What Is This App All About?
“Telepath: AVR is an iOS application that is designed to control Marantz & Denon Audio Receivers — fast. With multi-zone support, this application is designed to do anything related to volume.”
In essence, it is a simple volume remote for compatible audio receviers using the Telnet AVR communication protocol.
I created this app because the complementary app is sluggish (and also because I wanted to create something cool over the summer).
Information About The App
In its entirety, the project spanned two months from start to the release of version 1.0.0. In hours, it took around 210 hours to learn Swift from scratch, create the user interface, and create the backend.
This project communicates with Denon and Marantz audio receivers through their proprietary AVR communication protocol. Specifically, the application searches for Bonjour services to discover the local Domain Name of receivers (on service type: _.http_tcp.) and then connects through port 23 (Telnet). The user can alternatively input the receivers’ IP address. Learn more by searching for “denon communication protocol.”
To incorporate the use of the external Side Volume Buttons, the application plays a silent audio, allowing background accessibility. The application reads the system volume and sends commands accordingly to the designated receiver. Lastly, the application reads the volume of the receiver reactively, allowing multiple users on the same network to use the app. The color menu was created using the rgba protocol to create colors with premade presets stored on a JSON file. The user can write to this JSON file by creating their own “custom” preset.
