HA and Microphones, etc..

[jpkishere]

Still new to this wonderful world of HA and been lurking here for awhile absorbing information.. Didn't see any dicussions on how to setup a whole house audio/microphone system and wanted to see if anyone had any comments..

Am looking at house plans now for a new house, (~3000 sqft) and trying to map out what kind of costs to put in a HA system..

One of the things I want is to setup a microphone/speaker in most rooms and have googled for awhile and found some info, but it has been mostly older stuff..

Here is what I think is recommended.. (most of my info from this great site:
http://james.lipsit.com/whole.htm


PZM microphones from Crown or Shure.. (ceiling mounted is not recommended, but I think that will be the way I go, not sure wife would appreciate anything else)
SCM-810 for the mixer..

Not sure what software I will use, Hoomseer, Hal2000, etc..

What i have been surfing around trying to find is whether I could adapt an PC based sound card to do these types on controls..

I found a couple of these:

http://www.tracertek.com/c-portdsp2000.htm
http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua1000.html

Not sure what the best solution is? I currently plan on having around 8 mics/speakers but may add more in the future..

jpk

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Welcome to Cocoontech.

Many people have mixed feelings about voice recognition. Some have success while others have given up on it.

My advice would be to mock a one room system up and test it before you expand to a larger "all-rooms" system.

I don't use VR but others have and should comment on this shortly.

 

[DavidL]

Wire for VR (and lots more) and then you have the flexibility to use it or not as the technologies progress. Most important is to wire for everything you can think of. The equipment can always come later as time and funds allow.

Also allow for routes for putting additional wires as you will always forget something.