I find this type of authentic, no spin communication from @volumio really refreshing. Regular updates, open and honest about issues faced and mistakes made and learnt from. This is precisely what I would want to hear from a growing organisation that is facing the complexity of a maturing service, whilst still fully engaged with the diverse expectations and sometimes frustrations of the community that it serves.
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March 18 2022
This has been a good week here at Volumio HQ. The main reason for that is that we somehow feel that we’ve managed to turn around the “bad climate” that we had in this community lately and re-establish the joyful vibe that we strive to cultivate in this place of the net.
We reckon that the release of Volumio 3 hasn’t been without issues: many people were frustrated by a couple of nasty bugs (which we solved) and the lack of plugins in V3. This meant that the community was filled with angry comments by users (and the famous vocal unhappy minority), which were expressing frustration about those issues. This vibe not only made this a quite less interesting place, but had a huge toll on the team’s morale and contributor’s “attachment” to the project.
Thanks to the suggestions of the private moderators’ group we decided to act and put a lot more effort in communicating proactively with the community (what you read is an outcome of this) and the users who were experiencing issues.
It looks like it’s paying off. We can sense that the spirit of this community is getting back. But we are not relaxing, this challenging time was an occasion for us to learn how to do better, and this is what we want to continue to do.
One process which is being reshaped a lot is our technical support and customer help department. First, we wanted to have a better “dispatching” of requests to the proper person in the organization. We achieved so by restructuring the contact page in a more “directive” way, to forward requests to the appropriate person (shop requests\returns, billing, technical support, partnerships, distribution etc).
Then we wanted to provide faster answers to the people requesting technical support.
By analyzing supports requests we found out that about half of them could be solved pretty quickly without the need of our support people, by just providing small written hints.
So we implemented a chat-bot with automatically matches users’ requests with our knowledge base (which we are filling on an ongoing basis) and provide immediate answers to known problems or situations.
This has proven to work well for some kinds of requests, but really it did not for others. Analyzing the flow and some feedback by our users this week, we found out that this system was not providing enough feedback on the required actions for some users (we required some further action from user before initiating the support session) which felt frustrated of not receiving support and contacted us on other channels (Facebook, forum, etc).
So, we are working to change this part, by changing the user contact flow in those kinds of situations. We expect to have this change live in about 10 days.
So, for those users which felt neglected in the past month, we acknowledge the problem and we are working to fix it, so the next time you need us you’ll find a better experience.
On the development side, work this week has been again on our cloud ecosystem. If you wonder why that is, that we spent all this time on cloud stuff and not on the “Volumio” side of things, here’s why.
Back in 2018 we took a very important architectural decision: move all the integration intelligence to the cloud, rather than on the device.
Example: our albumart retrieval server used to run on the device. It basically identified the artist, album and track and made some queries online to fetch and download the most appropriate albumart for a specific track. This worked well. Or at least it did until one of those online services shut down or change their API (this happens more frequently that you might think).
So, you have 2 ways to solve the issue:
- Update all the software you have on the field (in our case more than 430k installs). This means that many users will experience the problem until they update their software. It also means that spotting this problem will come only after you have some users reports.
- Move the logic that aggregates online content to the cloud and have the albumart facility in Volumio just rely on that.
We took the second step. This brings some additional advantages:
- We can understand quickly if something goes wrong, since we can set up automatic monitoring of all the service we use.
- When we spot a problem and fix it, the fix is istantaneous for all our users, without the need for update.
- Doing some optimizations like caching and load balancing we can offer faster response times compared to an algorithm running on the device itself, and make in turn the whole experience better.
This comes also with some disadvantages:
- It costs money to run those services. If we use the “distributed” computing power of the devices, it does not cost anything. But if we need to set up, mantain and host such systems on a scale required for Volumio, this has a cost.
Basically, every time you look for an albumart, Volumio has to pay for it. Considering the service we provide for some of those endpoint is free, we have to be very clever to optimize our technology to not be overly expensive (in those cases, we don’t use AWS but a mix of Kubernetes + dedicated VPS with high microservices density). - In case it fails, it fails for everyone at the same time. So you have to put in place automatic recovery strategies and monitoring and ensure adequate redundancies.
Some examples of the services that use this architecture are:
- Oauth login for Spotify, QOBUZ, TIDAL (and possibly more like LastFm)
- Albumart retrieval
- Browsing of QOBUZ and TIDAL
- Plugins store
- Webradio selection
- Metadata and credits retrieval
And yes, what needed some love this week was the albumart provider. A change in an upstream API deteriorated the performace of retrieval of artist arts. We were able to fix it and deploy a fix without requiring anyone to update. And the best part of it, is that most of you didn’t notice.
