How to set up a 5.1 system for different devices?

Question

linux

Hello, the family recently repaired a home theater, I wanted to listen, but the question arose of how to do it. The fact is that everyone has their own device for playing content (my dad and I have a laptop, my mom has a desktop computer and a phone) and everyone wants their own. There is no way to download to one thing, however, we have a laptop with a 5.1 audio card and so far windows 7 on board (you can install linux, but I'm not sure that I will find drivers for such an old laptop, if it's an asus w2w model), which lies idle.
The question is, is it possible to broadcast sound in 5.1 from different devices to one, through the air or by wire?
Thanks in advance for your reply.)

Answer 1

It is universal only via bluetooth, but there are a billion nuances and it will be difficult to push 5.1.
In Linux, pulseaudio is able to drive sound over the network, but here it is only from Linux to Linux.
There is also jackaudio, it also knows how to drive over the network and is available for Windows and Linux.
The easiest way is bluetooth.