Multi-room audio / receiver dies

[allwi]

After successfully exploring moode audio as a DLNA client for a while, I started to investigate the multi-room feature which is the end-goal for my home.

I configured one receiver and the sender as described in the setup instructions.
The sender is installed on a Pi4 and the receiver on a Pi3B (not B+).

I enabled the DLNA/UPnP client on the sender to be able to control the playback from a different client (phone or laptop).
A high-level arch looks like shown below:

Code:

                                                       +-------------+
                                                       |  MR Sender  |
                                                       | DLNA Client |
                                                       +-------------+
                                                              |
                                                              | Ethernet
                                                              |
+-------------+             +-------------+             +-------------+            +-------------+
|             | WiFi 2.4Ghz |             |  WiFi 5Ghz  |             |  Ethernet  |             |
| MR Receiver |-------------|  Satellite  |-------------|   Router    |------------| DLNA Server |
|             |             |             |             |             |            |             |
+-------------+             +-------------+             +-------------+            +-------------+
                                                              |
                                                              | WiFi 5Ghz
                                                              |
                                                       +-------------+
                                                       |  DLNA Ctrl  |
                                                       +-------------+

After I configured everything, I tried the setup and it worked beautifully
I configured the DLNA Ctrl app to access the DLNA server and play it to the DLNA client which is the MR Sender.
The music was played back on the MR receiver ... woohoo.

However when I let the system sit idle for a while the receiver "dies". I can still play songs to the MR server. I see on the MR server console that it plays the track but nothing comes out of the speakers of the MR receiver. However when I restart the MR receiver via the web console, suddenly the music starts to play.
I had a quick look in the logs via moodeutl -l and moodeutl -t but don't see anything which is useful for me.

What can I do to investigate this further or better to have this investigated further

The only difference between my setup and the multi-room setup guide which I saw after I compared the config a few times is that my MR receiver is connected via 2.4Ghz because the Pi3B does not support 5Ghz wifi.

[DRONE7]

Is there some power saving setting on the wifi sending device causing it to sleep when there is no activity ?

[Tim Curtis]

Connect the 3B receiver via Ethernet and see if the problem reoccurs.

[allwi]

Connect the 3B receiver via Ethernet and see if the problem reoccurs.

Thanks Tim, I didn't think about testing this but it shows the same behaviour.

I connected the 3B receiver via ethernet, disabled wifi, restarted the receiver software, rescanned the receivers on the MR sender and started the playback: all fine.
Then I stopped the playback, waited for some time and started the playback again (via the MR sender): No sound
Finally I restarted the receiver via the web UI and the sound's back.

Are there any logs I can check or tests I can run?

[Tim Curtis]

Very odd particularly since there is no WiFi involved.

In my home I have Receivers in Library, Kitchen and Media Room and no issues whatsoever other than the occasional audio glitch. The kitchen Receiver is a 3B and all the Receivers use Comfast CF-912AC WiFi adapter on 5GHz band.

Try the following:

1. Reboot the Receiver and post the Moode startup log and I'll have a look.

Code:

moodeutl -l

2. When you experience the issue check to see if Receiver daemon has crashed. The command below will print a line containing the process id and name of the process (rx) if it's still running otherwise it will print nothing if the process has crashed (not running).

Code:

pgrep -l rx

3. Check the Router logs to see if there are any errors or disconnects related to the particular Receiver that is experiencing the issue.
4. Check Router configuration settings that may affect Multicast IP

[allwi]

Oh ... how embarrassing 

When I read the multi-room setup instructions, I read the router requirement for multicast but because I didn't find anything in my router, and multiroom was working initially, I ignored and forgot out it.
After I read your checklist, I looked in more detail into the router setup and found the setting Disable IGMP Proxying which was enabled. According to some websites this relates to multicast.
When I disabled the "disable" setting aka enabled IGMP proxying, multiroom playback works reliably.

Many thanks for your patience!

btw - Any thoughts on running a Pi as UPnP client and MR receiver at the same time? 
The idea is to have the option to use either multiroom audio or to send different audio directly to the different receivers (aka rooms). A quick test seemed to work but I was wondering if the two services may create conflicts over time.

[Tim Curtis]

I'll add that tip to the Setup Guide.

The Receiver daemon hogs the audio output so I'm not clear on what you mean by "running a Pi as a UPnP client and MR Receiver at same time".