Introducing Qsonix Remote Pro for iPad
Since Qsonix's beginnings, our Graphic User Interface has been considered one of the industry's best, most intuitive, and most complete GUIs.
Introducing Qsonix Remote Pro for iPad, a free app that improves upon the best music management experience available. Now, any Wi-Fi enabled home environment can enjoy the flexibility and convienience of the Qsonix graphical user interface using one or more iPads as wireless remote touchscreen controllers. The best is now even better!
All key playback and playlist management capabilities of the powerful Qsonix GUI are now available with the freedom of the iPad and includes ultra-fast new album art browsing and flexible new play-now, play next, play later controls for individual tracks, albums and playlists.
Qsonix channel partners and users will quickly see that the very best features and capabilities of our award-winning touchscreen user experience have been implemented and expanded for iPad enjoyment.
Control Your Qsonix System with ease using new Qsonix Remote Pro for iPad
- Super High-speed visual browsing by album art
- Browse by Artist, Album, Genre, Style, Year or Decade
- Flexible new queuing/playback functions for tracks, albums or playlists
- All playback controls and volume controls such as Play, Stop, Next, Previous
- Independent controls of all available output/zones
- Auto-discovery of Qsonix Music Management Systems
- Instant playback of playlists, artists, albums or individual tracks
- Drag-and-drop editing of current play queue order
- Compatibility with all Qsonix models
Getting Started
Getting started is quick and easy. Follow these instructions:
- Confirm that your Qsonix system is running version 3.4 or greater Qsonix firmware. You can do this by going to the Tools / Information tab of your system and viewing the version information.
- Confirm that your iPad is connected to a WiFi network that is the same network/subnet that your Qsonix is connected to.
- Install the “Qsonix Remote Pro” app from the Apple app store.
- Launch the Remote Pro App on your iPad.
- If everything is working properly, the app will automatically detect your Qsonix server and show it as an icon complete with system name, model # and IP address. (see auto-discovery screenshot above)
- To begin, simply press on the Qsonix Server icon that you want to control and it will connect and launch the main application within 5-10 seconds.
- You can now freely browse you music library, select tracks or albums to play, specify which output/zone you want to control and manage the Now Playing list.
- If you are having trouble connecting to your Qsonix view the Network Troubleshooting section below.
Using Qsonix Remote Pro
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The Qsonix Remote Pro app shares a similar layout to the Qsonix touchscreen interface with several new concepts and improvements, including room to add exciting new features and depth. The illustration above highlights the main user-interface elements which are described briefly below.
Home – This button will always return you to the main full screen view of your library, showing albums using the cover thumbnail view.
Album Browser – The album browser is the main interface for browsing your album collection. You can use the “flick” left or right gesture on the iPad to quickly scroll through your collection. The alpha sorter can also aid in quickly navigating to another part of your library alphabetically. Tap on any album cover to enter the “Album Details” view, where you are able to view and queue the tracks and other details of the album.
Album Details View –
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The album details view allows you to see more details about the album and to queue individual tracks or the entire album. Tap on any track to bring up the track queuing menu, or tap on the play button located to the lower right of the album cover to bring up the album queuing menu.
Press the next or previous arrow buttons to browse to the next or previous album in the currently selected “filter” e.g. artist, genre, year
Tapping on the album cover itself will open a large view of the cover art.
History – The Remote Pro app introduces a new History system that works similarly to the history function of your web browser, making it faster and easier to quickly traverse through your recent viewing experience by going backward or forward. One import note, is that the system only treats certain items or views as history, specifically, items selected using the filter menu such as Artist, Genre, or Year and is limited to 20 items of history.
Playlists –
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The playlists button will pop-up a separate panel that allows you to view and scroll (flick) through any playlists that have been created/saved on your Qsonix system. Tapping on any playlist name will open the Queuing pop-up allowing you to play your playlist with several choices including:
Play Now – Immediately plays the playlist without changing the current playlists. The named playlist will be inserted into the play queue at the current location and begin playback immediately.
Play Next – Will queue the playlist to begin playing after the current track has finished. This also does not change the current play queue but inserts this playlist after the current track.
Play Later – Will add this playlist to the end of the current play queue and does not change the current playback or play queue items.
Clear and Play – This will clear the current play queue and immediately begin playback of the selected playlist.
System menu – Pressing this button will take you to the system menu where you can manage the ipad album cover cache, connect to another server, get general information or exit the app.
Cover Art Cache Management – Remote Pro uses an intelligent caching mechanism to store a copy of each of the album covers in your music library. These files are stored in the iPad’s internal memory/disk system (like photos, music or videos) and dramatically increase the speed and performance of the application. The app will automatically cache (store) these images as necessary as you use the app, however you can use the “Populate Covers Cache” feature in the system menu to be sure that 100% of your albums are cached on the iPad. Depending upon library size and network conditions, this can take several minutes. Pressing the “Clear Cover Cache” will likewise delete all of the locally stored (cached) images. This can be useful if you need to free up storage space or re-cache your cover art.
