Chromecast GROUP issues

[elektroinside]

Plan

Premium

Country

Romania

Device

(Windows 10/Server 2019 i7/Xeon Desktop/Laptop, Ubuntu i7 Desktop/Laptop, Chromebook)

Operating System

(Windows 10, Windows Server 2019, Ubuntu Linux, ChromeOS)

ENVIRONMENT:

1. I have a Chromecast group of 3 Chromecast Audio devices hooked up to some analog speaker sets and 2 Google Home Minis, so the group has a total of 5 devices
2. Each device is connected to its own access point, so in each room, I have 5 APs (all Mikrotik) and one of the Chromecast devices
3. The access points are hooked up to a gigabit network, controlled by an HP server acting as a gateway (with mDNS, ping, multi/unicast enabled, etc.). All other networking devices are enterprise-grade, cables are CAT.6 shielded
4. I have a multi-wan failover setup, with 2 ISPs , each with a 1Gb connection (FTTH)

ISSUE DESCRIPTION:

1. I'm casting Spotify from several sources, using the Chrome browser, selecting the destination (the Chromecast group) from the 'Connect to device' feature of the Spotify app (or web player), or casting the Spotify tab from the Chrome browser. The sources are: Windows 10/Server 2019 desktop/server (wired), Windows 10 Thinkpad laptops (wifi or wired), Ubuntu desktop/server (wired), custom Chromebook (wired or wireless). Each of these have i7 /Xeon CPUs, a minimum of 8GB RAM, all SSD
2. Randomly, the playback stops on the group. Sometimes after 5-30 mins, sometimes after 2hrs, most of the times a few seconds before the currently playing song is done playing and the next should start. This behavior is repetitive, it's not a one-time issue, it continues to manifest as long as you listen
3. I have to  reconnect to the cast group (sometimes I have to try several times), as the Spotify app/Chrome browser is no longer connected to the Chromecast group, and the playback is paused
4. I have no visible errors or messages

WHAT WORKS:

1. Casting from ANY Android phone seems to work fine. All android phones keep the app running in the background
2. Casting Google Play Music works fine from the same sources Spotify does not, absolutely no issues

WHAT I TRIED TO FIX THIS:

1. Obviously, several different sources to start the playback
2. Debugging network issues: I have run tests for several days, wifi or wired, not a single latency/packet loss/cross-talk issues. I tried performing tests with different countries, technologies, servers, you name it, so not just speed tests, but long, any kind of connection tests
3. I completely simplified the entire network, I have one subnet, no vlans, no nothing
4. I'm maxing out the bandwidth on everything, 980Mbps on the wired and depending on the clients, the wireless as well
5. I checked each device for other issues, including DPC latencies (0 issues)
6. No device has an aggressive power management, not one goes to sleep, not one component is set to go to sleep (HDDs, Wifi, etc). At most, the displays are set to turn off after a while, that's it

So, I invested quite a lot in multi-room audio, networking, etc, I'm an experienced network administrator and DevOps (15+ years), and I still can't find the cause for this extremely annoying issue. I know Google Play Music works fine, I know Spotify Android casting works fine, but not from the desktops/laptops/servers. I don't want to use my phone. There's not a single issue in my environment, from the first power source (which are all stabilized, btw) to the latest CPU. 

What else is there to do to fix my problem?

Thank you.

[elektroinside]

Any hints? I would really appreciate any feedback.

Thank you.

[Four20GrazeIt]

I have no advice, but I have a similar issue.  Android app works fine for casting but casting from chrome connects then immediately disconnects.  Hulu and other apps cast fine so I am not sure if it's spotify or chrome.

[elektroinside]

Google Play Music web app, which loads in the browser, has its own implementation for casting, at least a little something, I think, as there's an option in the player to cast (similar to Spotify), which ultimately opens the casting option in the browser. It displays the song title etc. in the Google Home app on Android. Anyway, it works flawlessly, for as long as I listen, many hours, continuously. Unfortunately, the "radio" features are not as good. No lossless playback. But it's the only 'no annoyance, no continuous fixing ' option I have for the moment.

Youtube Music Premium has no option to cast in the player, so I cast the browser's tab, using the browser's casting option. There are no songs displayed on the Google Home app. It works well enough, but not perfectly, in the sense that sometimes some of the group speakers stop playing for a short time - but reconnects automatically. Or sometimes sounds distorted. I have to disconnect and reconnect to the group when this happens. But these happen like once/twice a day.

Tidal behaves like Youtube Music Premium. Not perfect, but good enough.

Spotify disconnects way to often to be usable., no matter how I play, from the browser.

[elektroinside]

So the forum is full of Chromecast issues. Slightly different issues, but there are many issues around Chromecast.

Some of them look like connectivity issues to me, but it is definitely not my case. Most report issues only with Spotify, NOT other apps.

I don't think it's a browser issue. Can't be, there are examples out there which work in exactly the same environment, even in my case.

[elektroinside]

For now, I ended up using an older android phone for this scenario. But I really hope this annoying bug will soon be fixed.