Audio/Video in All rooms

[mistercheeks]

OK im just at the stage of wiring my 2-storey home and my head is starting to spin on what to use. So far i've bought HAI for automation and An HI-FI 2 also HAI product. So im going to have a total of 7 tv in different locations but out of those 7 ,2 of them will be in the same location via theater room. I was told about irule and sounds good but should i get a matrix switch too...The other problem i have is that ,im already going to be having speakers in these rooms that is controlled through the hi-fi2 ,i just want to integrate hi-fi2 speakers with the surround if for example i want to watch a movie in one of those rooms i wont need seperate speakers,i want to utilize the same speakers. Also im going to have a central location for all this A/V equipment. So all im asking is for a little advice on the cleanest solution ,thanks

 

[tmbrown97]

I haven't seen a lot of great solutions for using the same background music speakers as surround speakers; there are a couple options that do switching, but when it comes down to it, the placement for background audio is generally different than that of surround speakers.  I would venture to guess most people either run the two separately, or just turn on the theater audio equipment to play that zone.
 
With 7 TV's I'd likely consider a matrix switch - a little pricey but if you want to be able to share sources vs. just running remote receivers everywhere, it'll probably be easier - but it really depends on what all your sources will be and how much you want to share them.

 

[Neurorad]

Stop buying stuff.  Tech will change, and new products will be offered, by the time you're ready to install hardware.
 
Prewire to accommodate for any/all future needs.
 
For sharing distributed audio and 5.1 speakers, people usually use the distributed audio line-level out as an input to the AVR.  Let the AVR do the switching. 
 
I don't know anything about the HAI Hi-Fi2 product.  Does it have line-level outputs?  What does HAI say to do, for sharing speakers?

 

[jautor]

Using the WHA / in-ceiling speakers as surround channels is easy if you can do the bit of extra wiring to make the connections.  Russound has a nice standalone speaker selector with signal detection to automate the process that's perfect for this application.
 
http://www.russound.com/product_detail.php?i=1769
 
I did this in my master bedroom with my NuVo system, using their local source interrupt accessory, which uses a trigger from the keypad to switch the relay.
 
Jeff

 

[roussell]

I've done similar using this device from SpeakerCraft - it was about $25 cheaper than the Russound at the time so I took a chance a never had a problem with it. SpeakerCraft also has a line-level version but I haven't tried it.
 
Terry
 

Using the WHA / in-ceiling speakers as surround channels is easy if you can do the bit of extra wiring to make the connections.  Russound has a nice standalone speaker selector with signal detection to automate the process that's perfect for this application.
 
http://www.russound.com/product_detail.php?i=1769
 
I did this in my master bedroom with my NuVo system, using their local source interrupt accessory, which uses a trigger from the keypad to switch the relay.
 
Jeff

 

[jautor]

I've done similar using this device from SpeakerCraft - it was about $25 cheaper than the Russound at the time so I took a chance a never had a problem with it. SpeakerCraft also has a line-level version but I haven't tried it.
 
Terry

 
Cool!  Hadn't seen that one, always good to find a cheaper solution...

 

[kevkmartin]

I use the Speakercraft LL-One throughout the house to share speakers between background music and home / alarm announcements.

They work GREAT.

 

[e2djonline]

Stop buying stuff.  Tech will change, and new products will be offered, by the time you're ready to install hardware.
 
Prewire to accommodate for any/all future needs.
 
For sharing distributed audio and 5.1 speakers, people usually use the distributed audio line-level out as an input to the AVR.  Let the AVR do the switching. 
 
I don't know anything about the HAI Hi-Fi2 product.  Does it have line-level outputs?  What does HAI say to do, for sharing speakers?

 
 

Stop buying stuff.  Tech will change, and new products will be offered, by the time you're ready to install hardware.
 
Prewire to accommodate for any/all future needs.
 
For sharing distributed audio and 5.1 speakers, people usually use the distributed audio line-level out as an input to the AVR.  Let the AVR do the switching. 
 
I don't know anything about the HAI Hi-Fi2 product.  Does it have line-level outputs?  What does HAI say to do, for sharing speakers?

The Hi-Fi2 has 2 line-level outputs zones 1 and 8. I agree with Neurorad about coming out of the Hi-Fi2 via line-level and going into the input on the AVR. Let the AVR do the switching and power the speakers for the 5.1 system. The Hi-Fi2 can power the other zones in the home.