[billytkid]

Dear all,

I'm just about to start gutting and wiring up my new house, but before I do I'd like to check I'm not planning anything stupid - please see the attached PDF for my rough idea.

In essence I'll have the following:

• Cellar - This will be the media hub with my Sky HD, Mac mini and AV amp
• Front room will have Coax, HDMI and speaker cables from the AV amp
• Dining room will have audio feed only going to a NuVo WA30 installed in the wall
• Kitchen will have a TV and coax (for sky + tv) and audio feed from cellar, as well as NuVo WA30, this will switch from the kitchen TV to the main audio feed for 'party mode'
• Bedroom will have a TV and coax (for sky + tv)
• Bathroom will have a NuVo WA30 and audio feeds from the bedroom TV and the cellar.

As I'm going to be chasing cables I also intend to install Cat5 in the walls for any future installs.

All in all this total install will cost me 3 x NuVo WA30 - £390, plus a HDMI switcher for the cellar (so living room TV can switch from Sky to Mac Mini), 3 sets of speakers and the cables.

Please let me know if its best to DIY it this way, or go for a distributed system.

Many thanks for any help

Will

[dwhite]

What about IR control? magic eyes for sky presumably, but you want to control your amp and mac mini as well.

Also why do you need the HDMI switch, won't your amp have HDMI inputs (you show the sony 820 in your picture, which does) and be able to do your switching.

How do you intend to get all these audio feeds from the amp? Your TV's will require stereo RCA preouts for connection to the WA30's, these are becoming rarer as most modern tv's only seem to have optical output. Do you really need this anyway? or do you intend to also use the internal tuner of the TV's for freeview or perhaps sources local to the tv that you want to listen in the bathroom?

With your current setup, I don't think it will be as flexible as a proper distribution system.

[billytkid]

Hi Dwhite,

thanks for the reply

Aha yes I forgot about putting the magic eyes in, I've already got these installed and a distributed IR output for in the cellar.

Good point on the HDMI switch, I've had the AV amp for so long (its not the actual one in the pic, but similar) I forgot it does HDMI switching!

Another good point on the audio setup and I've had another thought, rather than send two separate sources to each amp I think it'd be better if I can switch all audio output from the mac mini to the Sky box - I cant think of a situation where the kitchen would want music and the dining room TV sound etc.

Do you know of a IR controlled audio switcher?

Cheers again

Will

[dwhite]

Originally Posted by billytkid

Do you know of a IR controlled audio switcher?

Don't think you need a switcher, your amp will do this. What you need is a splitter to split whatever audio output of your amp your using to get to the wa30's. As I asked in my first post, this is the bit I'm confused over how you are going to achieve.

[billytkid]

Yep although I can think of a scenario where I'll want to listen to music from the Mac in the dining room or kitchen when the front room is empty/off, so I wouldnt want the music on in there.

So the mac mini would have to directly feed the rooms without the amp being on

thx

[billytkid]

Hi all,

I've just drawn out what I think will be the AV setup in the cellar - can you have a look and check this is ok?

Thanks to dwhite I'll now use my AV amp as the HDMI switcher for my PS3 and sky box, with all 4 audio inputs going to the amp (Wii, PS3, Mac mini + SKY).

I'll need to take a slave audio from the Sky and the Mac mini so I can listen to these elsewhere without the amp being on - what would you suggest I do to get these? Can I simply use splitters, or will I get degradation in the audio signal, and if so what powered device can I use?

I've found a few IR audio switchers online which will switch the sky and mac mini to the speaker outputs.

Thanks

Will

[billytkid]

Ooops, pdf now attached!

[hornydragon]

Wii and PS in cellar? how far from main TV? bluetooth controllers dont have the best range interoom operation can be iffy

[billytkid]

I'll actually have these in the front room in a small cupboard in the corner, so I'll take an optical audio, hdmi, normal audio and component connection from their back into the cellar.

Moving on weds, looking forward to getting started on this!