--- Steve Vanechanos <stevev@email-addr-hidden> 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.
>
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Received on Sun Jan 2 20:15:07 2005
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sun Jan 02 2005 - 20:15:07 EET