Distributed Audio Innovations White Hall AR

Whole-House Harmony

CAPITALIZING ON THE CONVENIENCE AND INNOVATION OF DISTRIBUTED AUDIO PRODUCTS

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Of all the nifty amenities now available for today’s smart home, is anything as exciting as a whole-house entertainment system? Imagine an integrated environment where everyone in the family can watch or listen to what they want, when and where they want it. With new distributed audio systems from AMX, Control4, Crestron, ELAN Home Systems, Niles Audio, RTI, Sonance, SpeakerCraft, and Speco Technologies, integrators can create custom solutions where everyone wins.

With a centralized hard disc server, music and other content can be stored in one library while distributing different streams to different rooms in the house, simultaneously. Manufacturers are also tapping the wildly popular iPod as its own source and controller, and even the iPhone and iPod Touch.

ROOM SERVICE
Distributing music around the home is nothing new. DIYers have been running cable from stereo receivers to speakers across the room or down the hall since the 1970s. But being limited to one central source meant volume control and/or disc (or vinyl) switching happened right at the box. Power was another concern. Enter the age of truly distributed music, made possible by Cat-5 and innovations in amplification, two-way communication, and wireless networking.

Utah-based Control4 is a trailblazer in this regard. It has created a multiroom music system that lets dealers mesh-network, so homeowners listen to their music collection wired or wirelessly throughout their entire home. For a custom listening experience, users can manage their system on a central location with access via a Control4 touchscreen or remote.

The iRemoteTS from Niles is another wireless solution that provides total control from a single, userfriendly interface. It controls the IntelliControl ICS MultiZone audio/video system as well as home theater automation and access.

At Sonance headquarters in California, Mark Pickard believes that the company changed the game for distributed audio when it moved the loudspeaker off the floor, and off the

Russound's E-Series Multiroom System

CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES
With all the systems available, how can you select the right products for your next client? It all starts with asking the right questions: does your client want touchpanels everywhere in the home or just one centralized location? Does your client want digital audio or source music from iPods with full access to the metadata? Will the system support video? Is that video high definition? Crestron’s Adagio System is HDCP-compliant.

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