Howdi

I see that Russound has the new ibridge bay, but are there any other systems out there (B&K/control4/niles/etc) which integrate with a mac to distribute audio directly from itunes ?

Ipods are somewhat tedious in comparison with itunes etc. Would like to integrate the mac directly.

I could modulate the video from the mac to allow selection on any tv, but was hoping for a canned option.

Can anyone shed any light ?

Thanks kindly,
Steve D.
:confused:

I'm not sure if this is what you want, but you might look at Apple's Airport Express with Airtunes.

I have a G5 connected directly to my B&K Receiver via optical audio and a Plasma via DVI. iTunes etc are controlled with a HTM MX800 remote via Keyspan DMR. You can do the same with a Mini or ????

I have a G5 connected directly to my B&K Receiver via optical audio and a Plasma via DVI. iTunes etc are controlled with a HTM MX800 remote via Keyspan DMR. You can do the same with a Mini or ????

I have my mini connected to my SXRD DVI->HDMI, and to my receiver with optical audio. There are many ways to control iTunes...

Have been in a reno for nearly a year. Now need to wire in 2-3 weeks.
Have researched til blue in the face. 2 diff installer visits to assess.
Roofing on-going.

Have :
7 pairs of speakers outside of tv room on main floor incl. 2 in office.
4-5 pairs on second floor ... 2 bdrms and a loft.
3 pairs outside. 2 pairs on lower area of property - croquet lawn ... (2.5 acres)
Speakers are mix of PSB, Paradigm, Boston Accoustics, Sonance
with 2 lower, 2 outside, all uppers to buy yet.

so ... up to 30 channels required in due course via switching or direct
outside of tv room.

TV room is 5.1 with sonance in-ceiling surrounds, BA VR2 & centre and Paradigm
sub. Marantz SR7001 in TV room (110Wx7.1)

TVs : 1 in kitchen, 1 in bdroom, HD in Bdrm, Loft and pool room (cues n balls:),
1 in TV room.

3-4 Cat5 everywhere, incl. 6 coax to tvs, speaker wires abound - all homerun to closet
with partial off-load / connection centre in office. Likely have 3-4 keypad locations
and may wire in for others.

Have looked at Control4, Russound, B&K, Speakercraft, Niles for control of all this
and really am swamped without a clear path home.

Run Macintoshes in the house. Likely have a mini in TV room.
Macbook pro, powerbook g4, powerbook g3
Like what I see in shed.com, and salling.com (dang Telus wont allow...)
Have Media-Central, and have used all of Apples software options.

Could easily handle everything if only with one pair of speakers ....
tough part is ensuring ample options for many speaker zones etc .....
hence the search for multi(12/16)-channel amp and ability to control zone volumes and sources with itunes input.

Thanks for replies.
light bulbs go on and it makes learning easier !
cheers
sd

I hope you are at least using Cat 5e, and not plain old Cat 5 wiring. Gigabit switches are the way to link network zones together right now (Netgear offers boxes at fair prices), but faster 10G switches are coming over the horizon). The next generation Ethernet network will be crippled and won't take full advantage of the gigabit or 10G bandwidth without Cat 5e, or preferably Cat 6 wiring. Cat 6 Ethernet has a spline separating each of the four twisted-pair wire sets, to eliminate cross-talk and maximize bandwidth.

And if you plan to install 802.11n WiFi routers for laptops and the iPhone, create a Cat 6 or fiber optic "backbone" to link them together (and to the switches. Netgear has affordable 24-port or larger switches with fiber optic backbone ports). This will make for the most efficient network communications so that wireless signals are passed from the portables to the routers only -- the router-to-router communications all will be hard-wired with no bottlenecks to slow down video streaming.

With this infrastucture you can plan for a scalable Xserve or more affordable Netgear (formerly Infrant) ReadyNAS NV+ NAS storage device. I actually expect Apple to introduce some new network storage system for SOHO use at some point.

B&K is the way to go. If you install CK1.2 keypads you will be able to control the mac from any location (via the keyspan DMR interface). The only problem with iTunes (with one Mac) for such an extensive system is you will be limited to the same music at all locations - unless you use different sources (CD FM SAT XM etc)

Just tonight I bought a sonos system. I plan to stream the itunes library (and also pandora) stored on my NAS. Been thinking along these lines for over a year, but just finally decided to spend the dough. I like this system because my computers don't have to even be on or run a client software of any kind.