whole house audio and security system

[jcalisi]

Just trying to think this through and limit the visual items... I plan to have a whole house audio system (htd) and was wandering if anyone has attempted to use those speakers for the alarm (elk m1g)? I'm assuming you would have to take up a source in order to do something like this. is it worth it or should I just install the little speaker boxes for coverage.

thanks in advance for humoring my stupid thoughts...

 

[Johnnyboy79]

Not a stupid thought at all. I too would like to do exactly this. I believe it is possible but haven't read fully into it. I have a Speakercraft MZC-66 currently, but the ELK does not interface with it directly. I do believe it can with Russound and Nuvo systems.

 

[tmbrown97]

It's definitely doable... there are a couple of options and considerations.

1. If your audio system supports a PA mode, you can feed through the audio system's amplifier. If you do need to trigger it somehow, there are some easily accessible rules on the Elk to know when it wants to say something. Considerations: If the audio system takes too long to switch over, you may lose part of the message; Also you must have sufficient backup battery on the audio system - if your power has been out for 5 hours and then someone breaks in - or worse yet, you have a fire - what happens then?
   
2. This option will cost a little more but it's perfectly doable - you can use a series of relays to swap the source on the speakers from the amplifier to the Elk. You'd want the relays to default to the Elk and switch to the other amplifier as needed - this is sort of a fail-safe so the Elk gets the speakers if it needs them or if the power is out. As it sits though, the Elk probably won't have sufficient internal amplification to drive many speakers, but you can pair in some Elk800 amplifiers (10W each) to get the job done. The benefit of this one is that with sufficient battery backup on the Elk, this will work for a long time after any UPS on the audio amplifier dies. This would also get you the best overall sound quality... but it'll cost more and take more work to get everything set up correctly, and the transition from the M1 to the whole house system will be very abrupt vs. a soft fade (but that soft fade is what can cause you to miss part of the announcement).

Of course worth mentioning, the SP12's mount behind the KP2 keypads quite nicely and are invisible; and they put the alarm sounds at the alarm panels, which makes it feel pretty natural. If you go that route, there is a Mute input on the HTD systems you can use to silence the whole house audio while the Elk is speaking.

 

[Neurorad]

I'd call HTD and ask them. I would think some of their devices support paging.

 

[tmbrown97]

I'd call HTD and ask them. I would think some of their devices support paging.

I did call them. They don't. Here is where I wrote up what they told me.