simplecenter is open sourced

This is old news, but simplecenter has been open sourced. What does that mean? To me it means I can get newer versions and customize it to fit my needs. To others it means that the group at simplecenter hope to make it the iTunes and WMP alternative.

I own a Rockford Fosgate Omnifi system purchased from woot more than a year ago. The device has served its purpose well – streaming MP3′s wirelessly from my PC to my hifi system. The only downfalls it has are that the device does not have a digital out interface and that there isn’t a neat touchscreen remote that will work from various rooms in the house. As well, it does not support flac and has a limited database that allows only ten thousand MP3′s to be added to the library.

Earlier this week I figured out how to hack the version of simplecenter shipped with the Omnifi to allow more than ten thousand songs – a little editing of a properties file within the jar file that housed the application’s code. However, I still wasn’t pleased with the operation of the application, using a large XML file to store the media library. I did some looking and saw that the Omnifi support direct from Omnifi has all but disappeared and that simplecenter has open sourced their code.

The source code is available from a subversion repository at:

Grabbing a copy of this and firing up ant I was able to get the latest source code to compile. From there, I fired up the application and was able to add my Omnifi right out of the box. The new code features an HSQL database for storing the library which is a much more robust, purely java bundled database.

They have included support for various Nokia devices and Apple’s iPod. Hopefully the open source move will generate momentum so additional devices can be supported in the future. I’m assuming they will make the application free since it has been open sourced as the most current release prior to open source is available for a $30 yearly fee.

If I am able to get some free time, I may develop a plugin for it to support FLAC based audio or perhaps OGG.