Select Different Server – This button will return you to the opening screen where you are presented with all available Qsonix servers on your network. For those customers that own more than one Qsonix, this can be a useful way to change your remote control to manage a different system. The currently connected server IP address is noted above this button for reference.
Exit App – This button will immediately exit the Qsonix Remote Pro app and require restarting the app to use again.
Visit Qsonix.com – Quick link to the Qsonix.com website, where you can view current information, release notes and support information.
Clear Now Playing – This button is used to clear the current play queue just like the “Clear entire playlist” function of the systems touchscreen interface. This will NOT delete any media from the system, but will allow you to start a fresh play queue or playlist.
Remove Track – Use this button by selecting a track in the Now Playing queue (it will highlight in yellow) and then pressing the “Remove Track” button. This simply removes the selected track from the current play queue and does NOT delete media or alter saved playlists on the Qsonix server.
Edit Play Queue – Pressing this button will change you into “edit mode” where you can delete and re-arrange track order using the typical Apple IOS style of editing a list. You can press the  minus sign on the left which will offer the delete button to delete a track from the playlist. You can also grab any track using the  “knob” on the far right, to move the track up or down in the playlist to change play order. Press the “Finish Editing” button when you are happy with your changes.
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Select Output/Zone – Use this button to open the output selector menu, allowing you to specify the output/zone that you are currently controlling or operating on. This menu will show the zone names and colors as setup on the server. Simply tab the appropriate zone name and you will now be controlling that output. This menu will show any available internal or external (USB) audio output that is currently configured. Note: Remote Pro respects the “Enable/Disable” local volume control settings found on the server’s System/Output configuration tab. If local volume control is disabled on the server, Remote Pro will NOT show the volume controls functions (below).
Current Playing Track – The style and behavior of Now Playing area (Current Play Queue) of Remote Pro app works a bit differently than the Now Playing are of the server. Firstly, the currently playing track is now ALWAYS presented at the top of the list and is displayed in a larger style than the remaining tracks. Secondly, tracks that have already played are NO LONGER visible in the play queue, meaning that you are always looking at the current track and tracks remaining to play. YOU can of course use the “previous track” button to go back in history in the same way you can on the touchscreen interface. We plan to introduce a better way to view history when desired in a future app update.
Note: There are two basic ways to control what track is playing (NOT including all of the queuing options used on the left side of the GUI):
- Press & Hold any track for 1 second. If you press and hold a track (will highlight in yellow) for 1s, it will automatically begin playing that track immediately.
- Press Stop, Choose another track (highlights in yellow), Press Play, now the new track will begin playing.
- You can also tap the “current track” area and the browser will change to the album containing the track being played currently.
Now Playing Queue – The Now playing queue indicates the currently selected set of tracks to play in order from top to bottom. You can freely scroll (flick) through the list to see what’s coming up.
Volume / Mute Controls – These controls will only appear if the server’s System/Output settings have been configured to “allow local volume control”. When enabled, pressing this button will bring up the appropriate digital volume slider allowing adjustment of the servers volume. You can also access the “mute” button here. The volume slider will automatically disappear after a couple of seconds of inactivity.
Repeat Loop – Toggles between “Repeat On” and “Repeat Off”. When enabled, the current play queue to loop to the beginning when it reaches the end (continuous play mode)
Shuffle – This will shuffle the tracks in the current play queue without affecting the currently playing track. This can take several seconds especially with large playlists.
Playback Controls – The standard playback controls for Play, Pause, Stop, Next Track, Previous Track. These controls can be sensitive to network conditions, quality and speed. As they only indicate changes after receiving a state confirmation from the server. Rapid series of taps may have some delay before completing.
Toggle View – This button toggles between the currently available view modes, such as detailed single album view or thumbnail cover view.
Alpha Sorter – The alpha sorter works in the same manner as the touchscreen GUI and allows you to rapidly move alphabetically through the current view. Simply scroll to the letter you are interested in (e.g. Artist or Album title) and let up and the current view will immediately snap to the appropriate location in the library.
Filter / Select Media –
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Pressing this button brings up a separate “filter” window that allows you to select the mode such as “Artists”, “Genre” or “Year” by pressing the appropriate button at the bottom of the window. You will then be presented with a scrollable view of the selected item, such as artists, allowing you to display all of the albums by that artist. Same for Genres, Styles or Decades, Years. Simply select the mode you are interested in, then tap on the item you are interested in, and you will be presented with the album cover view of that item. Ex> Artist - >Al Green, will show all the albums you have by Al Green.
The number of items in your library is indicated, and you can also use the vertical alpha sorter to rapidly move through large lists.
Network Troubleshooting
If your server does not show up on the initial launch page, press the “Rescan” button to scan for servers again. This may be required occasionally based on network conditions.
If your server still does not appear, be sure that your iPad is properly connected to the proper wireless network by confirming settings and trying to browse the Internet.
You can confirm that your iPad and Qsonix system are on the same network by testing the iPad Web based remote control, by opening Safari on the iPad and entering the IP of your Qsonix system using the syntax of http://<your server IP>, ex: http://192.168.1.100. If this works then view our FAQ here.
If you need further assistance, you can contact us via our Technical Support page.
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