We are continuing with this architectural pattern, especially when we enrich functionalities, that might explain why you see less commits on the Volumio backend regarding such aspects.
Some of the things we already worked on (we are waiting for frontend parts to support it) are live concerts notifications and lyrics.
That’s it for this week! Hope you got a better glimpse of how also the community can impact Volumio, both in positives and negatives ways. Remember that and keep on helping making this place a good portion of the net.
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Right! You are no doubt aware that more than half the plugins are not compatible.
Right! You are no doubt aware that the plugins are created by the community, not by Volumio?
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Small remark in that regard, I think many plugins actually are (forward) compatible, but require recompilation of modules, this takes a little bit of time. Which indeed can be frustrating, especially if you haven’t got the faintest on how to do it yourself. But as said above, I think we’re progressing nicely.
Also, developing (and patching) plugins can be time consuming, so I guess it will take some time before all plugins have been ported (or at least the ones in high demand). 
Hello!
Not if I would rush anything nor claim at all, but when can we expect the update you’ve mentioned in this post (possibly and anticipatedly also with that fix for the Thread’s issue)? Its been a while now…
Thank you!
We managed to fix the last issue that prevented us to release the update. Since we never release on Friday, release will happen next week.
March 25 2022
First of all, we managed to package together the update which we will release next week. It includes various fixes for multiroom, utf-8 characters and the longly awaited AAMMP update (which will allow us to release the amazing Fusion DSP plugin).
What held us up from releasing was a mysterious bug that affected multiroom, which we took a while to identify (turned out to be a very silly mistake, but very hidden and difficult to spot).
Then, finally, we managed to get the new Android and iOS app to a level where we are happy with: the new improved and simplified onboarding flow works well in all circumstances.
It took a lot of debugging, testing, swearing… You can’t imagine how tedious sometimes can be to design and implement a very simple process…
Next time you try a piece of technology that just works, consider that a developer could have lost all his hairs to make it work properly
Our plan is to release a beta test of the new app next week.
This week focus has also been a careful analysis of our current state (as a project and as a company) and strategic planning. As they say, “tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”.
We held various team meetings to pivot our strategy in 2 main areas.
The first is the OEM long-term strategy and approach. As you might know, Volumio OEM is a service we provide to quite a lot of Hi-Fi companies around the world. We basically empower them to release Hi-Fi products using Volumio Technology and experience. We are proud that more than 30 Hi-Fi companies worldwide choose Volumio to power their audiophile products.
This has worked well both for us and them for the past years and Volumio is what it is today also thanks to the financial and design contribution of our partners.
We however think that we can do better and be more ambitious with the OEM Partner program.
We saw a huge increase in requests to become Volumio OEM Partners since the release of Volumio 3 and a slight change in what new partners require from our technology.
Compared to 3 or 4 years ago, Hi-Fi companies tend now to have in-house IT departments and are asking us less direct involvement and more freedom when implementing our technology and a more SDK-like approach.
So, we are redesigning our OEM program very similarly to what Android does. So yes, our plan is that Volumio will become the Android of the music technology world.
Of course, following our “co-design” approach, we are involving some of our best partners in the decision and design processes.
The other planning involved Hardware. We have ambitious plans and some really, really nice things that we are working on…
We can’t disclose anything at the moment, but, if I were you, I would consider visiting this year’s
HIGH END Munich trade show…
That’s it for this week!
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Munich, Finally something is going next/replace Primo?
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Primo is here to stay
You did announce a linear power supply for the primo a couple of years ago and I’m still waiting!
At Volumio we want to release only products that we are proud of. This PSU, while absolutely fantastic, was not hitting our price\performance ratio desiderata. We are not done with that yet, but no PSU from us in the near future.
come and see
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I think I’ve seen the pictures. Ticket sail start on the 4th of April. the distance (800km) is a bit pain full. Need to see if I can arrange something.
And make all kind of promises not to get home with new equipment… 
Well, still no update…
“It … fixes … utf-8 characters …”
Good. Whenever I had to flash, I had to go in and fix utf-8 to read diacriticals properly. Since I’m not a Linux junky, it always meant Googling until I’d remember bookmarking a site with instructions. 
Hello,
how can i test the Beta App?
„ Our plan is to release a beta test of the new app next week.“
Thanks
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What happened to the weekly reports? I really enjoyed reading them
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June 10, 2022
Yeah, it’s been a long time since I don’t write here. The reason is simple: we went through some really hectic months. Mainly because our focus has been on getting our new line of products ready.
