Remote control of, and hearing audio from, PC? (across same network)

[Dan B]

Any tips on what software to use to remote control a (desktop) PC via a laptop and hear the audio from it? I have a desktop in the studio which I’d like to be able to operate (e.g. for audio - and perhaps even video - editing) on a laptop (not for critical mixing, etc) in other rooms/outside. They'd both be on the same wifi (wifi 6) network. That said, I guess the option of idea of being able to fire up (and shut down) the studio PC remotely (over internet) to do the same may have the occasional use case too.

There are various programs that let you remote control a computer over a network e.g. TeamViewer, Remote Desktop with Windows 10 Pro (alas, I don't have Pro), Splashtop, etc.

When I last used them many years ago, across internet connections, they were quite laggy. Perhaps that's not the case now / when you're on the same wifi network...?

If anyone has tips on what to use / first hand experience of how responsive/laggy etc this'd be, that'd be great.

Worse case, I supposed I could get a 30-50m long headphone extension cable for the audio!

[James Perrett]

I've used Remote Desktop quite a bit for controlling other computers although I've not used it for audio. I've not found it too laggy although there could easily have been half a second delay and I wouldn't really have noticed. I also used VNC but found that it placed more load on the computer.

[sonics]

For basic operation if some latency is not an issue, options like VNC will work well. If you want control from a position where you can connect to a wired network, you'll get better results.

If you have fixed positions that you want to use, then USB, audio and video are all easily transmitted over 50ft or more using various devices.

If you want to run the main machine as an audio server you should look at VSL's Vienna Ensemble Pro. You can then use the desktops power from your laptop.

I'm not sure about specific options for remote control video editing since I've never had to set that up.

[The Elf]

It seems to me that it may be better to to set up a media server on the remote PC, such that you can play the audio from the remote PC.

[Wonks]

It seems to me that it may be better to to set up a media server on the remote PC, such that you can play the audio from the remote PC.

I have a feeling that won’t work well for the video editing suggested. But then, maybe nothing will work that well for that purpose.