Hi,
I am new to these forums and new to whole house audio as well. I am planning my whole house audio system rather urgently so any help will be hugely appreciated. Here are my requirements for whole house audio:
I have pretty much settled on HAI's Omni Pro II controller (controls lighting, security, HVAC & music), but trying to figure out which whole house audio system to go with. I am looking at Russound's new MCA C5 (8 sources, 8 zone). I know it has a RS232 interface to work with a home automation system. Has anyone used this system with HAI with success? Any caveats or tips would be greatly appreciated.
I want to use the Russound MDK C5 keypads to select music from a central HTPC which has music in mp3, m4a format on a hard drive. Is this possible? e.g. I could be broadcasting Mozart throughout the house, but my kid could want to over-ride it by selecting Metallica to play in his room.
I will eventually have a HTPC attached to a TV in some zones. For those zones, I will have a local amplifier (would be great if this was integrated into the HTPC, any products out there that do this?) and would want to use the room's speakers to play sound for movies on the TV in that room. I have been told that I could have a A/B switch in the zone, but the switch would need to be physically set to switch between local v/s central sources. Is there anything more streamlined that can be done here?
Hope the experts jump in here. I feel I am totally out of my comfort zone in making the right decisions on this.
I am new to these forums and new to whole house audio as well. I am planning my whole house audio system rather urgently so any help will be hugely appreciated. Here are my requirements for whole house audio:
- Be able to broadcast music to the entire house or selected zones
- Override broadcast music in any zone to a different source or a local source (HTPC in room)
- Use intercom functionality to interrupt music and communicate one-way via speakers to a particular zone
I have pretty much settled on HAI's Omni Pro II controller (controls lighting, security, HVAC & music), but trying to figure out which whole house audio system to go with. I am looking at Russound's new MCA C5 (8 sources, 8 zone). I know it has a RS232 interface to work with a home automation system. Has anyone used this system with HAI with success? Any caveats or tips would be greatly appreciated.
I want to use the Russound MDK C5 keypads to select music from a central HTPC which has music in mp3, m4a format on a hard drive. Is this possible? e.g. I could be broadcasting Mozart throughout the house, but my kid could want to over-ride it by selecting Metallica to play in his room.
I will eventually have a HTPC attached to a TV in some zones. For those zones, I will have a local amplifier (would be great if this was integrated into the HTPC, any products out there that do this?) and would want to use the room's speakers to play sound for movies on the TV in that room. I have been told that I could have a A/B switch in the zone, but the switch would need to be physically set to switch between local v/s central sources. Is there anything more streamlined that can be done here?
Hope the experts jump in here. I feel I am totally out of my comfort zone in making the right decisions on this.
