Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

Multiroom Audio Advice

Options
  • 06-08-2014 4:40pm
    #1
    UrsusMaritimus
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭


    Hoping someone may be able to help me out.

    My house happened to be pre-wired for multi room audio when i bought it (built in 2007 so tech has probably moved on a bit) but has never been finished/used.

    There are four rooms with speakers in the ceiling and a blank wall box for a keypad in each room.
    All the speaker cables and a cat5 from each wall box feed back to one central location in the utility room.
    From what i gather a system such as a Russound CA4 would suit my needs, 4 zones, with internal amp for each zone and 4x control pads etc. this could be located in the utility and feed audio out to each room as required and controlled by each key pad.

    However it is getting the audio to the Russound is where i am a bit lost. There is a stereo cable running from the Utility to TV point in the sitting room so i can feed audio from here to the Russound. All my music etc. is stored on a HTPC located in my sitting room, this takes care or movies, music and live TV recordings, runs XBMC front-end with Mediaportal back-end.

    Is there some form of network based zone controller that i could use to stream from the HTPC? With the current setup if someone wants to watch TV in the sitting room it would not be possible to play audio in another room through the ceiling speakers as all audio from the HTPC would be sent to the Russound.

    Just as an aside I use Android clients in two other rooms running XBMC to stream from the HTPC with homeplug adapters as there is no Ethernet cable points in any of the rooms.

    Any ideas of how i could get the current system up and running?


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    akaSol
    Registered Users Posts: 717 ✭✭✭akaSol


    UrsusMaritimus wrote: »
    Hoping someone may be able to help me out.

    My house happened to be pre-wired for multi room audio when i bought it (built in 2007 so tech has probably moved on a bit) but has never been finished/used.

    There are four rooms with speakers in the ceiling and a blank wall box for a keypad in each room.
    All the speaker cables and a cat5 from each wall box feed back to one central location in the utility room.
    From what i gather a system such as a Russound CA4 would suit my needs, 4 zones, with internal amp for each zone and 4x control pads etc. this could be located in the utility and feed audio out to each room as required and controlled by each key pad.

    However it is getting the audio to the Russound is where i am a bit lost. There is a stereo cable running from the Utility to TV point in the sitting room so i can feed audio from here to the Russound. All my music etc. is stored on a HTPC located in my sitting room, this takes care or movies, music and live TV recordings, runs XBMC front-end with Mediaportal back-end.

    Is there some form of network based zone controller that i could use to stream from the HTPC? With the current setup if someone wants to watch TV in the sitting room it would not be possible to play audio in another room through the ceiling speakers as all audio from the HTPC would be sent to the Russound.

    Just as an aside I use Android clients in two other rooms running XBMC to stream from the HTPC with homeplug adapters as there is no Ethernet cable points in any of the rooms.

    Any ideas of how i could get the current system up and running?

    Hi UrsusMaritimus,

    Each source needs to have a direct connection to the Russsound 1: HTPC 2: SkyBox etc not unfortunately via one cable.
    Sadly only the C series in Russound support "app" control however you should be able to use the RS232 as control port
    Open Remote or similar is a good example.

    >Sol


  • Options
    #3
    UrsusMaritimus
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭UrsusMaritimus


    Thanks Sol,

    I may have to add a client at the Russound that can connect directly, this may over come the watching TV and playing music at the same time issue with the HTPC.


  • Options
    #4
    MHI
    Registered Users Posts: 98 ✭✭MHI


    UrsusMaritimus wrote: »
    Hoping someone may be able to help me out.

    My house happened to be pre-wired for multi room audio when i bought it (built in 2007 so tech has probably moved on a bit) but has never been finished/used.

    There are four rooms with speakers in the ceiling and a blank wall box for a keypad in each room.
    All the speaker cables and a cat5 from each wall box feed back to one central location in the utility room.
    From what i gather a system such as a Russound CA4 would suit my needs, 4 zones, with internal amp for each zone and 4x control pads etc. this could be located in the utility and feed audio out to each room as required and controlled by each key pad.

    However it is getting the audio to the Russound is where i am a bit lost. There is a stereo cable running from the Utility to TV point in the sitting room so i can feed audio from here to the Russound. All my music etc. is stored on a HTPC located in my sitting room, this takes care or movies, music and live TV recordings, runs XBMC front-end with Mediaportal back-end.

