How to Use 7.1 Surround Amp in Whole House Audio

[kimvi]

I am a music nut. When the urge strikes me, I want the ability to crank up the tunes in the living room and I don't want my surround sound speaker standing on the sideline. And, when the wife is pissed at me (which happens more than I care to admit) and I am banished to the guest bedroom....again, how do I go from watching a basketball game to jamming to Cult of Personality via my 8' in Wall speakers?

The conventional thinking seem to be the seperation of AV & Whole House Audio Distribution. I don't plan on using the default LCD TV speakers in any room. I would like to use either 7.1 Surround Sound Amps, 5.1 Surround Sound Amps or 8" In Wall speakers. How do I switch between AV & Audio Sources?

Is there some kind of audio splitter I can use?

Will my HA software detect sound coming from the AV side and pipe the soucnds to the speakers/amp?

How do I plan for that in terms of wiring and hardware?

 

[DavidL]

Somewhere I am missing the question in the story. If you are asking how do I route an audio source from one room to another, you can do that with a Matrix Switcher. The PC (or the front panel controls of the switcher) tell the switcher what input plugs route to what output plug(s).

Once on outputs, then you send that output to amplifiers that feed specific speakers in an area of the house (an audio zone).

You can also take the output of an amplifier and send that to a different set of speakers, but that is not the typical solution.

AV is handled same way. Matrix switchers can switch both audio and video (of many different types).

Cinemar sells VideoStorm HD A/V switchers. Probably one of the better values in the Matrix switching market. Server DIY'r hunt on eBay for Autopatch or Extron commercial duty switchers. Great if you get lucky to get exactly what you need (difficult). Neothings is a more expensive than VideoStorm, but nicer looking packaging.

As far as detecting the audio, there are solutions like that but a much better solution is to got to your HA touchscreen user interface and just tell it what you want to do (Audio or Video), where you want to do it (bedroom), and what you want to listen to or watch (content selection). the programming in the HA software does the rest (once configured).

 

[opie]

Not sure if this is what you are after but take a look at the Russound AB 3.2 it might do what you need.

As far as utilizing your full 7.1 setup the with the distributed system as a source, you can use the line level out (if your particular system has it) as an input to your Home Theater Receiver.

 

[IVB]

The way my 5.1 is wired, I have both a digital input to my Denon 3805's VDP source from the HTPC for when i'm watching "24" in surround sound, digital input to "DVD" source from the 777 when i'm watching "Chronicles of Riddick", and analog input to the "CD" source from the ZPR68 matrix switcher which serves whole house audio. The ZPR68 serves all the various rooms.

CQC handles switching both the ZPR zone/source mapping and the Denon source/zone mapping with the press of a single button. Global Variables handle the setting of a field that tells me what the current setting is. Check out the "F/R" zone on the far right of the attached pics. Pretty simple.