You might have heard about our 3 new products: Rivo, Primo v2 and Integro. We are not releasing many pieces of information yet since we are planning the official launch in September, but as community members, you deserve to know a little bit more…
Those 3 products are the result of more than 2 years of work, challenges, mistakes, tuning but most importantly: passion. What we want to achieve with those new toys is: sensible products that maximize music enjoyment, for a larger group of people rather than “Classic Audiophiles”.
Don’t get me wrong: they are audiophile products, but we wanted to imagine how Hi-Fi shall evolve in the next 10 years, to attract newcomers, to have a bigger purpose than just playing bit-perfect Audio. In one sentence, devices that FIT into the daily lives of music lovers.
That’s why a big accent has been put on 3 key areas:
-
Industrial design. Those are objects that should enrich the visual aesthetics of the house they are put in. We could not have found a better partner do this (Tomas Ortiz Ferrer and Design Narratives, which BTW just won a Red Dot Award…).
Also, nice shall not mean necessarily expensive to produce (both in monetary, time and environmental costs) so a big effort has been devoted to using less material as possible and optimizing mechanical fitting. And actually, getting those parts manufactured with the level of precision we needed, was something that really took a lot of time and a painful process of mistakes and refinement. But now, we are proud to say that Volumio Team has made up this expertise in-house, and looking back it has been a really fun and creative process to get here. -
Electronics Engineering with purpose and constraints. All 3 products shall have excellent sonic performances without requiring expensive components (which in times of semiconductor shortage might be also catastrophic).
It’s very easy to do good-sounding hardware using exotic components and overengineered circuitry. We choose instead to do great-sounding devices using just what was needed and nothing more (the hardest way).
We wanted to offer our customers the certainty that they are getting the best for their buck. On top of that, I’ve always be a fan of the philosophy that “Simplicity is the ultimate sophisticacy”. The downside of it is that developing something such refined takes way more time: it’s a process where you have to experiment a lot (and not just follow the datasheet).
In this regard, all 3 products went through multiple design iterations until we (and our partners) were satisfied with the result. Rest assured, we were really really picky… But now, we have 3 products which we can really be proud of. -
Purpose. What our products are meant to do is not simply “play music with the highest quality”. They are meant to be “Joy delivering apparatus”.
So a big accent has been put into choosing carefully what they should do (example: number of I\O, which inputs\outputs, what to leave out, how to interact etc).
While this seems trivial (just do a box, put a button and call it a day) in fact this was probably the area where most thought went. Again, we want to have something which fits both the audiophile public but also newcomers. This requires an in-depth study of the “accessibility” of the device and to define precisely what is the goal of such an item, and leaving out all the things which are not functional to its ultimate goal. I hope that you will understand what I mean when you’ll have them in your hands.
There are other things that make me particularly proud of the point we are at:
- The engineering of Integro has been carried out by Dario, which is a Volumio community member (you might know him for his BassFly and BassOwl designs). I saw his projects and was amazed by how brilliant they were.
This is why we started working together on Integro, and now Dario is Volumio’s lead engineer and oversees both design and production. The fact that such a bright person comes from this community, and the fact that now he works full time with us makes me incredibly proud. This community is more than a place to rant to each other, and Volumio as a company is willing to invest in talents that come out of it.
BTW, if you think you can make a difference and contribute to Volumio’s growth, check out our work with us page . We always look for hungry talents!
-
Some of the products will be made in the heart of Florence. In the 15th century building where our HQ is located.
-
Based on your feedback, we redesigned also the packaging of our products. We wanted them to be as small as possible and made up with 100% recyclable material (paper). Protecting the environment, by all means possible, is a duty we have towards us and next generations.And BTW, they are also super nice!
Last but not least, a lot of development time has been devoted to the first 5 minutes of user’s approach with the device. We wanted to offer customers (and all Volumio users, since you’ll also get that) the most straightforward and fool-proof out of the box experience. This is resulting of the new Android and iOS app (which you already know of) and a completely redesigned first configuration wizard.
The goal for the 2 elements combined is to allow anyone (and I mean everyone, monkeys included) to get started with Volumio in 5 minutes without possibility of confusion and error.
Then, a bunch of other stuff happened in the meantime:
- Spotify deprecated an old library. Yeah, we should have known but we did not. So due to popular demand, we’ve rewritten the plugin in a record 8-day sprint.
- Accelerated on plugin validation and started working on a better moderation panel, to have some moderators being able to approve plugins.
- Completed the new Help Center, which has all the information, and tutorials about Volumio in one place. Plus, it has the most well-educated and nice-looking bot you’ve ever seen (yeah, it’s called Monica).
Check it out at: https://help.volumio.com/
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Are there any plans afoot to find anyone to maintain the Odroid images.
Or are they now abandonware.
Cheers.
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