BallparkDJ Music and Bluetooth Issues
System Settings
Also See: General Music Issues
Current recommended settings for Actions > System Settings (iOS Only)…
Bluetooth Assurance Plus (BA+): ON
Apple Music Assurance: OFF
Enhanced Volume Restore: OFF
The JBL PartyBox 310 speaker can exhibit some volume-related issues when used with BallparkDJ under the following specific combinations of situations…
Connecting to speaker using Bluetooth
Using Apple Music subscription for the players music
Playing one player, then playing the next player while the previous players music is being faded out or restored. (Note: Playing in this fashion did consistently reproduce the issue, although at one point we were able to reproduce the issue even while allowing plenty of time between players, and we have had reports from users of such behavior as well).
Under these circumstances, the volume will often shift down to 5% or 10% and play at a very low level, requiring the user to quickly turn the volume back up.
In version 19.4, we implemented a new solution for this issue with BA+…
Volume-Control Issue Fixed (Apple Music / Bluetooth / PartyBox) - A new option has been implemented to address volume-control issues associated with Apple Music and certain Bluetooth speakers (specifically the JBL PartyBox 310). With this combination, an issue has been experienced in which volume will jump down between players. A new Bluetooth Assurance Plus option has been added to the Actions > System Settings window to address this issue. The Bluetooth Assurance settings now has a "ON BA+" option. For anyone experiencing this volume issue, we recommend turning BA+ ON (with AMA and EVR off). If you turn BA+ ON and continue having issues, please contact support@ballparkdj.com. For additional information please visit: https://www.ballparkdj.com/partybox310
If you have turned on BA+ and continue to experience issues with volume control, please see the solutions below…
Wire an aux cord to from your iPhone/iPad to the speaker, eliminating the use of Bluetooth. [Learn More] (This solution alone solves the issue reliably)….OR….
Purchase the songs through iTunes and eliminate the use of Apple Music subscription songs with your players. More on that below. (This solution alone solves the issue reliably)
Avoid playing a player while the previous player until at least 1 second after the fade-out of the previous player has completed. (Not as reliable as the previous 2 solutions)
The issue stems from the way we must implement fade-out when Apple Music is involved. The ONLY way we can fade-out Apple Music subscription songs if by fading down the volume of the device, then stopping the song, then quickly restoring the volume of the device. This restoration of the volume is not always picked up by the JBL PartyBox 310 speaker, and although the devices volume has been restore, the speaker volume is still low and in turn causes an adjustment of the device volume down to that low level (5% or 10%).
Transition from Apple Music to Purchased iTunes Songs
If you were using Apple Music, and are transitioning to purchased iTunes songs instead to avoid this volume issue, follow these steps to ensure you are now using the purchased version of the songs and not the ones downloaded and associated with the Apple Music subscription. First, if you’re apple icon to the right of the player is pink, that means the music is Apple Music. If the apple icon is black or white, that means it’s a purchase iTunes song. To purchase the songs through iTunes, open the iTunes Store, search for your song, and purchase and download the song. Then go back to BallparkDJ and edit the player and reselect the song. Once you do this, the music icon for the player should show up in white or black (and not pink). If the icon is still in pink, try the following….disable the 'Show Apple Music' in the Music section of the iOS Settings. Then for songs that don't work, delete the local copy and redownload from the cloud, then select the song again within BallparkDJ.
Also See: General Music Issues
Also See: Apple Music vs iTunes Purchased Songs