Whole House Audio Video

[johnpuri]

I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I am looking at buying the following items:

Projector: BENQ PE7700 or Panasonic PT-AE900
Plasma: Pioneer PDP-436XDE (comes with speakers?)
DVD Player: Denon DVD 1920 or Toshiba SD-350E
AV Amp/Receiver: Yamaha DSP-AX757E or Yamaha RXV2600 or Yamaha RXV4600
Projector Screen: ??
Surround Sound Speakers (Compact): ??
Cables: ??
CD Player: ??
LCD Screen (19 inch I think): ??

I need a pointer towards which items to replace the ?'s with.

Also, I want an installation which is intelligent, i.e. I am hoping there is a way to only have 1 each of the above, but have the ability to send different sources to different rooms? Is this called multi source-multi zone??

The projector will be going into a cinema room and so will need ambient lighting. The LCD in the kitchen/diner, the plasma in the lounge, both with ambient lighting also.

I also want to have ceiling speakers in all rooms in the house, and need the ability to vary volume levels in each room and have it all controlled centrally from 2 different locations (one upstairs, one downstairs)

Any help with any of the above, ie where to buy from and anyone who can guide me would be very appreciated. Thanks John

[Johnny Thunder]

Welcome to the forums John.

You need to break this down a little further, and also give us some idea of the
budget you have available for your project.

You also need to take lots of pics and share them with us, it's the law.

[johnpuri]

Hi There, Thanks for the response.

Budget in total is £8 to 10K, for all the products and installed - so it will probably be tight?

The products to be decided will probably have to be budget to mid range products.

The reason for ceiling speakers is to have mood music whilst having the ability to crank up the music say in one of the bedrooms, without this affecting sound volumes elsewhere. They may also want to be used for 'surround sound say in the lounge with the plasma (instead of dedicated seperate speakers).

I want to be able to play say 1 cd in one room, and another cd in another, radio in another room, all simultaneously. Visually also want to be able to say have a dvd playing in the lounge, sky or freeview in the litchen.

These are only my ideas at the moment, but don't know if it is achievable or whether there is a better way of doing something similar!

Any thoughts at all?

[addicott]

You might like to look at the Systemline modular range of products for your multi room install.

http://modular.systemline.co.uk/syst...homewhatis.htm

As a custom installer I can recomend this sytem. Like many others it distributes the A/V over cat5 cable the amplification is in the speakers. You can plug your legacy kit into the sockets in each room and play them in other rooms. Here is a list of features:-

Up to eight zone A/V output

Local/global capability.

Source can play in all rooms or a local room source can play in it's local location overiding the global.

Extended Zone.

Useful in en-suit bathroom type situations. The source is in the bedroom the sound comes out through the speakers in the bedroom and the en-suit. The volume level is independantly controlable in both the bedroom and the en-suit. Obvioulsy this is only an example. Both areas only count as one zone.

Expanded Zone.

Should you have a large room area to cover you can link multiple sets of speaker together to enable the sound to fill the room area obvioulsy the volume control effects all the speakers at once. (Up to six speakers)

5.1 surrond sound.

The system even has a 5.1 surround sound capability for use in the lounge/cinema room when used with the appropriate kit. (this would push your budget however!)

I could type for hours here but just ask questions if you wish.

Another multi-zone to consider is the AVNEX.

http://www.avnex.co.uk/

I am a distributor for them but to be fair you can fit them yourself. You can have up to 18 zones with this kit. However you need to obtain amps and speakers seperatley. Friendly pointer it can be a bit picky if you have SKY some of my installs have been ok others a "trial".

There are not many (understatement!) that can distribute HD video some can do S-video but most still only do composite the above only do composite.

Note! I am providing this info to help NOT to tought for business!

[Pop up Dragon]

One thing to look out for will be what is shown at the CEDIA show next week.This is the show that is used to showcase new"custom install products".I'm sure that some forum members will post the findings on here.Having had a look in the past for myself i think the big thing this year will be ipods as sound servers(4 x ipod = <£800 or a four output audio server from the likes of imerge and co at over £3000).As other people have said you can now send all sorts of info down CAT 5 with ballans but take care with hidef as bandwidth will be an issue.
If yuo look for in wall/in ceiling speaker lots of people on here like the B&W/KEF etc but if you get a chance try some Speakercraft .I've had them in the last to houses that i've bought and love them especially the AIM models(might push your budget but boy they are good)

[johnpuri]

Hi Pop Up Dragon and Addicott,

Thanks for your advise - much appreciated. Can you advise roughly what the costs would be for multi source, multi room and home cinema for the systemline system?

I assume this costs woul be on top of what I would want to connect to the system in terms of AMp, DVD, CD, Digital Radio etc?

I don't really undertand how such a system works or hangs together. Up until now I have been used to have a cinema surround set up in one room with 5 speakers and a sub, whereby the AV amp would dictate whether I wanted the sound in cinema mode or stero mode for listening to music. I fi Wanted to sound in another room, then I has a separtae sound system in there too! Having just moved I just want to avoid having multiple CD players, DVD players etc, although is it going to cost me 'more' to have 'less'?

[Pop up Dragon]

I've just checked the Speakercraft web site and the basic retail price for a 6 source 6 zone multiroom system and it comes out at about £2300 for the control box and keypads.On top of this you would need speakers at about £200 a pair and the source equipment .The other main exoence will be the installation costs.Some simple systems that stream from your pc or a single audio source can be installed yourself,multi source systems that perform switching and multiple comands need to be set up by someone who knows the product.Remember that if you go for a system that can do more you might need some one to get the "more " for you.

[addicott]

johnpuri:

I can supply prices BUT I do not wish to fall foul of forum rules. Systemline is available to trade only via Armour home elecronics. I am not sure if it is OK to post prices but I could always PM you with the details.
What I can say is that I have installed with legacy kit and/or MCE2005 it runs very nice with a global MCE for whole house distribution and local pc's providing the local. I have currently working on some major projects with home automation X10, security (cameras and shortly alarm system) IR control, etc all linked together via MCE 2005 interface. I have it working with touch screens and even voice control to a point (I have to say that I personally would not recomend the voice control yet).

[johnpuri]

Thanks Addicott. Forgive my naivety, what does PM mean?

What areas do you cover?

If possile, you can always email me to take any further 'discussion off line' to avoid breaching rules??

Cheers - John

[addicott]

johnpuri nothing to forgive!

PM = Private message available under my settings, edit options

Area covered Midlands

And yes i can email you if you like.

[johnpuri]

I think i've narrowed my search down to either the Opus Octopus or System line Home Cinema.

The Octopus caters for 5.1 sound?

Do you know anywhere this can be demo'd in the Maidenhead area?

I undertsand there are many issues with the visusal side of things with these systems, that they cannot handle HD signals, and that the only way around this is to use 'swicthes' or adaptors of some sort?

Would you recommend that for now then I only do the audio multi room side and then wait until there is a viable way to handle the HD broadcasts?

Confused.....