New to Home Auomation

[zennode]

Hi. I am new to all this home automation and just bought HomeSeer software. I was wondering if someone had a guide on setting up the video and audio ( hardware, wiring and such ). Thanks

[Rupp]

This would totally depend on the type of hardware. Try to get more specific and we should be able to help you.

[zennode]

Ok. I am looking to have 8 zones of speakers in my home and two tvs 9 one in the living room and one in master bedroom. I want to put all my dvds and blue rays on to one server that can play on the tvs and my tablets. I want to be able to play different music in the different zones as well.

[Uncle Michael]

Is the house wired for audio and video? If not, are you planning to add wiring or do you intend to distribute the signals using a wireless system?

The more specific you can be the better.

[zennode]

The house is currently gutted. So we have wired in 8 zones of speakers.
I am also wiring ethernet to the master bedroom and living room. Then I am installing all z-wave switches. Anything else I need?

[zennode]

I was thinking of using a Nuvo 8 zone receiver. Is this a good idea?

[zennode]

I am also confused as to how everything would setup. Would I run the video through ethernet to the tvs from the media server?

[Uncle Michael]

I have no experience with distributed video, but if you run two cat5e cables to any location you want video I'd expect that should handle the load. (One is probably enough, but it's cheap and easy to run two with the walls open.)

For audio, I ran 14 gauge speaker wire and cat5 to a keypad location in each room. I then continued the speaker wire from the keypad location to the speakers. That allows me the flexibility to distribute audio to a keypad-amp as a digital signal and run analogue audio from there, or use the keypad to control a central amp. It also allows me to bypass the keypad entirely and just leave the wires in the wall. I ended up using all three options depending on the zone.

I use two Russound CAV6.6 6-zone amps to control 11 zones and three ABus sub zones. The setup, along with Blade's plug-in, meets all my needs.

[Uncle Michael]

I am also confused as to how everything would setup. Would I run the video through ethernet to the tvs from the media server?

I opted to install HDHomeRun turners and pair a PC running Windows Media Center with the TV. If I were trying to distribute from a central server, I'd probably start with an option of sending the signal over a LAN connection to a box that converts it to video (XBox?) rather than trying to send HDMI. But, I have no experience with that.