 100M (330 ft.) just like WiFi and with a far more robust protocol than IP/UDP which Airplay is based on.  Its easy enough to test this by playing break music in a frequency quiet location and I bet it will play just fine without disconnects. Tomorrow you could also try iPadOS13 to see if that would also solve your problem or make it worse. Understand that iPhones are using a more current version of WiFi most likely WiFi5 (ac) or WiFi6 (ax) unlike Airport Express WiFi4 (n).

No overcrowding at all... According to my service monitor and spectrum analyzer, nothing interfering with the wireless where I am now (I even powered down my own 3 Ubiquiti access points and dropped the noise floor to nothing) -

It's random - I had it working for hours here the other day, then today, I switched between MF and back to the music player and it disconnected from the airport for streaming, but wifi never dropped to that iPad.

I guess I can switch to a bluetooth player, but it's just odd that this has worked absolutely perfectly for years - then new IOS and boom, random disconnects.

Honestly, I'm afraid to try the new iPad OS before an important weekend with two shows, so I might have to wait.  Though - really, could it be worse than it is now?

Devices I'm using and status:

iPad Air 2 w/12.4.1 - random disconnects from airplay - none on wifi - I use this on stage for my own monitor mix and to stream music from - this is no more than 12 feet from the Airport, clear line of sight

iPad Pro 12" w/12.4.1 - random disconnects from airplay - none on wifi - main mixer for FOH - have tried it to stream music from when we have a sound person

iPad 2 w/9.3.5 - never tried - we use these for monitor mixes for the band members, we have a couple, but usually only have one active

iPhone 7 Plus - IOS 12.2 - this works flawlessly for streaming via airplay so far.  As did our sax players iPhone.

I am feeling this is an IOS 12x issue with iPads only.

I'll look for a bluetooth adapter I bought a while back - Lord knows what I did with it =)

[JohnMHoyt]

I found the logitech BT adapter and have it up and running right now. 
Bonus - it AUTOMATICALLY connects every time I power up the system - I don't have to manually select an Airplay device.

BUT - it makes a bluetooth connection and disconnection sound, sooooooo that will be annoying in the mains and IEMs if we don't have it muted at startup time etc.

Will give this a shot.

[JohnMHoyt]

I keep replying to myself. heh

I'm installing iPadOS 13.1 on our iPad Pro 12" - will see if this fixes this problem or creates new ones!

[WK154]

Reminds me of my Sony Walkman that liked to beep for every new song. There are BT units available without these sound effects.The info so far doesn't include the most important part that is giving you the problem. Apple had three versions of the Airport Express with some mayor differences with the last version. Is it MC414LL/A ? As to Bluetooth your iPad Air 2 and Pro both have BT V4.2 but your Logitech BT is V3. It's OK but 4.2 or 5 would be better. The iPad's unfortunately have a limited Apple codecs choice but for break music should suffice. The thing to avoid is double compressing such as using MP3 files to play via Bluetooth on a iPad using AAC. A lossless source file send over BT would be best such as ALAC or FLAC. I am using a pair of BlitzWolf transmitter/receivers with aptX HD codec but my need was for distance and quality. This is overkill for break music. I would have suggested using a iPad that was not needed for loading iPadOS13 and not for your upcoming gigs. I see that you took the plunge, good luck.

[JohnMHoyt]

Reminds me of my Sony Walkman that liked to beep for every new song. There are BT units available without these sound effects.The info so far doesn't include the most important part that is giving you the problem. Apple had three versions of the Airport Express with some mayor differences with the last version. Is it MC414LL/A ? As to Bluetooth your iPad Air 2 and Pro both have BT V4.2 but your Logitech BT is V3. It's OK but 4.2 or 5 would be better. The iPad's unfortunately have a limited Apple codecs choice but for break music should suffice. The thing to avoid is double compressing such as using MP3 files to play via Bluetooth on a iPad using AAC. A lossless source file send over BT would be best such as ALAC or FLAC. I am using a pair of BlitzWolf transmitter/receivers with aptX HD codec but my need was for distance and quality. This is overkill for break music. I would have suggested using a iPad that was not needed for loading iPadOS13 and not for your upcoming gigs. I see that you took the plunge, good luck.

The Airport Express I am currently is A1392, though I tried my my older one as well, which I cannot find right now to give you the version, but it was from when I first got a Mackie DL1608, whenever that came out.
I have the latest firmware on them that they will take.

They worked fine up until a month back when the new IOS came out.  Previously they were both slow to connect to AirPlay from any iPad, taking 5-6 seconds, and sometimes reverting back to the iPad's sound.
But after IOS 12x, it was taking 10-15 seconds sometimes to connect and also taking one to 4 tries to get it to stay connected.
Then randomly disconnecting during playback, making them totally unreliable to play music for cutting the cake etc.

I'm already having to keep up with 3-4 devices to charge, I don't really want to add another one to cover what I have been doing fine for years.

So the bluetooth adapter is working well, a little laggy, but not bad - at least it never disconnected, and the bonus if it connecting as soon as the power is applied without me having to do so as I always had to do with the AirPlay is NICE... LOVELY in fact.

I tried researching a better Bluetooth adapter that would give me the latest standard, and NOT make connection noise, but I cannot find one...

iPadOS 13 seems MUCH faster btw in switching between my music player and the Mackie MF.   So far, so good....    If something should go wrong, we do have old iPads on standby  8-)
I'll let you all know what happens after this weekend (two gigs, a rehearsal, recording a video all in the next 4 days)

Appreciate the input btw!

[JohnMHoyt]

This one seems like it could be a winner - according to questions/answers, no beep at connection/disconnection?

Any thoughts?

https://www.amazon.com/BluDento-Bluetooth-Receiver-Internal-Streaming/dp/B07BKXP326

[dpdan]

I use this BT receiver for people who need to connect to my system at wedding receptions etc.... It's stereo too, and pairs quickly and reliably, it also has XLR and 1/4" outputs.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1484041-REG/galaxy_audio_jib_bt8r_stereo_portable_bluetooth_audio.html