iOS 15 B3, tv and 2 x HomePod minis as a stereo pair.

This, I must admit, is a boredom project. I've moved back to the UK and have been in limbo whilst I've been waiting for our new home, which is kind of when this blog will take off again.

I packed a few Smart Home devices in our luggage, which included our tv 4K (1st Gen) and a couple of HomePod mini's. The Black one used to be in the Living Room in the US, and the White one was in our Bathroom. So the good news here is that HomePod Mini's are dual voltage... because they run off an external 20W power supply. Fortunately, those power supplies are dual voltage. Also, the tv is also dual voltage!

Almost as soon as we moved into my mother's tiny house, I introduced the tv, removing the Roku she never used, and added the white HomePod mini.

I'd never needed the stereo capability of HomePods in the USA, as I had a Denon Audio Visual Receiver, but that's not quite the case yet in the UK, although I have bought a new amplifier ready for the new home.

Now, though, I wanted to set up the stereo capability because:

1. I could
2. I wanted stereo sound
3. I don't have my speakers yet as they are still in storage, so my new AVR is useless
4. I'm bored.
5. iOS 15 B3 came out, and I could do it with HomePod mini's
6. I'm bored!

Starting the set up.

The tv and the white HomePod mini were already running iOS 15 B3, so no further work there.

I then added the black HomePod, and had to start by resetting it as it was still set up for my old home, and then start through setup. This was going to be interesting as the HomePod mini was running audioOS 14.5.

Adding the HomePod mini

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As it happens, I had forgotten to delete the old home from my HomeKit, so you can see the selection of which home.

 Next was to select which speaker this would be in the pair, which was created because I was putting it in the living room with the existing mini. Then continuing with Setup of Siri.

It asks about your settings using your iCloud account name (Under the green stripe) and then the HomePod mini goes through set up and it finally complete! I must admit, it was quite amazing to me to see a Stereo pair of HomePod mini's, one on audioOS 15 B3, and the other on audioOS 14.5, but it worked.

The HomePod mini then wanted to upgrade to 14.7, but I got the audioOS 15 beta profile, installed it and then the HomePod mini upgraded to audioOS 15 B3 without any problem.

Adding the stereo pair to the tv

This was so easy. Go into settings:

Select Video and Audio

Select "Audio Output"

It now shows the stereo pair in the same room as the tv, which you then select.... and that's it!

Result?

• It's not as good as a full on AVR with 7.1 surround sound, but it's pretty good for 2 small speakers.
• I'm not so bored

Next step is to see if my mum's TV does e-ARC, if so my new tv 4k 2nd Gen!