Premise Virtual Audio Matrix Switch

[desertcomm]

Has anyone used a virtual matrix in Premise? I'm thinking about setting up a multi-zone audio system using nothing more than multiple sound cards that are already in the server. Premise recognizes the sound cards easy enough, but won't allow more than one connection to be built to each one. What I need to make it happen is a virtual matrix that resides on the server and can be controlled by Premise, switching any input on any sound card to any output on any (other) sound card.

As for why I would do this, I have the sound cards available - and if I can take care of the missing piece of the puzzle (the virtual matrix), then there's no need to spend the money for a real multi-zone audio switch.

Has anyone done this yet?

Thanks -

 

[desertcomm]

Follow up: something similar to Virtual Audio Cable might work, but the problem with VAC is that it doesn't have switching functionality, and no interface for Premise. It simply takes the input of one sound card and connects it to the output of another by creating a logical (or virtual) connection between the two. Once connected, if you want to swap the input to a different sound card you have to go back into VAC manually to tear out the old connection and build a new one. What I'm looking for is something that will do that automatically, and that Premise can control.

I did find some 1x6 sound cards, but that's not quite what I'm after, either.

Thanks again -

 

[roussell]

Take a look at Jack. I've used it on Linux for similar functionality and I believe they have a Windows port.

Terry

 

[123]

Roussell, thanks for that link!


desertcomm, if you search the Premise forum using the following key words "sound card". you'll get several hits discussing Premise's MediaZone's, mSense, sound cards, audio-switching, etc. A few of the hits touch on what you want but not precisely. Here are three that might interest you:

http://cocoontech.co...ery-song-change
http://cocoontech.co...ative-to-msense
http://cocoontech.co...-video-untested
Please be aware that many of the posts tagged with my name and dated 07 MAR 2008 were not authored by me; I transferred hundreds of posts from another forum to Cocoontech on that day. I mention this because the "MediaZonePlus" module, described in the second link above, has my name on the post but was not written by me. I wish the author had shared that module but he never did.

 

[desertcomm]

Awesome - thanks to both of you for the feedback.

Terry - downloading Jack now; from what I've seen at a glance it has the functionality I'm after, but since I'm almost 100% positive there's no driver support in Premise, looks like I get to learn some C++ coding. This should be an interesting project, pretty fun to crack (if I can make it work).

123 - thanks for the links. I've read some of them, but not all; filtering through the noise in the archive the other day was giving me a headache, and after a little while I just assumed that nobody had made the attempt (which I can understand), and posted the question. I'm an IT/networking/comms guy by trade, and brand-spanking-new to A/V, security, and home automation, so my learning curve is steep.

My goal is to have a single, tricked-out server to host Premise (and other apps), store my media, and perform all of my A/V switching.

Thanks again for the help, guys - will stay in touch and let you know how it goes.

 

[etc6849]

This is a great idea! Please let us know how things progress. How many analog/digital audio devices are you thinking about switching? I don't have any audio only devices other than the Elk M1G's output. I guess an FM radio or a CD carousel would be the typical use, but since these types of media are supported in Media Center it makes more sense for me to approach things from a network perspective and place a mini-itx pc on the back of each TV.

However, for a while I have dreamed of a similar idea that would switch video. Now that there are HDMI input cards and dual HDMI out video cards, one could really make an affordable HDMI switch using a PC. Since HDMI matrix switchers typically aren't expandable and very costly, this would be worth someone smarter than me pursuing. Imagine having an HDMI switcher and a media server all in one? You could even use My Movies with a Windows Media Center add-in to play blurays from the machine's hard drive. One could also strip out the HDCP before sending the signal out to the displays; this would make switching much more reliable and faster.

Windows Media Center (WMC) is one place where Premise is lacking. I've made a simple module that controls an XBOX 360 (as a WMC extender) and a Windows Media PC over the network using VMController and has the ability to send pop up messages such as "Front Door Bell" etc... What's missing is full integration with AB that would display cover art; a WMC add-in to control Premise would be nice too...

If you're interested, I have also done a lot of experimenting with a USB sound card and a network based USB device server. This setup works well for getting audio from Premise to a remote location (e.g. when using Premise to serve mp3's). Let me know if you want me to dig up the link that has the details or you can search this forum... If you look through the help files, there's also a network based sound card device, but I forgot the name of it.