Homeseer Speaking in different rooms?

[richtj99]

Hi,

I am looking at using more of the "speaker' functionality in Homeseer. I do not have speakers (aside from laptop's in the house). I would like to put speakers in a few rooms (5 or 6) in my home with the ability to send messages to the separate zones. What is the best way to accomplish this goal? I am looking for a hardware solution that I could hook up to homeseer.

I saw the AB8SS but I am not sure if that is the right way to go.



Thanks,
Rich <!--IBF.ATTACHMENT_90428-->

[George]

If you are looking for a hardware solution, the AB8SS and the SpeakEasy plugin is the best way to go, IMHO.

[Rotech]

there the ESS, from the same family of the AB8SS. this unit are moduled built.as you grow you add modules.Each module can have individual vol. that can be controlled from HS. look for the post "ESS power buy" or go to www.hacs.com for more info.

[richtj99]

So the AB8ss comes with 8 zones & cant be expanded. The volume for one zone is the same for all zones & costs $170

The ESS1 (or 2) comes with 2 zones & has individual volume controls, it costs 71.00 or $71 X4 (units) for the same 8 zones? $284

How does this all hook up to a computer?

If I am planning to have the one sound (either speaking homeseer or music) coming from the PC & sending it to any one (or more) of the 8 zones.

Using a computer "surround sound" setup, plug the stereo wire from the amp into the PC sound (green port).

Then instead of running the speaker wire from the amp to the PC speakers, run it to the AB8ss (or ESS), then run the wire from the each AB8ss zone to the speakers?

Is it that simple?

Im not sure if I want the ESS0, ESS1, or which one.

Do I need dual amps if I am planning on running sounds from one device only (one audio device for the whole house)?

I am really confused on what to buy, any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Rich

[Gogs]

I have four sets of speakers in four different rooms all driven by the speaker client.

On the HS computer I run thre instances of the speaker client each one feeding different sound cards and use the speaker commands to temm HS which set of speakers to speak to.

The forth speaker client is on a remote computer.

[richtj99]

Could you use something like this & add four sound cards:

http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cabl...=121&catid=121

[Rupp]

Could you use something like this & add four sound cards:

http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cabl...=121&catid=121

Are you wanting to send the same sound to each separate room or the same sound to each room If you want to send the same sound (source) then the AB8SS will allow you to do this and simply exclude the rooms you do not want the sound sent to.
If you are looking to send different sources then you will need a multisource amplifier that can output different sources and a way to drive each set of speaker separately.

[Rick Tinker]

Some good information here - let me see if I can summarize for you:

Method 1: One speaker client on a computer, and the output goes through an amplifier, an impedance matching device, and then some sort of switching device so you can turn on/off individual speakers around the house.

Method 2: A speaker client running on computers in various rooms of the house.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Method 1 Advantages:

• No complex HomeSeer scripting to specify which speaker client to send audio to - there is only one.
• Easier to turn off certain rooms at certain times of the day.
• Using traditional speakers instead of PC speakers means better volume and the ability to install them in a wall or ceiling where they may be more discrete.
• One speaker client computer, amplifier, and speaker switch to keep powered for announcements.

Method 1 Disadvantages:

• Depending on your speaker selector switch/relays, slow switching can mean that spoken phrases are clipped or you hear part of a message in rooms that you did not want them played in.
• Losing power on the speaker client computer, amplifier, or switch means losing all speakers.

Method 2 Advantages:

• Ability to have different voices, speaking speed, and volume in each location.
• With the speaker client, you also get the ability to do voice commands in each location.
• You can specify which room something is spoken in without having to worry about it being spoken somewhere else by accident.

Method 2 Disadvantages:

• No easy way to specify which types of system generated messages are spoken in each location. (Need to mute or shut down the speaker client when you do not want to hear them in a location.)
• If you can hear the speakers in several rooms at the same time, you will get an "echo" effect as the speaker clients rarely speak at the same time.
• Scripts that speak need to be modified to specify the speaker clients to speak to.

Once you figure out which method is right for you, then the people here on the board will help you understand what is involved in setting each one up.

I hope this helps!

[George]

Good summary, Rick.

[outbackrob]

My experiences.

I first wanted seperately zoned music and sounds for each room of the house. One person could be listening to one thing in one room and another person could be listening to something different in another. Great plan, but in reality, we almost always have only one thing going on at a time both inside or outside. After a lot of trial and error (more error than anything else) I got an AB8SS and ran pairs of speaker wire to 3 outdoor porches and 5 rooms in the house. Master Bathroom, guest bath, dining room, main hallway, and garage. The master bedroom, 2 guest rooms, living room, office and den have a line out cable from the AB8SS's amp to either a home theater system or a line in on a PC. We control the HT systems with an appliance module and if we are in the office we are at the PC.

