Re: Zon Audio distribution question

["wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> thanks bill, thats a lot of info. Which A-bus system will be better, if
> i want 4 source and 6 zone system. The handheld pc you described will
> it support operation for each room from any place?

The regular A-Bus systems are generally limited to 4 sources and 4 zones.
They can support up to 8 keypads by sharing a zone between a pair.  Keypads
set up this way are both listening to the same source but will each have
their own volume control via each in-keypad amplifier.  That and you can
pull a line-out signal from a keypad, feed it to an amp and then use another
(dumb) volume control to cover even more area.  We do this with kitchen,
sunroom and deck.  The kitchen and sunroom each have their own keypad, off
the same source.  The deck is slaved from the kitchen's keypad, fed to an
amp and then controlled via a weatherproof volume knob driving rock
speakers.  They all hear the same source material but each controls it's own
volume level.  They're all likely to have the same 'use pattern' at the same
time so it's reasonable to share a source in this manner.  The master
bedroom and master bath, however, are on different zones.  This to allow me
to listen to the news during my morning shower while Chris listens to the TV
news. Sharing the smae zone wouldn't give us both the options we want.  The
other half of each zone is used in the exercise room and other bathroom.
There's only two of us in the house so that reasonably handles what we want.

Again, it's limited to by whatever source is selected for that zone; any
keypads or line-out amp on that zone would hear the same thing.  The rest of
the zones, of course, act independently.  That and A-Bus generally does not
allow changing another zone.  You can't control the keypad in Room A from
Room B.  But you can tell Room B to select the same source and then stop the
source, effectively also shutting down any other zones listening to it.  But
no, A-Bus can't tell a room to switch itself on/off, change source or turn
up/down from anywhere other than it's own keypad.  Not too many systems
allow this as it requires a lot more brains in the keypads.

Digital systems potentially allow any/all zones to act completely
independently up to the limit of available 'sources' or bandwidth.  If
there's only one CD player or other source then any zones would be limited
by what the source offers.  As in, even if the CD player is 300 disc changer
if it only plays them one at a time then that's all you get, regardless of
number of zones.

Digital systems pulling directly from fileshared MP3 files (not just
streamed from a central server) could potentially handle quite a few
keypads.  But then you run up against latency and congestion issues as the
network gets overloaded.  I'm not sure which digital systems have
direct-play decoders built-into the keypads.  For streamed audio at any sort
of decent quality level it can really become an issue.  That and streamed
sources are limited by however many the source can emit.  A dozen keypads
listening to crappy MP3 audio encoded at 64k might not be a problem.  But
using higher bitrate encodings and you start running out of bandwidth in a
hurry.  Compensating for this with more buffering in the keypads
SIGNIFICANTLY drives up the cost and complexty of the keypad.  TANSTAAFL.

A-Bus is good at what it does but it doesn't do everything but most folks
probably don't need more.  For more you'd have to move up to the CAV/M
series at more than double the price point AND using different wire layouts.
That is, A-Bus uses CAT5 from the hub to the keypads and then speaker wire
from there to the speakers (in-wall, on-wall, free standing, rocks or
whatever).  CAM/V series use CAT5 to the keypads for control but then also
require speaker wire from the central controller to each speaker pair.
There's no amp in the CAM/V series keypads.  Planning wire layout is key.

You /can/ slave an A-Bus keypad from a CAV/M series controller but then only
to listen to the first four sources.  It's a little convoluted but not
overly so.

The CAV/M series Uno keypads can send commands from front panel buttons.
The A-Bus keypads are pretty rudimentary with only source selection and
volume control.  For A-bus to do control of the source requires using an IR
remote.  To turn on/off a source and adjust it's volume level A-Bus keypads
are fine.  But not to jump between tracks or select different channels.
We've got some touchscreens that allow controlling those extra features.  So
we use the touchscreen to select the playlists or sources and then select
that zone in the desired rooms.  This means if I want to jump between tracks
when I'm out on the deck I either have to use the IR remote (which is tricky
in direct sunlight) or just go into the kitchen and use the touchscreen.
I'm going to add a WiFi PocketPC running NetRemote that'll also do this.

I've avoided depending on using things like PPCs because of their added
expense and fragility.  It's one thing to turn a weatherproof volume knob
when your hands are grubby with barbeque sauce.  It's another thing entirely
to have the screen of a PPC get gummed up or slip out of your hand and break
trying to do the same thing.  Or, worse yet, accidentally set it down on the
lid of the grill, leave it out in the rain or drop it in the hot tub.
Low-end knob turning seems like a better long-term plan for a place like a
deck.

Our plan is to make use of A-Bus and if it turns out to be really handy then
we might upgrade to a CAV controller.  The existing A-Bus keypads would
either stay in place or move to new locations that weren't originally
covered.  Being able to continue using them on a CAV, with limitations,
makes it a reasonably safe investment.  What complicates things is the
likelihood of having to pull new speaker wires in the even of an upgrade.
I'm putting the wire in ahead of time in the places it'd be a real pain to
do again later.  The rest is covered by having put in conduit.  That'll make
it MUCH less of a hassle to snake the added wire later.

This stuff is within the reach of DIY but it's not what most would consider
a 'basic' project.  It does require a fair bit of planning ahead of time.
I'd rate it a 7 out of 10 in effort.

-Bill Kearney