RE: Network MP3 and then Multi-room Distribution

["Dean Barrett" <dean@xxxxxxx>]

My own solution for this is...

Slimp3 mounted to fireplace in lounge, feeding 4zone Russound A-Bus system
with local AMP/keypad in each room - alternatively Russound's other
product=
s
have 4 channel amp and control keypads to each room. Using PDA's or web
tablets in each room to control the Slimp web interface. Also have
Wavefinder on same PC so can get radio thru slimp to.

Simple and very cost effective (read tight *rse git)




Dean.

-----Original Message-----
From: rb_ziggy [mailto:richard.boreham@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 21 November 2003 15:31
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Network MP3 and then Multi-room Distribution


Would welcome some input regarding my dilemma...

When we build our house 2 years ago we built in cabling for multi-
room audio distribution. This was based around speaker cable from
node 0 to about 5 rooms and double runs of screened cat5 (STP)
adjacent to the light switches in these rooms.  (We also have cat5e
to all rooms at the plug socket locations in addition to this.) The
intention had been to go with something like Living Control's MRS
system plus a cd changer radio etc all based in node zero.

However the world moves on and I now have all the cds 'MP3ed' on the
PC.  I could of course go with the original intention and replace the
cd changer with a (for example) Imerge soundserver as the main source
for a LivingControl system.  However, I don't really feel like
spending another =A32k for a source which I already, in effect, have.
(Especially as most have limited capacity compared with a PC based
server.)

I'm quite attracted to the idea of using an Barix exstreamer as the
PC interface - that would fit in quite nicely in node 0. However,
this seems to leave me with a "how do I control the pieces
problem"
as the exstreamer needs a (I believe) a web interface while the
typical  multisource/multiroom amps tend to have their own keypad
controls.

What I really need is a multisource/multiroom amp with web (and
really ideally, IR from Pronto) interfaces.  I could then go for a
web-tablet approach, either hardwired at the light position or (more-
likely) on a wireless basis to intregrate the source & amplification
control.  This would be much better anyway as it would then be easy
to couple this to the remainder of the HA stuff (including Comfort,
CWI, ACE and lots of X10 lighting).  (I was actually always a bit
dubious about having a totally separate audio control system.)

So... is there any current distribution amp product or source/amp
combo that would do this (which is not priced in the stratosphere)?
Or... is there a homebrew multiroom/multisource approach which could
achieve the same (remembering that amplification and line inputs
needs to be in node 0 with contol in rooms being cat5 (ideally IP)
based?  This seems to rule out individual room Slimps (or similar) as
I don't think I can get the line level back to node 0 for
amplification and distribution to the speakers.

As to my technical capabilities of making homebrew work... Quite
happy with configuring the Pronto and Comfort via Comfigurator and
can even tweek CWI a bit but not a proper programmer type anymore!

Have I missed the blindingly obvious here?

Thanks in advance.

Richard