pmilin's Whole House Audio System - Page 2

That is a small circuit board that acts as a splitter on the EIM port. The EIM port is their expansion port basically. It allows keypads as well as a local room source to be connected to the system (Audio port). The splitter is used to connect both an audio source and a 10 Key keypad (or IRLinx) to the SpeakerLinx. I am not sure what it's function is exactly but I think is hepls filter the noise from the keypad so that it doesn't bleed into the local audio source. That is why one of the wires is running away from the other wires. The Cat5e wire to this port is not for IP network signals.


It's hard to say how much each piece costs because I got a quote for the entire system. I suggest that you talk to a NetStreams dealer because some of them include installation as part of the price and some do not. It is not the cheapest system by any means compared to a Russound system or similar. It's not the most expensive either.


The installer and Netstreams recommend 16 gauge wire minimum. This is the same gauge they recommend for the speaker wire also so it makes it easier to just run the same wire everywhere. It is low voltage but higher current. I wouldn't call it low power per se. The four wires are necessary for some of the equipment because 16 gauge isn't really enough. The speakerlinx 50w for example uses all four wires (a four port Phoenix connector). Most of the other pieces only use two wires (2 port Phoenix). In this case I just ran one 16/4 wire and mounted two 20w speakerlinx units next to each other. Each one used two wires from the 4 wire run. This worked out because of their relatively close proximity. This may not work in all cases. Most of the time you will want to mount the speakerlinx as close to the speakers as practical. (Don't let a dealer convince you that you can mount all of the speakerlinx's in the rack and then run speaker wire all over the house. Although it will work, it defeats the purpose of an IP solution).

Note that the number and type of SpeakerLinx devices will determine which power supply you need. They make two models. If you are going to use even one 50W speakerlinx you need the higher power model. Dealers have a spreadsheet that tells them what your power supply requirements will be.

The beauty of the system is it's totally modular. You have a lot of flexibility on where and how the equipment is mounted. You also don't have to over buy just to get the desired number of zones. If you want 9 zones you buy 9 speakerlinx's. You don't have to buy two 8 zones amps or three 4 zone amps for example.

The IP aspect is cool too. Oh, and did I mention that it plays music flawlessly and in sync. No echoing between the different zones. It really works as advertised in this respect.


The video distribution stuff (Video over IP and Panaroma) is only 1080i max according to their specs. I have the Panaroma matrix switch. The IP stuff is pretty pricy and more for commerical use than home use I think. I am not sure that there are many 1080P systems out there that are affordable are there? Using the Panaroma switch and their single gang wall plates makes video distribution a snap. I have video over cat5e with no baluns or special adapters.

The wiring is pretty simple. Just home run all the cat5e that is going to be used for IP. Speaker wire from the speakerlinx locations to the speakers (typically short runs). And some short (must be less than 60ft.) runs for local sources/keypads.

Hope this helps. This project has been my life for the last few months so if you need any other questions answered let me know.

Thanks Buzz. Glad you like it. I am enjoying the system very much.

Hey, maybe you can put my system on your solutions web site. Ha

Music Library

I have recently upgraded the audio system to include NetStreams Streaming Music Manager (SMM) as well as a PC that receives a variety of Internet radio stations.

First the Streaming music manager:

This device is basically a PC with a small form factor mounted in a rackmountable 1U box. The key to it is the software that runs on it. The software is suppose to look on all of the network shares on my home network for music files. It then is suppose to catalog them and make them available to the NetStreams system. It also has built in USB ports so I can plug in a usb drive loaded with music files and it suppose to catalog those as well. This differs from just connecting a PC to the system via audio ports in that the music files remain in their digital format until they reach the speaker amplifiers. The SMM supports mp3 and wav file formats. With wav files there is no compression so the system has the capability to play all of my music fully uncompressed over the network.

I have all of my music stored on one PC soon to be a Microsoft Home Server box. This way I know where all of my music is. Even though the SMM has the capability of pulling music from a variety of devices, I find it easier to keep it all in one place.

Currently, there are lots of issues with the SMM. It doesn't seem to find all of the music, lists some music twice, and shows question marks on some songs. I have been able to resolve some of the issues by re-ripping some of my songs and retagging others (the mp3 tags need to be in a specific encoding I guess). This is a little annoying because I can download a freebie music player from the Internet and it does a better job of finding my music and showing all of the tag information without issues.

Like all NetStreams products, configuring the SMM entails a dealers help. The dealer setup a "stream" for each member of the house. The SMM supports up to six simultaneous streams. Once configured each stream shows up on the touch panels as a source that can be selected. Once I select a stream I can select the music that I want to play.

Playlists and Cover Art:
The SMM supports playlists. I am suppose to be able to build playlists in my favorite music library software and export them as .m3u files although I have not gotten this to work correctly. If the playlists are stored in the same folder where the music is the SMM is suppose to find them and catalog them. The playlists show up in the touch panels as well. I prefer the playlist approach to selecting music because I have too many songs to scroll through albums or genres to select music, but I can't seem to make it work. Right now it is too complicated so I haven't used this feature.

If a cover art file is stored in the same folder as the album, the SMM uses it to display on the touch panel.



Here are the touch screen shots for the SMM interface:

Internet Radio

So now I have the ability to listen to my music collection with the streaming music manager. But, I have found that I get tired of listening to the same music all the time. FM radio has too many commericals and satellite radio tends to repeat somewhat and only has one or sometimes two stations of each genre.

