Whole house audio and digital music

[royalj7]

I’ve been looking into installing a multi channel amp for a while now and am finally in a place where I have the time to do it. Originally I was thinking of splitting my home theater components and using them as sources, but now I’m really only interested in having one source initially, MP3's on my computer. I’m probably going to get the HTD or CAA system and my question is what is the simplest way to get digital music to the amp and have control from the local keypads? I know a lot of folks use touch pads or remotes to control the music (through ML and CQC) and I’m probably going to do that down the road, but right now I just want to be able to control playback on the HTD or CAA’s keypads. Thanks for the help with an elementary question.

--Jamie

 

[pkoslow]

Hi Jamie,

The Russound CAA keypads don't really offer any control... just on/off, source select, volume control and then adjustment for bass/treble, loudness, etc. They do have an IR receiver that will relay IR commands from a handheld remote back to the CAA controller. This is an easy way to control source gear like cable boxes and DVD players and could even control MP3 playback from a computer (or iPod) setup with an IR receiver. The CAA controller does have the companion KPSC keypads that can be added to the standard keypad (taking up a 2-gang box). These provide transport control which again is just translated into IR codes that the CAA controller spits out IR emitters.

Once you've added the cost of the KPSC keypads, you're getting closer to the cost of a CAM6.6 system which when paired with the UNO-S2 keypads provides real transport control, a 12 character LCD display, and two-way serial communication.

There's an application called CasaTunes that I've installed now for a few customers that provides inexpensive integration with the Russound (and NUVO) distributed audio systems. It allows you to choose and control your MP3 playback from the music keypads (and receive meta data feedback which displays song information) as well as have full control of the entire system from any web browser.

http://www.casatools.com/Products.aspx

Cheers,
Paul

 

[royalj7]

Thanks for the infomation Paul, I'm glad I asked before blundering in. Looking closer at the HTD system, it's lacking any transport controls also. I was assuming on the computer side I would have the IR output of whichever amp sent to a USB-UIRT or something like that with Grinder or something translating the commands. Just looks like now I'm going to have to rethink the other side of it. I just would really like to have skip and pause control at a keypad location. I assume the CasaTools requires RNET capability?

Thanks again,
--Jamie