The nice thing about this method is that we can hear all HS messages wherever we are in the house or in the yard, and if we want to, have HS play through the HT in the other rooms. We get all messages throughout the house AT THE SAME TIME. Initially (in the trial and error stage) we had speaker.exe runing on multiple PC's and laptops around the house. It worked, as every room could get individual messages, but broadcast messages or sounds did not always play synchronously. The grandfather clock chiming the hours made it sound like we lived in a large clock store. Now everything bongs at the exact same time! In the rooms with HT systems or PC, they can listen to what they want. If they want to hear HS messages or sounds in their room, they can. If they don't, they can still hear them from the speakers in the main hall or guest bathroom.

Additionally, there is a line-out running from the living room HT system to the HS PC. If we are watching a movie we can pipe the music throughout the house so we never miss anything. We pipe baseball games out to the back yard regularly so we can sit out under the stars and imagine the game.

The AB8SS is powered by my OLD Techniques amp that I have had for 20 years. It also feeds all the other systems in the house. Its been running 8 sets of speakers and the line-outs for over a year now in this house with no hickups. It runs probably 20 hours a day. It shuts off at midnight, but will come on to announce a weather warning or if there is a call from someone we want/need to hear from in the wee hours of the morning.

I am COMPLETELY thrilled with the AB8SS. It works easily with X10 commands (no real need for a plug-in) and works well with any of the plug-ins that are available. It also works REALLY well as an impedance matching switch box to protect my old amplifier. AND, it was only a few dollars more than the 8 pair manual speaker switch boxs you can find at Best Buy or other HT stores.

Hope that helps a little.

Rob

[richtj99]

Rob,

Your setup is interesting. Are you using a serial cable to turn the Amp on & off at the set times?

Do you have touchscreens in each room, or how are you able to control the music on & off in each room?

I can see it being done via PC from homeseer, but I am not sure how it would work in other areas of the house.

[ben_bambenek]

Another alternative

Here is another suggestion that I use in getting sound around the house and yard from homeseer

Build a FM transmitter radio kit (I purchased mine from a vendor in Canada called Ramsey Electronics) http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/

These kits have a little more power than the normal IPOD/MP3 transmitters. Thus giving me much more distance and performance.

I then plug the output of a computer running the speaker client into the transmitter and simply run stereo's or boomboxes fm recievers in each location that wants to hear the output of the client.

This works with my portable radio that I carry when cutting grass in the yard and on the back porch while the barbecue is running.

Hope this helps

Thanks

[outbackrob]

Rob,

Your setup is interesting. Are you using a serial cable to turn the Amp on & off at the set times?

Everything is run by X10. The main Amp is on an appliance module. That module is controlled by whether or not any of the AB8SS fed speakers are "on" or whether or not any of the other HT system's appliance modules are "on." Basically the speakers and HT systems are off unless someone or some event turns them on. In that case, the main amp gets turned on to feed any or all of them. If all speakers and HT systems are "off," the Amp gets turned off.

Do you have touchscreens in each room, or how are you able to control the music on & off in each room?

Manually, I have a palmpad in each room that controls that room. "7 on" controls the speaker or HT system in that room. Additionally there are a few other palmpads floating around the house (eventually one in each room) that controls the music. The first 4 "on" or "offs" are play, stop, pause, resume, next, previous, TBD, TBD (future). The next 12 are playlists. Any "Bright" or "Dim" from one of these remotes changes the volume in media player. (I have found that we rarely use "play" or "stop." Effectively, pressing the button for a playlist works as "play" and "Pause" works for "stop."

Granted, any button push is a global command and that sets up the potential for a "war" between listeners listening on any of the AB8SS fed speakers, but that has never happened. Yet. Anyone listening on any of the HT systems, can simply change input mode and listen to what they want.

There are two times when this system breaks down. If everything is off and someone turns on an HT system and listens to the radio, the main amp still gets activated. It's on and feeding nothing. Pretty rare though. ...rats. Now I can't think of the other time. It's minor. ...but there is one. Another issue is that we try to be sure we set an HT system to Aux or Line In before we shut it off. That way if it is activated when HS wants to send out an alert or important broadcast message, it can. That is the biggest flaw, IMHO. However, if the radio comes on in the middle of the night, I know something is up and can use that system's remote to change input modes. (Or shut if off and listen via the speakers in the master bath or the main hallway....)

I can see it being done via PC from homeseer, but I am not sure how it would work in other areas of the house.

Hope that helps a bit.

Rob