For variety I started listening to Internet radio stations. There are several free stations that are commercial free or only play one or two commericals per hour. The problem with this is that I can only listen to them on my PC. What if I want to play this music over my NetStreams system? Currently NetStreams does not support any kind of Internet streaming capability. I could, however, connect my PC to a room's audio port but then I would always have to go to the PC to change the station.

I decided a better approach would be to somehow add a PC to the NetStreams equation so that I could control the PC as well as listen to music from it. As I said, NetStreams does not have direct support for Internet streaming but they do support XM radios. An Internet radio from the user's perpective acts like any other XM radio. Select a station, listen to the music, and look at the current song title and artist on the screen. NetStreams' touch panels have a nice XM radio display that shows the current channel, song title and song artist.

I decided to write a driver for the PC that simulates an XM radio. I could then have my dealer configure my system for an XM Radio but instead of connecting the audio ports and serial port connector to an actual radio, I will connect everything to the sound card and serial port on the PC.

I chose to simulate the Polk Audio XM radio since that is a tried and true radio that NetStreams drivers support. Here's how it works:

My dealer configured NetStreams for the Polk Audio XM Tuner. The name for the source is called "Internet". NetStreams is connected by way of a MediaLinx device. This device is used to connect all sorts of legacy type equipment to the system such as FM tuners, CD players, disk changers, mp3 players, XM radios, etc. It has a serial port and audio-in ports built-in. Basically, the MediaLinx converts the analog signal to the NetStream's digital network, which then makes it available to any or all rooms.

To select a radio station, my driver has to provide station information to the MediaLinx when asked for it. The MediaLinx catalogs the radio stations so that they can be selected from the touch panels. From the NetStreams touch panel, I select the Internet source then select a radio station. The MediaLinx then sends a command to the would be XM Radio (my PC). My PC driver captures this command and translates it into the proper Internet radio station and opens the stream for playback through the PC's sound card.

Since the MediaLinx's audio port is connected to the PC it can now convert the audio signal from the PC to the NetStreams IP network and play the music to the proper room.

The downside to this configuration of course is the fact that the digital Internet radio streams have to go through a series of analog/digital conversions; however, I have found that the sound quality is actually pretty good on most radio stations that stream at least 96kbit. In short I am happy to get the variety of the Internet music and I don't feel that I am really sacrificing that much quality to do it. Maybe one day NetStreams will come out with a way to stream directly from the Internet.

Here is a picture of the MediaLinx. I located it in the rack and the PC is situated on the floor under the rack.



Here are screen shots of the touchpanel interface.

Power comes from a 28V power supply in the rack. I ran one cat5e and one 16-4 speaker wire to the keypad locations. The 16-4 is for the 28V power that the touch screen uses. For the 10 button keypads (not touch screens) the power comes from the cat5e wire used to control the keypad. The ten button keypads don't need a home run as they connect to the in wall/ceiling amps.

Although audio is over IP, NetStreams designed the system so that standard whole house audio wiring can be used.

I used a Tyco T208M printer. It's like a $700 printer so you wouldn't want to go out and buy one. I borrowed one from the place where I work. You also need special rolls of heat shrink that feed into the printer. A ball point pen on strips of heat shrink works good also. I have done that in a pinch.

For a company that talks about being on the leading edge of technology and they can't seem to find a way to this seems a little hard to believe. But, they are coming out with new stuff all the time. I think they are lined up to do something regarding Internet streaming with their music manager box. I am surely not going to sit around waiting though. That's why I decided to find my own solution.

I have recently upgraded a couple of zones to the higher wattage (50W) speaker amplifiers. These 50 Watt amps sound better and have a built in equalizer. They are definately louder too. The two zones that I have upgraded are rooms that have cathedral ceilings. The standard 20W amps just weren't enough to fill the room with sound.

I then used one of the old 20W amps to add another zone in the basement. The other 20W amp will be used for a new room in the future.

I am also adding the ability to distribute video to a few rooms. I will post more details on this later.

Well I finally got a remote control for the audio system. NetStreams recommends the RTI RF remotes and has some direct support for them but I was looking for a less expensive solution. I decided to try a Harmony remote. I bought the Harmony 550 remote because it was about the cheapest and since I didn't know if it would work or not I didn't want to risk paying for a high priced remote and it not work out.

To my suprize, the Harmony database had all of the NetStreams IR codes loaded. This enabled me to map all the keys, activities, and sequences to NS IR functions.

On the NetStreams side I have an IRLinx. This is basically the IR part of their keypad in one little package. Using Cat 5 cable and an RJ45 plug, it connects to the speaker amp or into the back of a keypad. You can then place the IR receiver wherever is convenient. NetStreams has a remote control but it is very limited in functionality. I already had the IRLinx and NS remote installed in the entertainment rack so using the Harmony was a breeze. I can now control the TV, DVD, PVR, and the rooms audio from one remote. Pretty cool.

I can invoke NS macros programmed into my system as well. This means my dealer must have created macros in the first place and mapped them to an IR function. But my dealer did so it works out great.

Now that I know this works, I plan on adding another IRLinx and Harmony remote for additional rooms in the future.

BTW, the Harmony remote can control the system by just pointing it at the IR window on the keypad in the room. If the keypad is in a convenient location, then there is no need for the IRLinx component. In some of my rooms the keypad is around the corner from where I sit so I had to use the IRLinx.

I moved this thread to the Home Automation forum.