Question regarding speaker wiring and component location in pre-wired house

Dear Forum Members,

I recently moved into a pre-wired 3 story townhouse and I have problems figuring out what the best solution is to achieve my goals. I have read through many posting here and (hopefully) learnt a lot, but I am still not quite there. I am new here, so some of my descriptions might not be right on - my apologies for that.

Existing wiring and speaker lay out is as following:

(1) Living room (LR) on 2nd floor has one pair of in-ceiling speakers type JBL RIF8C.
(2) Kitchen (K) on the 2nd floor just adjacent to the living room has one pair of in-ceiling speakers type Revel Concerta IC80.
(3) Bedroom (BedR) on 3rd floor has two pairs of in-ceiling speakers type Revel Concerta IC80 plus one single Revel speaker (i.e. a total of 5 speakers)
(4) Bathroom (BaR) on 3rd floor has one pair of in-ceiling speakers type Revel Concerta IC80
(5) In case it matters for the answer, my cable modem and wireless router are in another 3rd floor room. I have good signal strength throughout the house thanks to my ASUS RT-N56U router.
(6) Distance from 1st floor to 2nd floor is around 30ft, and from 2nd floor to 3rd floor around 25ft

Speaker wires are AWG CL3 14/4c and are all landed in the 1st floor utility room. In addition, from any of the above locations 2 RG6 and 2 Cat 5E are running down to the same 1st floor utility room. I am corrently using 1 RG6 each in BedR and LR for cable boxes that are connected to HDTVs

My goal:

(1) 5.1 setup in LR for video and audio
(2) If possible, 3.1 set up in BedR for video and audio
(3) Video will be provided by way of a Samsung 3D blu ray player and an HD cable box. I am OK to not have the ability to run separate video feed to LR and BedR at the same time.
(4) Audio only for K and BaR
(5) Audio can be the same for all zones, but I want to be able to control selection of and volume in the zones on an individual basis.
(6) Audio will be provided from CD and internet based services such as Pandora. For the latter I am thinking about an iphone docking station since I can stream Pandora on my phone. I guess an alternative would be a Sonos Connect.
(7) I intend to integrate the audio/video system into Micasaverde that I intend to use for a moderate level of home automation (as I cannot afford Creston or Control4) that allows me to control some lighting, a couple of IP cameras and a door lock.
(8) Since it is a multi-story townhouse it would be very expensive to run additional wires. I want to get by with what I have

My questions:

(a) How can I build a 5.1 setup in the LR? I only have one pair of in-ceiling speaker that I can use for my back channels. Do I need to put my main A/V receiver in the LR to connect it with 2 front speakers, a central speaker and a sub? If I do so, what other equipment would I need in the basement (a matrix switch such as an Aton DLA, and another A/V receiver?), and how do I connect the equipment? I also struggle to understand how I can connect the back channel speaker that have the speaker wire landed in the 1st floor into this set up

(b) How can I build a 3.1 setup in the BedR? Here the main issue appears to be the sub woofer. Also, how would I connect the TV in the BedR to the other equipment, especially if the main A/V receiver

(c) Do I only need 1 cable box for the set up? Where should I place it - I guess it depends on the layout. Same question regarding blu ray player.

(d) If I listen to Pandora through my iphone, do I lose the ability to remote control it? Is a Sonos Connect a better solution?

(e) I intend to use an iPad to remote control everything, as micasaverde allows. Since I assume that most of the home entertainment equipment is IR controlled, I intend to use 1 or 2 SQ Blasters that translate the wifi command into IR. Does that make sense or am I on the wrong path?

Many thanks in advance for any help! If you need more insight please just ask.

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your fast reply. This is extremely useful!

In respect of your question: the location of the L/R in-ceiling speakers is not perfect for 5.1. since in-wall would be better, but it is still doable as they are at the back.

Let me just recapture to ensure I got it right, and ask some follow-up questions, all regarding your answer on (a)

LR:
- A/R with pre-amp output
- MuxLab stereo-audio-over-cat5e balun to send the pre-amp surround channel outputs from the pre-amp output to the utility room
- TV
- Blu ray player

Utility room:
- Audio Source AMP 100
- MuxLab stereo-audio-over-cat5e balun to receive the pre-amp surround channel outputs from the pre-amp output
- Sonos Connect
- Another external Amp for the WHA. All speakers other than the ones in the LR will be connected to this Amp, as well as the Sonos Connect (and any other source that I put in the utility room). Input 2 line-out on the AMP-100 will be connected as a source to the external Amp to make the source in the LR (i.e. the blu ray player and standard FM/AM radio from A/R) accessible for the WHA.
- Speaker Selectors (?, see following question)

Please help me with the last item. It appears to me that I should be able to get by with an external amp that can power three zones since I will need to address K, BedR and BaR. LR is powered with its own A/R. I would of course need to program scenes into the remote in order to make this operationally friendly. However, I might be missing something here. It also seems to recommend 2 speaker selectors. What would I need the second one for?

Additional question: If I wanted to listed to CD from the blu ray player in let’s say the BaR, I guess the command would be for LR A/R to turn on and address pre-amp outputs which in turn would power on the Audio Source AMP 100 (as I would put it on auto-on). I would also switch on the external Amp in the utility room and select as source the input from the AMP 100, and switch to the speaker zone for the BedR. Assuming that this is correct (and let me know if it is not), the sound would play in the BedR but also on the Back Surround speakers (as they are kind of the trigger). This can be a bit of a nuisance if someone in the other bedrooms on the 2nd floor be (which are not included in the WHA because they are not pre-wired, although they all have 2 coax and 2 Cat5e) wants to sleep while I listen to the sounds in the 3rd floor BedR. I saw on the AMP 100 that one can adjust the volume locally, but it appears that the AMP 100 cannot be controlled by IR which makes the local adjustment of volume not really practicable. Any solution for this?

Third question: Do you have a recommendation for a good external amp that can do what I need it to. I have only bought A/V receivers in the past, but it seems that for the WHA I only need a lesser solution.

Fourth question: Any recommendation for the LR A/R that will only have to power a 3.1 system, although I should be able to calibrate towards a 5.1 system by recognizing the speakers on the pre-amp/AMP 100 connection. Is calibration in a setting like this actually possible with the systems that for example Denon and Yamaha have? If not, I guess I would need to learn how to manually calibrate it. Do you know of any good guide on the internet for this?

Again, many thanks for your invaluable input!

Angiolo