HomeSeer Speaker Client Options

[Ultrajones]

I currently have my HomeSeer speaker client connected to an amp and 2 speakers. I would like to expand my setup by having a speak client for each floor of my home. What options are available?

Regards,
Ultrajones

[Pete]

Initially in current home started with the AB8SS and one amp. The AB8SS is no longer sold.

I have gone to utilizing a zoned audio amplifier(s) and still using the AB8SS.

You can also dedicate an an autonomous amp and speakers by taking a low level audio output and running it on existing CatXX cabling anyplace you may have catXX cabling.

I have done this in a commercial set up running low level audio some 100 feet or so via catxx.

That said I also have installed speaker dot exe on my tabletop touchscreens which run wintel. Its small and very compact.

What infrastructure can you utilize or install or want to install?

In the current home I wanted music in every room of the house first before anything.

I ran 16/4 and 16/2 and cat5e infrastructure just for audio post house build. I did also get a deal on in wall speakers and purchased enough to cover every room (and have spares afterwards).

I initially started with the Leviton Chopin audio stuff.

[Rupp]

If you have laptops in use around the house, install the speaker client on these. You can use the Sonos speaker system for wireless distribution as well as the Logitech internet radios as there are plugins for both of these. The HomeTroller Zee will also work for this as well.

[skybolt]

Well since you have an ELk, you may want to use that as your delivery system. I mean share the speaker system used for the ELk.

What I have is the Elk 32ohm speakers around the house, eight all together, along with the keypad's. I use a couple of the Elk 800 amps for audio, one for outside and one for inside, They are wired in parallel hooked to a SPDT relay which one side is for the ELk and the other is for HomeSeer. I ran a cat5 from HS down to my panel and everything is hooked up there. The the NC side of the relay is for HS and the NO is for the Elk. A rule is set for an output to trigger and clos the relay when the Elk speaks.

If you interested I can draw up a diagram for you. But I have been using this ~10 yrs now and wouldn't ever change to anyhting else. Period.

[AshaiRey]

Hi UltraJones,

This might give you also an idea

I am fiddling here with a whole house system for a few years and i just finished my version 3 of it.
What can it do?
- Audio to every room here in the house (9 rooms and incl. the garden)
- Announcements to each or all rooms.
- Connect any room with any number of other rooms without disturbing the music in the others
- Volume control in each room.
- The 4 major rooms have mics so you can have controle of the system.
- VR control

I do this with just one XAP800 box bought from eBay

- I use an extra Telco (TH2) so i can pick up the phone from any place in the house and conversate via the speakers or just make an outgoing phone call
- Connect any extra room into the conversation

Setup
one XAP800
Two soundcards (one onboard of motherboard and one usb model)
All speakers are directly wired to the XAP800 except the one to the garden, that's via RF
For VR i have 4 boundary mics
Some additional devices and events in HS
And one vbscript to control it all

[Krumpy]

I currently have my HomeSeer speaker client connected to an amp and 2 speakers. I would like to expand my setup by having a speak client for each floor of my home. What options are available?

Regards,
Ultrajones

I would buy a used XANTECH MRC88 from EBay or such. Skybolt also has an interesting option. I like the MRC88 as it has a nice serial API and can be purchased cheaply.

Can also be used for audio...

[Pete]

Randy,

There also appears to be a lot of interest in that new Monoprice zoned amplifier.

Its a simple and inexpensive zoned amplifier which could integrate nicely with Homeseer.

It's a DIY for Homeseer waiting to happen. It does involve installation of some wiring.

My base zoned audio wiring is utilizing 16/4 & 16/2 & cat5e done sometime in the 2000's; baby steps doing one zone at a time; it was a bit time consuming. I do have more than 12 zones of audio today. I did wire up per room such that the 16/4 wires go to a single wall box where they go to the 16/2 cables to the speakers. Said box also is home for the Cat5e cables. After a couple of years used same said box for Russound controllers. You can also just replace the russound controller keypads with small "do all" HSTouch screens providing a bit more functions relating to hardware and media stuff.

The terminations all do go to a little area (punch panel and speaker cables) autonomous from the network stuff configured for zoned amps on the rack today.

Folks at CT are also looking at it:

http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/2...ti-zone-audio/

Relating to the Russound system (12 zones today) I have I am utilizing Russound Keypads, Omnitouch screens and HSTouch screens to control it.

6 Zone Home Audio Multizone Controller and Amplifier Kit

Specifications:

Model 10761 (MPR-SG6Z)
Stereo RMS Power (8 ohms) 25 watts/channel x6
Stereo RMS Power (4 ohms) 50 watts/channel x6
Bridged (mono) RMS Power (8 ohms) 100 watts x6
S/N Ratio >85dB A Weighted
THD <0.1%
Frequency Response 20Hz ~ 20KHz
Input Impedance >47 K ohms
Input Sensitivity 250mv
Amplifier Protection Overload, Short Circuit, Thermal
Systems ON Trigger Voltage DC + 12V
External Mute Trigger Voltage DC + 12V
Infrared Frequency 38KHz
Input Connectors 3.5mm stereo, RCA, Toslink
Output Connectors Euroblock terminal, 3.5mm mono
Power Supply (switchable) AC115V/60Hz, 230V/50Hz
Dimensions (WxHxD) 16.9" x 3.5" x 16.4" (430 x 89 x 416 mm)
Weight 24.3 lbs (11.0 Kg)

Distribute and control music and other audio material to up to six stereo speaker zones using this 6-Zone Home Audio Multizone Controller and Amplifier.

This multizone controller is a 6x6 matrix with six stereo audio inputs and six outputs. Each input channel can be independently directed to any of the output channels using the included remote control or the keypad controllers installed in each zone.

The six inputs are 2-channel stereo, with four line level inputs using RCA jacks, one input on a 3.5mm TRS jack, and a Toslink digital optical input. A separate PA input allows you to override selected audio material and broadcast a single audio source to each connected zone. Additionally, a mute input allows you to mute each output channel using a single source trigger.
Each output channel features an amplifier that is capable of delivering 50 watts/channel into a 4-ohm load or 25 watts/channel into an 8-ohm load. Each amplifier can be individually bridged to produce 100 watts into an 8-ohm load. The amp uses Euroblock connectors for the speaker level outputs, which takes less space than push-grip connector terminals. The Euroblock connectors can accept speaker wire up to 12AWG and can be removed from the amplifier for easier installation.

Each output channel also features RCA line-level output jacks, allowing you to use a separate, more powerful amplifier in any output zone or to send the audio to a self-amplified component, such as a television display.

Each zone is independently controlled at the zone using a wallplate keypad with lighted, soft-touch buttons. The keypads connect to the main unit using Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable. Each keypad features an infrared "eye", which can propagate single-band IR remote control signals to individual IR transmitters connected to the master controller. This allows you to control the source devices from each zone using their native remote controls.

The controller features 12 volt trigger outputs for each distribution zone, plus a master trigger for the entire system. This allows you to activate automated devices, such as lowering a projection screen or dimming the lights whenever the system as a whole, or an individual zone, is activated.

Up to three master controllers can be connected together to provide a massive 18x18 matrix, with audio source and control information passed between master controllers using the included 18-pin ribbon cable. The master controller can accept 115V and 230V inputs. The voltage selector switch is covered to prevent it from being accidentally changed.

The master controller features an RS232 serial input, which lets you program a computer for automated control. A complete list of RS232 commands and codes, including status reporting commands, is included in the manual. The package includes a 19" rack mount kit.

BTW - still utilize the speaker client with a variety of voice fonts on separate computers. Relating to speed of hearing HS TTS; fastest has always been via the zoned amplifiers with HS TTS going to one source on the amp.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_...t=1#largeimage

[skybolt]

Pete, thats a whole lot of dough for six channels and to just receive voice messages. Not a bad idea for WHA though.

[Pete]

Yup; just for TTS from HS its a bit over the top.

Easiest right now for me to just run the speaker dot exe client on the wired tabletop touchscreen or in wall Homeseer touchscreen clients.

Speedwise and same TTS voicefont its faster with one sourced speaker client (like you have and I do with Russound/AB8SS) than doing it via software.

For WHA though its a reasonably priced zoned amp with easy access / control.

That and integration of TTS and WHA and management of media with Homeseer would work nicely with above mentioned amp.

Personally and a while back I integrated the use of an installed whole house intercom system with the automation voices in the 1980's similiar to what you are doing with the Elk today and what I can do with the Leviton HAI OPII panel using their voice speaker module. (voices though are integrated still into the panel itself).

I have seen little single box speakers these days which would work well for just TTS.

A DIY using these little speakers would work really nicely for single purpose multiple area zoned HS TTS.

There are many HS users today that have run separate audio and speakers just for HS TTS and still utilize Zoned audio for the multimedia HS stuff.

Here I have multiple sub zones of audio off of the regular zones such that I utilize the speakers locally and remotely; if that makes sense?

[skybolt]

Yup; just for TTS from HS its a bit over the top. ...

There are many HS users today that have run separate audio and speakers just for HS TTS and still utilize Zoned audio for the multimedia HS stuff.

Yep, that woul dbe me. I use my Elk setup with seperate Elk amps as TTS zones if you will, and I have an AB8SS for WHApowered by a Sonons connect and a 120W power amp for my eight music zones, totally seperate. The best part is that the alarm system speaks if HS is not up and running for some reason. Security notificatins are not compromised even though that audio system is shared with HS.

I have found that simple is ussually the best, but not always the least expensive. In this case, however, it happens to be.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, it's all in the ELk case so that's even nicer. I even have room to add another "zone" if needed.

[AshaiRey]

However, you might want to think about the XAP800 mentioned above. Not sure how it's controlled, RS232, but plug-in, scripted RS232? hmm. Thats an interesting concept. But to set that up right, you need independant amplifiers as it is a balanced line level device.

I control it with vbscript. There is also an excelent javascript for this. Giving commands is rather easy. Just send a command as a string to the comm port and it works. It's controlled via RS232. Note that USB to serial is also possible for this.

As said i use it to direct music to 9 rooms here. Most are just mono and not stereo (who cares about stereo when you play music inside your fridge )
For stereo you need 2 channels so one XAP box can control up to 6 rooms in stereo. When you need more you just can stack up to 8 of these devices.

The output of the XAP is for me loud enough to drive a speaker directly without any amp in between. I still can hear the music very well and is loud enough in the bathroom while taking a shower, the heat fan is blowing and the damp fan is running at full speed. Also you can make the inputs and outputs unbalanced by just connecting gnd to negative and use that one.

You can also use the even cheaper AP800's for this but the XAP have better specs for having a frequency range up to 20Khz

[skybolt]

I currently have my HomeSeer speaker client connected to an amp and 2 speakers. I would like to expand my setup by having a speak client for each floor of my home. What options are available?

Regards,
Ultrajones

You haven't chimed back in? Let us know what you think, you did ask ...

[CharlieWayne]

I recall reading where some other here were trying to use usb<->3.5 analong out sound adapters. But if I recall right, there was an issue with assignment of each during restarts or something like that.

Either way, months ago I found someone across the pond trying to do the same. He like You (Ultra) is a software guru, so maybe you are able to create a plugin that could handle TTS from HS, Multi Audio Input/Multi Audio Output, and Intercom functions.

Heres is link. http://www.digitalhomeserver.net/mul...-audio-in-dhs/

[Pete]

So far reading some good reviews on the Monoprice zoned AMP.

Just a quickie FYI on the tiny amp above.

You could install it in in a small plastic 4" X 4" deep box. Put a small speaker on the box and provide line level audio and power to it.

I have installed (for a commerical office catXX line level audio baluns) they work for the office I installed them in with around 100 feet of catxx from the server closet some 75 feet to the reception desk.

The baluns I installed were just for line level audio. If you could add power to the cat XX using some form of power injection then you could carry both audio and power on the same catXX cable. Here I am doing standard POE stuff and non standard power injection for other stuff.

If you remote control the power and use one audio source to said amp you could have TTS anywhere at a reasonable cost.

I found a pair audio baluns that was reasonably priced and fit on a wall plate with conversion in a small footprint device.

Here I am passing line level audio from the 2nd floor to the basement using two methods. One is very old now.

These two runs go from the attic to the master bedroom to the basement and the corner comm area patch panel.

1 - Using shielding microphone cable. It works OK but still get some noise. OLD
2 - using the audio line level to catXX balun. This works better. NEW. BTW this was my testing before putting it in a commercial office.
(IE: the commercial office is using a Russound Zoned Amp / KPL keypads plus one source of audio is in the front reception desk area of the dental office).

Personally here using the master bedroom MM stuff as one source for the Russound AMP plus there is are two subzones of audio in the master bedroom and bathroom. (its an experiment / hodgepodge thing as I have the main master bedroom configured for 5.1 audio such that it has its own MM reciever plus uses the house audio)

[Ultrajones]

The last time I tried to use those small amplifiers (e.g. Elk 800 amp), they ended up causing too much white noise at the speaker which drove me nuts. I even tried using their recommended power supply which didn't help.