Devialet Dialog

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My thinking was that Dialog would connect via wired Ethernet to a NAS for provision of the music files.  Dialog would then need to run AIR to the amp wirelessly.   I believe Dialog only has one Ethernet connection?  So if the NAS is connected to the Dialog via Ethernet, would it also be possible to connect to the amp via Air / hard wired Ethernet, using an Ethernet switch or similar?   This would of course mean the music files would be running in and out of the Dialog simultaneously on the same Ethernet cable.  Technically possible maybe, but seems a bit wrong!  (I may be missing the point completely here!)

Yes, your description is spot on except that the Dialog would not need to use a wireless interface if it was on the wired network and the Devialet was using a wired or wireless network interface on the same network (more technically, the same subnet).  This would be the case if you have a wireless router with the NAS and Dialog connected to an Ethernet switch built into the router, and the Devialet either wired into the same switch or using a wireless connection (for example).

The Dialog would be reading music files from the NAS via wired Ethernet, decoding them depending on the codec (FLAC, ALAC, etc.), encoding them into AIR protocol format and sending the output to the Devialet via the same Ethernet port.  You'd only need a single Ethernet port on the Dialog, because traffic can flow both ways -- not simultaneously, but in a time-shared fashion.  There's plenty of bandwidth on wired Ethernet to support this.

From a network point of view it would be the same as when you're using the existing AIR application on a PC or Mac but your music files are on a NAS.  The Dialog is simply a special-purpose computer replacing a general-purpose one.