Audio Automation

[streat]

I have seen in a few different posts that people have integrated speaker systems to deliver announcements through the Home Seer Speaker client. My question is in regards to hardware, what types of speakers/amps are employed? Are these z wave speakers that interact directly with the z wave network? Z wave amps? Or something completely different? Thank you!!

[Rupp]

There are no Z-Wave speakers that I'm aware of. Many users use a stereo amp that is connected to the HomeSeer PC which feeds HS speech to one or more sets of speakers. You can also use one of the wireless systems like the SONOS system (and associated plugin to control the SONOS) or less expensively you can setup wireless speakers and connect the base unit to HomeSeer and control the speakers using something like a Z-Wave appliance module to turn the speakers on and off. There are other ways but these are the more popular.

[streat]

So let me make sure I am correctly understanding you, if I wanted to connect several room independent of one another I would need several amps all connected to my home seer system (in this case home seer software pc)?

Edit: I figured it would be easiest for me to add in what i would like to ideally do if possible. Ideally i would love for a multi zone amplifier to be in place in my house with several sets of speakers. Homeseer is currently installed on my server and ideally i would like the home seer software to interact with this amp to allow for music to be played independently in each zone or many at once. Is something like this even possible? I feel like if this could be achieved then the voice announcements and text to speech software could be easily implemented

[nightwalker]

There are so many ways to do this, depending on what you want the speakers to do, just TTS or Music or both. All rooms, independent control, etc. The list just goes on and on.

there was a recent discussion here a couple of weeks ago but there are others as well a search should bring up lots of ideas.

[streat]

Thanks for the reply! I looked through the discussion you posted and had and it seems to me what i need is an amplifier with the number of zones (individual rooms) i want connected then for that amplifier to be connected to my server.

[Rupp]

Thanks for the reply! I looked through the discussion you posted and had and it seems to me what i need is an amplifier with the number of zones (individual rooms) i want connected then for that amplifier to be connected to my server.

Yes. That is one of the ways by using a Zoned amp. Whereas if you chose to use the SONOS system you would have a SONOS player in each area and use the plugin to send the information to one or more players. What's makes this so hard is there are so many solutions each with it's benefits and pitfalls.

[Pete]

It really does depend on what exactly you want to do with the audio and how you want Homeseer to interact with the audio.

You can just put small little speakers in gang boxes in every room and split the HS audio out in an analog way with one amplifier is one way.

There are audio software/hardware packages out there that work with wires and wirelessly relating to zoned audio. Some folks prefer to go with an entire package or a la carte their audio stuff. Many of these folks interface these packages with Homeseer.

Homeseer provides an unlimited means of being able to do this in almost every way imaginable; such that you can automate your zoned audio with Homeseer while still utilizing your zoned audio music system independant of Homeseer; if that makes sense?

[streat]

Pete, i think i see what you mean, would it be possible to give each room its own mini amp and have home seer send signals to each amp individually?

Thank you for the response Rupp, iam really enjoying the options home seer allows for!

[Pete]

Yes. Have a look thru the Homeseer forum.

There is a plugin for Pioneer multimedia receivers that Homeseer users are very happy with.

While this is not a "mini" amp you can devise a means to control a mini amp with Homeseer. IE: starting with remote powering it on or off; baby steps....first.

Some HS folks are using multiple USB sound cards each connected to a separate amplfier and each controlled by Homeseer "en masse".

Homeseer = => USB hub = = > Multiple USB sound cards = = > multiple mini amps = = > speakers

I utilized multiple means and still am changing it.

1 - One amp connected to 8 zones via an analog RS-232 speaker switcher
2 - Second amp for the server room audio zone
3 - two zoned amplifiers (Russound) providing 12 audio zones
4 - sub audio zones with their own MM amps in 5 rooms now
5 - Touchscreens running HS Speaker client (indirect means via tablet like table top touchscreen computer).

Reading what I wrote above this is really like 20 audio zones controlled by Homeseer with multiple amps and types of amps and different means of audio switching. (my baby steps leaving everything in place as I expanded it).

[Uncle Michael]

Do you have wire run or can you run wire for a wired system? That can be the most difficult task in a retrofit situation.

[Uncle Michael]

Ideally i would love for a multi zone amplifier to be in place in my house with several sets of speakers. Homeseer is currently installed on my server and ideally i would like the home seer software to interact with this amp to allow for music to be played independently in each zone or many at once. Is something like this even possible? I feel like if this could be achieved then the voice announcements and text to speech software could be easily implemented

I do this with two Russound CAV6.6 multi-zone amps for 12 zones. I have them located in my wiring closet near my HS computer. I use the BLRussoud plug-in to allow HS to control the amps, which in turn control zone on/off, volume, source selection, etc. They can also be controlled by keypad if you desire.

These amps are no longer being sold by Russound, but the last I looked they were still available on eBay. The biggest hurdle is to run the speaker wire from the amp to each of the zones.

[Steve Q]

Audio Automation

Years ago when I first set up my whole house audio, I got carried away with how cool it would be to be able to play different music in different zones. Now after several years, I realized that I never use it. So I have eliminated that capability. The feature that I use all the time is whole house announcements to all zones, and turning off certain zones. And in my home theater room I only have a single mono speaker for the announcements; no point having a small set of stereo speakers when I already have a complete surround sound setup!

So, before you start making holes in your walls or ceilings, try to figure out how you plan to use the whole house audio. And don't underestimate how much time and effort it will take to get Homeseer to control the system. I'm still tweaking. Simple things like the weather forecast and NPR news are much more difficult than they should be. If I would do it over, I would focus more on the software and less on the hardware.

Steve Q


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[nightwalker]

Yeah, things are never as easy as they sound. I myself use two separate systems, one for Audio that's not controlled via HomeSeer and another that is only used for TTS. While these two system can be combined it gets messy, sometimes with undesirable delays in announcements due to setting all the amplifiers and zones to the correct input and getting the volume right and then getting it all back to where it was to start. After trying this approach I decided to keep things dead simple. The audio I left alone as i was happy with that, still am. The TTS for HomeSeer announcements I use simple powered computer speakers, some in the wall or ceiling others sitting on a shelf, all controlled via UPB appliance modules. It's easy to control for each room via UPB links, inexpensive and stone reliable.

Like i said earlier there are so many ways to do this you have to give it more thought that you may realize is needed for something that sounds so simple at the start. Start with how you want to use it, next can you get wire to the locations you need?

Answering those two questions will get you a long way to a possible solution.

[Krumpy]

I have seen in a few different posts that people have integrated speaker systems to deliver announcements through the Home Seer Speaker client. My question is in regards to hardware, what types of speakers/amps are employed? Are these z wave speakers that interact directly with the z wave network? Z wave amps? Or something completely different? Thank you!!

Research and see if you can ger a multi zone amp like a xantech mrc88 or such. They are relatively cheap and a good value. I found one for $600 5 years ago. Should be much cheaper now.

Keep in mind that these have a serial port and can be controlled directly.