--- Steve Vanechanos <stevev@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Randy > > Thanks for the input. To offer more insight to my > VISION: > > Each destination is equiped with speakers only. At > this time, the > speakers are wired to a central location A distribution amp. and a very > dumb volume > control. Software mixer accessed at the destination via dumb terminal. Right? The > central location is a single zone amplifier (Sonance > SonAMP 260). I don't think that does you any good. My > sources are hooked to a DENON AVR3300. I use the > AVR3300's > multizone capability to enjoy 5.1 surround sound in > my family room while > also listening, through the AVR3300's connection to > the SonAMP 260, > to a different/same source throughout the house. I know nothing about surround capabilities but whatever. > I want to replace the SonAMP 260 with a multizone > amplifier Exactly! or a bank of > amplifiers. I want to be able to hook my sources up > to a linux box. Multiple analog sources. Right now; pick the audio card that will fulfill all your requirements. This card will define and restrict considerations. I suspect you're looking at the M-Audio stuff. If you have trouble solving the surround and i/o requirements with an audio card, you'll have to consider a mixer with surround capabilities. Probably serious overkill but a great ego trip. I want > the linux box to also be a source so I could load > CD's and have it act > as a jukebox. Multiple jack servers, jack mixer. Learn about that stuff. Then all outputs will go from the > linux box into the bank of > amplifiers which in turn is hooked to the speaker > pairs throughout the > house. If multiple jack servers, then qjackctl for routing, and you can control routing via dumb terminals. Otherwise a traditional distribution amp which isn't as flexible. Of course there are audio and video distribution amps. > I want to control zone / source and volume through > a web browser > application. There are audio tools that handle this already. No need to recreate the wheel. If you've got two Linux boxes; 'ssh -X' and you'll begin to get a vision. That way, technically I could control > everything from one > console > - not very practicle though. But then I'd like to > distribute - at > geographically convenient locations throughout the > house - small, wall > mounted touch screen > browser "appliances" (for lack of a better > description) - which would be > used to run the web app and control the system > anywhere I choose to > place one. > > The app would work something like this: > > A touch screen displays up to eight icons, > generically zones 1 - 8, but > the label should easily change to say kitchen, > master bedroom, etc. I guess touch screen capabilities don't exist in any of the Linux Audio UIs. Replace all touch screens with PDAs. :) Gotta run. My responses are real terse but there's a couple hints in there that might give you some ideas. I would not suggest designing this system on paper and then buying all the components. Break it into a couple of phases; source and distribution can be seperated. You've got a computer, select the audio hardware and experiement with what exists. Then you can work towards audio/video distribution. Towards the end of your research and experiments a user interface for controling everything will become clear. The other thing I'd do is fire up Dia and produce a technical drawing. It's easy enough to adhoc converse about a great HiFi solutions but I suspect it's time to become more deliberate. Anyway, there's a few more quick thoughts. RON > THE USER THEN SELECTS A ZONE. > > The touch screen displays up to eight icons, sources > 1 - 8. The app > will need some "knowledge" of the source though. > For tuners like directv, > digital cable, XM radio, etc - the user will want to > select "channel" > after source. If however the source is a "jukebox" > like device, it > needs to run more > sophisticated jukebox software. > > THE USER SELECTS A SOURCE. > > The touch screen then displays what it can - from > and about the source - > with a volume UP & DOWN icon included. > > THE USER ADJUSTS THE VOLUME > > Depending on the outcome of this project - I'm > thinking there may be a > real business opportunity here. Throughout the > history of the PC - and > I've seen > it all - my first "PC" was an 8 bit 4Mhz Z80 running > CPM - as it has > grown in power and sophistication, the PC has > continuously absorbed > applications > (and trampled on business models in the process) > that were previously > done by low volume, expensive and proprietary > solutions. I'm thinking > this might > be one of those times and whole house audio maybe > one of those > applications ripe for a revolution. > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo
