Re: A-Bus and Futuresmart panel

[Bill Kearney <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Thomas wrote:
> So, every time you want to turn on audio throughout the house, or
> fiddle with whole-house volume, you want to run to 16 keypads? Imagine
> you're rocking to some tunes in the kitchen, and get a phone call. It's
> an important call, and the person on the other end is hard to hear. You
> turn down the kitchen speakers, but then the speakers in the nook,
> hallway, and sunroom are still loud and interfering with your call.
> You'll have to run around to each of these and do the same thing. Or
> just run from your house :)

I use Russound Uno keypads.  All I have to do is hold down the power
button and all zones get turned off.  Works great.  Likewise I can kick
them into 'party mode' and fire them all up at once, all listening to
the same source and locked out from anything other than volume changes
on all but a master keypad (the one that started the process).  Works
great for parties, people in each room can control the volume level but
can't go wandering into other sources or tracks.  If they need that it's
easy to just set the keypad as not in the party and leave it working
independently.

I think it's a little unrealistic to use the "whole houseful of speakers
all cranked up" argument but it isn't beyond possibility.  What this
also highlights is why having an on-wall keypad is a lot better than a
remote.  When you get that phone call it's a lot easier to just whack
the Off button on the wall than it is to go fishing around for the
remote.  ESPECIALLY in a place like a kitchen where you're likely to
already have your hands full (or messy).

-Bill Kearney