Need to replace my Russound system

Hey all I have a real problem. I'm trying to provide audio in my guest house. I installed an mcac5 the third one in the guest house and connected it to my existing infrastructure. Since then it's. been miserable. Really the system isn't meant to have the controllers far apart from one another and the power goes out beyond the battery backup and shuts down in the guest house. The entire system required a reboot which isn't convenient. Anyhow now I can't get audio beyond first controller. The second and third controllers have no sound and I'm starting to suspect the interconnect was hit by SWFL lightning. I don't have. Surge on the cat 5 between the two systems which are muxed to provide the audio in between controllers.

I love my Sonos and in my new detached garage I just installed a standalone sonos on an amplifier. Sonos is great the only problem is the lack of keypads. I can't find anything good. I do have iPads around the house in the wall but they really are purposed for haiku my home automation system.

Any suggestions. My thought is to install a Sonos in the guest house but a couple in the main house and be done with it. I just need some inwall keypad.

Any suggestions?

How far away is the guest house? No sound from the 2 units, is it both from remote and local source or just from the sources connected to the first unit? Why do you need to connect the guest unit to the main system, can it use stand alone russound?

My father in law lives in the guest house and uses the system when it works. The main two units are together in the main house but the second one isn't getting or passing sound. I have a dual XM tuner that he uses so I'd like to share the sources.

Meanwhile I just got an alert and my Omni pro looks like it got hit by lightning. I have surge on my zone connections so I can't figure what else to do other than move away from the lightning capital of the world.

So how is the guest unit connected to the other two? What gauge wire? Is it outdoor rated?

There is a large conduit between the homes and there are several cat 5,that allow it to communicate. The audio is using mud labs baluns and they work quite well. When the system works. The second controller now isn't working so my distances aren't the issue. My issues is the lightning. It's just horrible.

Perhaps you could use fiber between the buildings and converters at each end?

So I ordered two new Russound systems for the main house-  I bought a 2 channel yamaha and connected the in ceiling speakers to it and an amazon echo via bluetooth.  Works really well so far and doesn't require any wall panels!

Sounds good heffneil!!
 
Here did a similar subsystem set up. 
 
IE: main zoned Russound two speaker set up with a control keypad to each of the four bedrooms and then a subsystem receiver to same rooms with a AB switch.  The AB switch did look a bit odd next to a Russound keypad. (4X4 ring versus a 4X2 ring).  This was for sound and video from the TV/Receivers in the rooms.

I bought this switch I have used other places that breaks in.  You have a main source and when the other source is on it would auto switch to it.
 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L9YVJ0Q/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
I need to test it out and see how it works with other sources.  I hope to have my other receivers tomorrow!

Very nice!!!
 
Where are you putting the autoswitch in the audio zone?

My plan is between the russound and the Yamaha. So the default zone is actually the Yamaha connected to the Amazon Echo Dot via bluetooth and then the secondary zone is the russound - The speakers go to the switch and each source connects to the switch.  I hope it works

I am guessing that it will be fine.
 
Here buried the testing auto switch in the wall.
 
Wiring was:
 
1 - Russound speaker / console cat5e was wired to the wall 4X4 wall plate  (long run from basement rack 3 floors down)
2 - local receiver speaker outputs 16/4 also went to the wall plate here and put another wall plate just for speakers next to the receiver area which was also the TV area. 
 
The wires were a bit thick and difficult to manage (16/4).  The test autoswitcher was smaller and buried in the wall behind the 4X4 plate.  Had to add another XX/2 cable for power.  I do not remember now where the power came from as I did this over 10 years ago.
 
I did the bedrooms this way and the garage.   The main TV room / family room was totally separate and only used the 7.1 sound there with no mixing of the Russound stuff.   I did utilize the main TV room as one source of sound for Russound stuff.