Speaker controls

[CDC]

Hello all, I am looking for a basic (low tech) way for an owner to operate remote speakers. I will need a way to turn on the amp from remote area as well as control volume. He is convinced that all they will ever listen to is 1 sat. radio station. (We are pulling a cat5 to each area along with L/R audio cable for future zone control.) I am familiar with more sophisticated systems but I don't need anything fancy, (yet). Thanks for your help.

CDC

 

[Steve]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what about a plain old fashioned IR extender? Either the plug and play kind, or get an IR receiver that can go wherever you want (mounted in cabinet, on shelf, etc), then a hub at amp end with emitter(s) to the equipment?

 

[Rupp]

How remote? Across the house or across town? I use HomeSeer to control my outdoor speakers using the Ocelot and a pair of powermids. This can be done from anywhere in the world. If you just need "local" control then skip the Ocelot and control the receiver, as Steve points out, with a remote and the powermids. This why they can use any function the remote offers.

 

[CDC]

Sorry I wasn't so clear. There are 6-remote pairs of speakers. I thought about IR Targets, but then they would need a remote in each room. That would be OK untill they got misplaced. (about a week I would guess). I am not familiar with Powermids. Homeseer & Ocelot are overkill for this, is it not? Thanks for the replies.

 

[Steve]

I'm still a little unclear what you want - control of the amp from any of 6 locations? There is no magic, you either need a remote, keypad, touchscreen, rf device or something either portable or in each location. I'm not aware of the 'thought based' remote yet

You could maybe insert a regular volume control inline at each room? And if all you want is on/off of the amp you could trip a relay or something with your cat5. A simple pushbutton to toggle a relay on/off to trip the power to the receiver? Not ideal but may work?

 

[Aaron]

I think what he wants is mind control of the system... no problem. Just call my friend in the Advanced Psionics Research (APR) dept at Langly, Steve Shro... oh wait; Nevermind that would just get you shot.

Buy an RF remote.