Set Up a Multi-Room Music System with Google Home

These days, Google can help you with just about anything you want to do, including things around the house. Thanks to Google Home, you can now control your connected home devices, access a wealth of information, and program specific routines. It’s a powerful system but it takes a bit of getting used to and some imagination to set it up in a way that works for you. Personally, I love music and one of my favourite things to do with Google Home is to use it as a multi-room speaker system. There are a few ways to accomplish this: using just Google Home or pairing it with other devices:

 

Just Google Home


If you want to keep things simple, you can lean on Google Home and Google Mini to set up a user-friendly multi-room system. Simply purchase Google Home or Google Mini devices for each of the rooms that you want to hear music in. Once you’ve outfitted all your rooms with the devices, you can create audio groups so that the rooms you want to play the music in work together. Setting up audio groups is easy with Google’s simple instructions. Once your groups have been set up, you can ask Google to play music on specific groups For example, I have a group set up for my master bedroom and en suite bathroom, called Master, so I can listen to music as I get ready in the morning. To do this, I simply say: “Hey Google, play my morning playlist on Master.”

 

Google Home and Chromecast


If you’re not familiar with Chromecast, it’s Google’s media player that allows you to cast from your phone to your TV or speakers. The Chromecast Media Player connects to your TV and allows you to push content, like videos, music, and games. Chromecast Audio is a similar device but connects to your speakers, allowing you to push audio content. This solution is perfect if you have a fantastic set of speakers that don’t offer a way to connect to your smart devices. Both are a great way to stream music from your device, whether you stream to a TV or a speaker. Not surprisingly, these devices also play nice with Google Home, which means you can use them as part of your multi-room speaker system. To do this, you’ll have to add them to your audio groups but once that’s done, they’ll work flawlessly as part of a multi-room setup.

 

Third-Party Speakers with Google Home


If you’re not too satisfied with the sound quality of the Google Home speaker line but don’t have an existing set of speakers, I recommend looking for a product that has Google Home and Chromecast built in. There are quite a few of these speakers making their way onto the market and they’re a great solution offering the best of both worlds. One speaker that I’m fond of in this category is the JBL LINK 10—it’s not too pricy, has a small footprint and offers great sound.

 

Setting up and using a third-party speaker with Google Home for a multi-room setup is similar to using just Google Home or Chromecast—you’ll have to set up groups and specify which group to play to when you’re asking Google to fire up your favourite playlist.

 

With these solutions in hand, Google Home can help you get a user-friendly multi-room speaker setup. The best part is that you can mix and match these solutions as you please—use just Google Home devices or pair them with Chromecast and third-party speakers.

 

By Mike Agerbo

May 08, 2018