Multi-Room A/V Solutions??? (1 Viewer)

[topdiggy2]

Hello:

I have been monitoring a few forums and i keep seeing people make reference to AUTOPATCH. Is anyone here familiar with these rigs and their application in multi-room HT setups?

The reason I ask is because I am stumped in the planning of my whole house system and I was wondering if AUTOPATCH would be a good solution to my multi-room setup issues.

If not, does anyone have any hardware recommendations for multi-room rigs?

Here is what i am trying to accomplish:

I have 6 sources that i want to distribute to 15 zones in my system. (3) zones are stereo audio only (whole house audio), (5) zones are SD a/v, (5) zones are HD a/v, and then (1) homerun SD loop(coax, stereo, yellow) drop in remaining 5 rooms.

I didn't want to have to buy 10 a/v receivers to power 10 zones. And i dont want to have redundancy all over the place (ie sat receivers at each tv, HTPC at each tv, etc.)

I have attached a word document that breaks down what i want to do. I am looking for a hardware recommendation for the items in red for signal distribution and powering of each zone independently. I forgot to mention that i want to control back end and front end functions via CQC (remote GUI using R232 protocol).

Keep in mind that all wiring is homerun as this is a new construction.

Thanks in advance for your input & help

- Topdiggy2

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

That's a pretty complex system you're talking about. I suggest consulting a professional installation company. Niles Audio and Russound specialize in multiroom equipment and installations. You might try poking around their sites and see if you can find something suitable.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[topdiggy2]

Hello wayne:

Thanks for the advice, but, i already tried that and they dont offer a centralized solution that i am looking for. For example, the Russound products (and all others) for that matter, will cater to source management and distribution, but distribution to where? on the other end i still need to have a A/V reciever to get or amplifire on the othe end to get the sound i need.

So, thats just as good has having 10 Recievers in the closet. And even with 10 recievers for each zone, i come out cheaper than buying their 4k system!

Thanks anyway! Keep the ideas coming....

 

[jasonlasvegas]

I am trying to do something similar (new construction, whole house everything). It sounds like we are thinking alike. It frustrates me to see how much the proprietary "whole house" systems want to charge. After looking around, I have probably resolved to just getting multiple recievers for my audio solution. My biggest question, however, centers around an "all off" resolution. I want to be able to have music in varius areas that I can turn all receivers off with a push of a button. I'd also like an intercom option, or at least an Announcement system and I'm not sure this is possible with receivers. For you, however, it sounds like you're trying to keep the price low. Even the new Sonos system, which is WiFi distributed audio, is still way more expensive than running multiple receivers. In the end, you may have to chose... high price, or multiple receivers. I'd like to stay in touch to see how we can find a solution.

 

[mylan]

There is no need for a receiver in each room because Russound ( and others) have an onboard amp to supply each zone with 30 or 40 WPC, this is enough for fairly loud listening, certainly not audiophile quality but good enough for what a whole house music system is used for.
The reason Russound ( and others) charge what they do is because their systems are very user friendly, you go up to the keypad, select the source, adjust the volume, adjust the bass/treble, change the radio or XM/Sirius channel, turn the room or zone off or on, turn all zones off, the list goes on.
OR...you cheap out like I did, I ran cat5 and speaker wire to four zones and, in the interim, am using a receiver and volume controls. I get the same source over all four zones, I cannot turn the music off in the greatroom where the receiver is located without killing the other zones, so i cannot listen poolside without blaring music in the house. It is really a conveinence issue, the next time I will budget for a Russound or something similiar.

 

[topdiggy2]

Hello Jason:

Thanks for checking out the post. And since i posted my original response, i decided to buckle down and go with the multi receivers option. After pricing out the alternatives, i wasnt getting nearly as much control as i wanted and could not get around everything getting redundant. So everyday im checking ebay and other sites for the specific models that i decided to run with and piecing together components with my overtime pay (lol).

In planning my system early i too wanted a intercom system, however, i realized that i already had a solution in place. In my office we have a phone system that is a VIOP Asterisk PBX running a really cool software called Trixbox. Look it up when you get a chance, anyway, with all the cool features I decided to install one in my home. One of those cool features is that you can program intercom features entire system, call phone to phone, call whole house, etc.

So, instead of a have a seperate intercom system, i just made use of the PBX features. It has a "line out" that i will be sending to the AMP I have running the outdoor speakers that will provide for outdoor announcements, but, pretty much everywhere inside home is within ear shot of a handset/base unit.

Anyway, back to A/V....

I designed my system around the fact that i want to be able to control everything via R232 commands using CQC. So i did the research and located these recievers that offer serial R232 connections. Currently i am working on writing my own drivers for the Yamaha receiver & CQC screens (not in any rush though).

The here are the sources I am running:

(3) HTPC [1 PVR/Blue Ray + 1 DVB Sat PVR + 1 Audio (MP3 & Net radio)]
(3) Satellite Recievers (for Live TV)

Equipment:

(6) Yamaha RX-V2600/2700 [Offers control for 3 zones (2 a/v + 1 audio only zone)]
(3) HDTV Composite Distribution 1:9 - [1 for each source] - $40/ea on ebay
(1) HDMI Distribution Box (1:8) [ for HTPC output distro] - $250/ea ebay
(10) Various Rackmount AMPS RMS 500-1000watts [1 for each speaker zone]
$200-300/ea

And this should cover pretty much the core system to handle everything i need. I will not be using any wireless media server, because, really i dont need to. with CQC, i will be able to feed any zone with music content from either internet radio, mp3 playlist, or satellite radio.

The wiring is going to be huge, I plan on updating this post with picks in a few months when the framing is complete and i start the wiring. I using pretty much Cat5e for all drops (security, a/v (with use of balums), CQC) and RG6 QS & 18/2 siomese cable for CCTV.

I didnt included any details of the security system, but, im using the ELK Gold M1. But my security setup is a beast in itself!!!

Later!