Need help with whole home audio/video

[neuro11]

Hi, everyone, just want to let you know this is my first post.

So currently I am having a new home built and need some questions answered on where to go because I'm clueless. I am getting my house prewired (2 speakers and volume control) in the master bedroom, den, flex room, 3 bedrooms. I did some research on the Lync 6 system from HTD and was wondering where and what types of wires I need to home run to the basement where all my equipment will be placed. In the master there will be 1 TV, loft will have 1 TV with 5.1 surround sound system and the family room will have 1 TV with 5.1 system. So my question is how can I have all my speakers (2 speakers plus the 2- 5.1 systems working with the whole-home audio). I also want to know if say in my master bedroom I want to watch cable on the tv, is there any way I can set it up so I can use the 2 speakers for audio from the tv rather than using the TV speakers?


I also am trying to figure out if I can have all A/V equipment in the basement and have video to all the TV's without having individual a/v equipment to each TV? I have been reading about HDMI matrix switches and HDbaseT but am really confused on which one is better and not overly expensive.

Should I run 2 Cat5e, 1 coax with the rooms where the 2 speakers are run to the basement and the same 2 Cat5e and 1 coax from the 5.1 system to the basement?

Any help regarding the equipment I would need for such a setup will be appreciated, I just don't want to see lots of wires running.

I will upload my plans for the house for reference (dunno where I can upload pictures, any help would be great)


Thanks
 
 

 

[Neurorad]

One way to do it is to use an AVR for each TV zone.  The distributed audio line-out would run to that AVR, to share the speakers.
 
The main reason for distributed video is to share sources.  If you don't need that (put a set-top streamer at each location, e.g. Roku, AppleTV), you can just locate the AVRs and other equipment in the basement wiring closet, and skip the matrix.
 
The cabling will be the same either way, though.  All cables home-run to the wiring closet, including speakers.  For futureproofing, run 3-4 category cables and 1-2 coax cables to each potential video location.
 
Neuro11 sounds like 911 - stroke neurologist?

 

[neuro11]

Thanks for the reply, I was actually going to run all the speaker wires to the basement from each room and have 2 AVR for the two rooms with 5.1 system.  The reason for this is I don't want the clutter of putting A/V equiement in each room so that is why I was thinking about using a matrix switch.  I did some research on hdmi over cat (also HDbaseT), have you heard anything regarding this for my application?  I plan on sharing sources eventually, so I rather just get everything setup now and don't have to worry about it later.  
 
Regarding using the Lync 6 system from HTD, would I be able to somehow integrate both, so that I can listen to audio or video (via switching source from keypad)?
 
I chose neuro11 b/c I'm a medical student pursuing to become a neurologist
 
Thanks

 

[pete_c]

I also want to know if say in my master bedroom I want to watch cable on the tv, is there any way I can set it up so I can use the 2 speakers for audio from the tv rather than using the TV speakers?

Here I created a subzone (some other rooms are like this too) for the master bedroom and bath.  Main zone is audio from the zoned audio Russound system which is just two speakers.  The audio subzone is a multimedia 5.1 receiver to speakers in the master bedroom and bathroom.  Using a small MM 5.1 receiver. Simple set up with just LCD, MM receiver and XBMC box.  All of the 5.1 speakers are in wall and in ceiling.
 
The above noted I use an AB (old fashioned type) switch to go from the Russound zone to the local MM zone.
 
Local video/audio come from an XBMC box, RG-6 OTA plus in house, Satellite and cable plus catXX going to near the LCD, nightstands and master bathroom.
 
The little XBMC box streams live video, recorded video, NAS video, NAS audio and numerous video and audio services from the internet.

 

[neuro11]

Thanks, but I seem to a bit confused now. As for what equipment I would need to place in my basement, what would you recommend for video distribution? (hdbaset, hdmi over cat5e, matrix switch???).
 
This is my plan (please let me know if this will work all together):
 
Going to have master (2 speakers prewired with volume control and 2 cat5E with coax), loft (5.1 speakers prewired plus 2 Cat5e and 1 coax), den (2 speakers with volume control and 2 cat5E), family room (5.1 speakers prewired plus 2 cat5E and 1 coax), Flex room (1 cat5e), backyard (1 cat5E), and 3 bedrooms (2 speakers prewired with volume control).  
 
One of the Cat5E I plan to use it with the HTD Lync 6 whole-home audio system and the other I wanted to run video through Cat5E if possible and worth it.
 
So I would use an A/B switch for the rooms where I want to use tv as the source for audio or music via the whole-home audio? (in the family room and master)
 
Should I run all the speaker wires from each room to the basement where I will put all the equipment?
 
 
So what switches, AVR (since I probably need 2 for the separate 5.1 system), etc would I need?
 
Thanks

 

[pete_c]

Thanks, but I seem to a bit confused now. As for what equipment I would need to place in my basement, what would you recommend for video distribution? (hdbaset, hdmi over cat5e, matrix switch???).

You can utilize catXX for video distribution.  I am only playing with it right now.  I also have configured rapid run cables for HDMI stuff.  All of the cabling in the house here home runs to the basement comm closet section.  Video HDMI distribution methodologies are new and expensive. 
 
I have the zoned audio amps on a rack with servers today for 12 audio zones.
 