    Is there some form of network based zone controller that i could use to stream from the HTPC? With the current setup if someone wants to watch TV in the sitting room it would not be possible to play audio in another room through the ceiling speakers as all audio from the HTPC would be sent to the Russound.

    Just as an aside I use Android clients in two other rooms running XBMC to stream from the HTPC with homeplug adapters as there is no Ethernet cable points in any of the rooms.

    Any ideas of how i could get the current system up and running?

    Hello UrsusMaritimus

    I am a Russound installer based in Ireland and be glad to help you with any advice you need.

    Can you tell me exactly what cables are run to each zone? so i can be sure the advice i give is correct.

    You ideally should have the following:
    Speaker Cables from each zone run back to central closet
    Cat5 for each keypad run back to central closet
    2 x cat5 and 2 x coax from each TV point run back to central closet.


  • Options
    #5
    UrsusMaritimus
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭UrsusMaritimus


    Hi MHI,

    As you have said there is speaker cable from each zone back to the utility along with cat5 which is currently behind a blanking plate in each room at light switch level (i assume for the room controllers)
    However at the TV there is just one Coax running back to the utility with no Cat5. I will check again but i am pretty sure this is all there is.
    I have been thinking of putting a small android box running xbmc and using this for playing music listening to live radio streams etc and controlling it from my mobile phone or tablet.

    This could be "source 1" and the TV "source 2" over the coax.

    UM


  • Options
    #6
    MHI
    Registered Users Posts: 98 ✭✭MHI


    UrsusMaritimus wrote: »
    Hi MHI,

    As you have said there is speaker cable from each zone back to the utility along with cat5 which is currently behind a blanking plate in each room at light switch level (i assume for the room controllers)
    However at the TV there is just one Coax running back to the utility with no Cat5. I will check again but i am pretty sure this is all there is.
    I have been thinking of putting a small android box running xbmc and using this for playing music listening to live radio streams etc and controlling it from my mobile phone or tablet.

    This could be "source 1" and the TV "source 2" over the coax.

    UM

    Hey UM

    From what you say you are ok with the wiring for the audio (speakers & wall keypad control)

    For HDVideo however you are left snookered if no cat5/6 cables are run to the TV points, The system that would actually suit your requirements best is a Speakercraft MZC66, it has 6 sources inputs Audio/Video SD Composite (Yellow Video) and 6 zones outputs, there are different type keypads you can purchase from Mode3.1 to the more basic EZ-Pad. You could control all your IR (In-fared) sources through the keypads.

    This is just an example of what you would have.

    Zone 1: Kitchen
    Zone 2: Dining Room
    Zone 3: Sitting Room
    Zone 4: Living Room
    Zone 5: Masterbed
    Zone 6: Bedroom 1

    Source 1: Sky TV
    Source 2: DVD Player (Tuner, Sonos, CD Player, etc)
    Source 3: Console
    Source 4: XBMC Android TV Box (Movies And Stream Music/airplay from smartphone)
    Source 5: XBMC Android TV Box (Movies And Stream Music/airplay from smartphone)
    Source 6: XBMC Android TV Box (Movies And Stream Music/airplay from smartphone)

    You probably have most of your sources already so 3 Android TV boxes cost €300 to €360 will give you 3 cheap additional sources. The bigger cost is the purchasing the Speakercraft unit and speakers.

    Hope this helps if you need anymore info just pm me ;)


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    UrsusMaritimus
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭UrsusMaritimus


    Hi MHI,

    Thanks for the help, the speakers are already in the ceiling of each room. I will have a look at the system recommended. Are you recommending the extra separate android boxes so that different streams can be sent to each room?


  • Options
    #8
    MHI
    Registered Users Posts: 98 ✭✭MHI


    UrsusMaritimus wrote: »
    Hi MHI,

    Thanks for the help, the speakers are already in the ceiling of each room. I will have a look at the system recommended. Are you recommending the extra separate android boxes so that different streams can be sent to each room?

    Hi UM

    Yes you can set a name on them like

    Dads xbmc
    Mums xbmc
    Kids xbmc

    So when you send your music to the android tv box you know which one to choose and you won't be using one that's maybe already in use.

    You could leave the tv off and just send the music to the android box and via airplay.


Advertisement