Project Background
Our client, a player on the hi-fi and audio equipment manufacturing scene for over four decades, wanted to ensure that the company he cofounded remained relevant in today’s market. His vision: create proprietary digital tools for iOS devices that allow users to remotely control their audio equipment. Sibers is a company of music lovers, and we’d never pass up a music/audio industry opportunity. We gladly moved forward with several music-management and DAC-device control applications.
Solution
Our first task was to develop a radio tuner application for iPhone with a built-in music player, based on UPnP protocol. This app lets users listen to dozens of radio stations, classify them by different parameters, and build playlists — all in glorious, sweet-sounding hi-fi.
Our second task related to ensuring playlist functionality support for one of the company’s DAC devices, so that it could reproduce the tracks in user-defined order without annoying lag time in-between. Vala, the programming language we utilized, allowed us to this do easily.
Lastly, the client asked us to build a multiplatform music management app. We developed this using Qt technology and created everything from scratch, from UI to wireframes design, up through the final app launch. The app is rather sophisticated and shares some similarities with iTunes in that it comes with a built-in audio player. It also allows users to create playlists, play tracks in any order, stream music to any device within the user’s home network, and reproduce music directly on a PC. The app works on both Windows and Mac, and is UPnP, USB, and internal sound card-compatible. It’s fully self-contained and works without any external accessories.
A mobile version, available for iOS, operates as a remote control. With it, a user can stream music to any UPnP media player within the user’s home network. The app features playlists, rewind, fast-forward, cover art, local library access, artist bios, and much more.
Tech highlights
- PC: C++, Qt, Platinum, FFmpeg, TagLib, MusicBrainz
- iPhone: Objective-C, iOS SDK, UIKit, Foundation, XML, SHOUTcast Radio API, NPR API, MPMoviePlayer
Results
These user-friendly digital tools are intended to maintain the reputation of the company, crazy for hi-fi audio, being spoken about within the audiophiles’ community, and to support existing equipment, the company produces, making its users’ experience as seamless and enjoyable, as possible.
Customer Says
I have now been working with the Sibers group for a couple of months on a few projects and I must say I am impressed. I am impressed not just by the quality of their work, but by their ease of communication, their professionalism and their honesty.
This last one is something I hadn't intentionally tested. It turns out I paid in full on an open project by mistake, because I didn't understand Elance and its process so well. Generally the last payment isn't made until all the work has been completed and approved. After realizing my mistake, I just trusted that Dmitry, my project manager, would make sure things got handled without compromise. I am delighted to report that nothing changed and the project is moving along at a perfect clip. Rarely do I find vendors of this quality and excellence.
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