HS Voice Over Whole House Audio

[dmusel]

I have a whole house audio system in place, using a Yamaha amp/receiver. What I want to do is to connect my computer running HS to the whole house audio so that when HS says something, it plays over the whole house system. I would prefer it to "speak" even on top of music that may be playing. Ideas on how to accomplish this?

[JustOneMore]

One simple solution would be to put in a cheap y splitter. then use 1 leg for your computer speakers, and with the 2nd leg run to your receiver.

JustOneMore
http://www.justonemore.us
FreeWorldDialup desktop# 25831, PPC# 26420

[independentpete]

How do you guys get it to speak the HS stuff when another source is playing. For example, if I'm listening to a CD, how do I get HS speech at the same time? Do you put a Y-adapter at the receiver/amp end to bring the computer output and the CD player output into a single input on the receiver/amp? Anybody doing something more advanced like pausing the other source and then letting HS speak? Is this even possible?

Thanks!
:-p

[WallackAS]

I use IR and the tape monitor loop to switch HS in and out on multiple receivers (Denon)

I wire in the computer to Tape-2 and have the monitor toggled on when I want to speak, and off when I am done. This allows me to not care what the initial sources were (TV, CD, etc). I created a script called say.txt that handles the switching, but this means I need to call the script instead of using the built in speech tab in HS.

eg: I put the following script onto an event: say.txt "main", "Garage door open"

Good luck,
Andy

[DC]

Dave,

I had the exact need you do. I have a Yamaha RX777 receiver dedicated to my whole-house audio system. When it is on, I want HS to temporarily override it. Some suggested connecting HS to the AUX input on the receiver and having HS send I/R commands to the receiver to switch to the AUX input. There are some problems with this approach:

1. There would be enough of a delay in switching the input to AUX to miss a good part of the HS speech.

2. If the receiver is OFF, HS would have to turn it on first - even more of a delay. It takes 3-4 seconds for it to come on so that would mean missing all the speech in many cases.

3. There would be no way for HS to know what input to switch back to after HS is finished speaking.

What I did instead is run the output of HS into a second amp that is always on. (I had an old one laying around but you could buy an inexpensive PA amp from Radio Shack). Now the problem is how have two amps feeding the same speakers. I solved that problem with one of these speaker switches:

http://www.rfsystems.com/si-2.htm

I have the HS amp connected to the priority input. Whenever HS speaks, the speakers are instantly (almost) switched to the HS amp. About 3 seconds after HS is finished speaking, the speakers are switched back to the other amp (whether it's on or not).

This setup works perfectly.

Another option I considered, before I found this speaker switch, was to still use two amplifiers and simply have HS mute the main receiver when it has something to say and unmute it afterwards (using I/R commands). The problem I didn't know how to solve was how to connect two different amps to the same set of speakers without risk of damaging either amp or the speakers. I wasn't sure what would happen if both amps tried to feed a signal to the speakers at the same time. That might not be a problem but I wasn't sure. But the switch solved that problem and it isn't very expensive.

I hope this helps.

[dmusel]

Wow! Many thanks for all the input from everyone. I'll let you know how it works.

[pkoslow]

Follow the link below and read up on the Rane CP series preamps. These work great for whole-house audio and will allow you to use up to 4 stereo inputs as well as 2 mono (mic/line) inputs that duck (lower the volume) of the other inputs when they sense signal.

I have been using one for several years and it works great... when the HS voice speaks it automatically reduces the volume of the music(adjustable), then raises again after the announcement.

Read up on the manual included in the link and you'll see how to use it. This is an $800.00 unit retail, but regularaly sells on Ebay for $100-$150. There are also CP-52 & CP-31 units that have less inputs...

Rane CP-64

Cheers,
Paul