Each audio zone is two speakers and a cat5e to the control keypads.  The zoned amplifiers are also controlled by the HAI OPII Omnitouch screens.  The serial out is split two ways for a secondary controller which is the automation server with its touch screens.
 
I wired 2-3 RG-6 cables to each bedroom.  2-6 cat5e's go to each of the bedrooms.  That said though turned one bedroom into an at home office and the walk in closet into a sort of printing room and paper storage room. 
 
Its better to put in more wire than less.  IE if you want to distribute HDMI then assume 2 Catxx just for HDMI for now and one catXX for network.  Two of the bedrooms were my kids rooms.  That said I put in cat5e by their desks and behind their TV's. (and their own audio stuff as other audio subzones).
 
I am playing with utilizing XBMC for video distribution as you can also remote control the XBMC boxes.  So right now they are connected by GB links.  Its only one network cable to the XBMC box with HDMI out and analog and digital outputs.
 
External live sources today are:  OTA, Cable, internal channels and Satellite.  (I don't really watch live TV or much of any TV these days though).
 
One box (playing with) has Tversity and PlayOnTV.  Another box called MythTV has 5 Tuners on it for live streaming and recorded TV stuff. 
 
HD and DVD movies are only stored on a NAS these days and playback is via the XBMC boxes.  Music is on another NAS box.
 
I do not utilize DVD or Blueray players anymore in any room.
 

So I would use an A/B switch for the rooms where I want to use tv as the source for audio or music via the whole-home audio? (in the family room and master)

 
Its just what I did.  Master bedroom has a separate 5.1 setup with the AB switch connected to two speakers and the whole house audio.  I didn't do this though for the family room with the 7.1 set up.
 

Should I run all the speaker wires from each room to the basement where I will put all the equipment?

 
I did.  A next door neighbor put his zoned amps and wiring in his great room (family room) on his shelves next to his multimedia receiver.  Kind of looks OK but a bit tacky.
 

So what switches, AVR (since I probably need 2 for the separate 5.1 system), etc would I need?

 
I used Russound AB switches and these are next to Russound keypads and are used for only two of the speakers in the 5.1 room set up.  (front two).
 
I did though add two speakers in the master bathroom.  Audio is either zoned or master bedroom sourced.  The family room speaker wires just run from the speakers to the LCD area.  (center, right front, right left, rear-center right, rear-center left, rear right and rear left and subwoofer behind a coffee table).  I used in ceiling and external speakers for the 7.1 setup.

 

[Neurorad]

If you're going with the HTD unit, then HTD typically provides design support.  I've read that they are very good at hand holding, but I haven't used them personally.
 
I don't want to discourage you from exploring all options.  I just want to draw some attention to the distributor, a currently un-tapped resource.
 
2 General options for sharing the speakers, within a zone, with a TV.  1, use the HTD as an input into the 5.1 AVR.  2, use an A-B switch for the speakers (commonly automatic - current sensing., e.g. Niles current-sensing ABS-1).  For the second option, the rear surround speakers are typically shared between the whole-house system and the 5.1 system.
 
Maybe HTD has another way, using a voltage trigger from a keypad to perform the switching (as I have with my Nuvo system).

 

[pete_c]

Here the original issue/concern/methodology of sub zones cropped up with a brick wall of adolescent raging hormonal independance (two at one time) and them (against me)  not wanting "the mothership" control the AV in their rooms.  The failover was just controling the power to said subzone remotely; easy to do.
 
I gave in; afterall it was their rooms in my home. 
 
Solid core doors and keeping the music at a reasonable level helped me. 
 
I redid the sound in the master bedroom as we "moved" there to watch movies while reconstructing the family room.  There is a couch sitting there with a bit space.  That said the ceilings are vaulted in such a way that the angle of the mounted in ceiling vault part is down towards the listener.  Today the LCD is never utilized at all.  The audio is used daily. 
 
I went with mechanical Russound switches because I came upon a bulk deal on these and they appeared to be well constructed.  I do audio electronic sensor source switching with the TTS chatterbox (mothership's mother tongue)  stuff.

 

[neuro11]

Thanks,
 
would it be possible for me to use an HDMI matrix switch with cat5e (http://www.ebay.com/itm/4X4-HDMI-Matrix-Switch-w-4-cables-HDMI-1-3b-/161101840809?pt=US_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item25826b01a9) and then use this for each room with the tv (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011012&p_id=8122&seq=1&format=2)?
 
OR
 
If I wanted to go with the HDbaseT options would I need the matrix switch as HDbaseT as well as the extenders for tv to be HDbaseT??

 

[sic0048]

Neuro - if you are asking if you can use the HDMI switcher for audio and video use along with those baluns, then the answer is yes.  But I don't have any personal experience with either of those products and I will say that there is a big difference in balun performance.  Some work very well with little to no loss of signal or image quality.  Others are pretty bad and you end up with a bad image at the other end.
 
I'm also not sure of your audio delivery method, but it is a real pain to have to turn the TV on to listen to music (plus it is a waste of power and screen life).  If you are planning on using the HDMI for audio as well as audio/video distribution, I think you will find this is less than ideal.

 

[Neurorad]

If you're a student, keep in mind you'll be moving soon.