Fiona is not designed to work alone. As a remote controller, it needs something to control, and this guide will explain you how to setup your system to fully experience its features and capabilities.

Requirements

Fiona is a remote controller for a music system that is powered by a Logitech Media Server (also known as a Squeezebox) and has one or more players. Fiona acts as a conductor, allowing you to browse your music library and your streaming services, and direct playing tracks to all the players in your home.

Logitech Media Server

Logitech Media Server (LMS for short) is a software product developed by Logitech. While it started as an embedded operating system to run on their Squeezebox range of products, it has since been transformed into a freely downloadable software that can be installed on a range of machines. You can download the current version from here and follow the simple instructions to set it up.

To verify that everything works correctly, point a web browser to the http://<IP of the machine where LMS in installed>:9000/ address. For example, if you installed LMS on the machine with an IP of 192.168.1.23, go to http://192.168.1.23:9000 and the main user interface should show up.

Players

Once you have a server set up and working, it’s time to start thinking about players.

Players are the means by which the music from your server is transferred to a stand-alone speaker, an Hi-Fi system, a phone, or a PC. They can be hardware, like a Raspberry Pi or a Squeezebox, or software, like iPeng or Squeezeplay.

Hardware players

The simplest way to use music from a LMS controlled by Fiona is to get a Logitech Squeezebox, any model. Unfortunately, they have been discontinued, and prices on eBay are a bit high. But there are alternatives, with one of them being affordable and supported:

Alternative 1: Raspberry Pi + HiFiBerryOS

You can use a Raspberry Pi 3+ or 4, install the HiFiBerry OS, and you are ready to stream music to your Hi-Fi system or your powered speakers very quickly. Just follow the instructions and the player will appear in the Fiona’s dropdown control just above the Play button.

Alternative 2: Google Chromecast Audio

Sadly discontinued in 2019, this is a very affordable way to stream music from LMS. If you can find one on eBay, scoop it up quickly, as they are becoming rare and the audio quality is great. Remember to enable the Chromecast Bridge plugin in LMS to get it going. As an aside, this plugin will also allow you to use as players any Android TV or Chromecast target devices like some Sony soundbars.

Software players

Besides dedicated hardware players, you can download software player to run on your PC or your phone.

For Windows:

  • https://sourceforge.net/projects/lmsclients/
  • https://github.com/ralph-irving/squeezeplay/tree/master/src/squeezeplay

Fore iPhone/iPad:

  • http://penguinlovesmusic.de/ipeng-8/

Once installed and connected to your LMS instance, they will show up in the Players dropdown box in Fiona, and you will be able to use them exactly like hardware players.