Is LinuxMCE suitable for multiroom sound?

[sharamok]

I have some question about using LinuxMCE for my home sound system.

I have 5 sound areas (rooms). In first room I want to use home theater (with 5 + 1 speakers), in second, third, fourth and fifth rooms I want to use stereo speakers (2 speakers in each room).

I want to use the system in two mode.

First mode. Play moves on my PC, but sound it on home theater sound system. Volume must    control on PC.

Second mode. Play music on PC and sounded it simultaneity in stereo mode in all rooms on my speakers. Volume must control on PC independently for each room.

I want to turn between this modes using PC.

I understand what I need additional stereo amplifiers for each channel, maybe mixers, multichannel amplifiers or other devices, but I don't know what devices I need to buy (they must be LinuxMCE compatible). And can I configure  LinuxMCE on my PC to work in this manner?

Thank you for your assistants.

[seth]

 
I think LMCE can be a candidate. I use this for playing the same song in all rooms, or different songs in different rooms.
All that would be required is to have a Media Director (MD) in each of the rooms you wish to have sound. These can be connected to TV's or to stereo systems. LMCE controls things through pipes. You set these up in the connection manager. In my home I have a core/hybrid in the living room or theater room. I also have a MD in the family room, and in each of the bedrooms. Now the core system, runs it all. Every other computer in the house is hooked up to a TV. To play movies/videos in the living room, it naturally uses my AV Theater receiver. In each of the other rooms, it uses the TV speakers.

Now because of the pipes I have set up, the theater room volume is controlled via the AV receiver. In each of the other rooms the sound volume is controlled by the TV speakers. This will most likely be the default setting, but by using the connection manager (example of my living room here http://dataless.jeromenet.org/lmce-stuff/connmangr.PNG my video output from the lmce is connected to the TV, the audio output from the lmce is connected to the AV Receiver.

Unlike my MD's which have both the video and audio output of the lmce connected to the TV's.

If you decide to use computer speakers or whatever for your other rooms, a pipe will need to be connected to the amplifier if you use a stereo system, however if you use PC speakers, no pipe is required. LMCE will automatically control the PC sound.

In my situation, I can fire off the same music to all MD's at once, or individually. But each room has its own volume control, so it can be adjusted locally.

I hope this helps a bit. I know LMCE can handle multi-room audio, and video, and a host of other things. Most of the individual controls can be configured with the connection manager, however, using an orbiter on any of the MD's or the main system, or your phone or laptop, you can from a single location control the volume in any room. This helps when my daughter is blasting her audio in her bedroom, and I don't want to hear it in the other parts of the house, I just call up her room on any orbiter, and turn it down myself

You will find that LMCE is the most advanced, and heck, the coolest system you will every install, and although daunting at first, can be configured quite easily.

Regards,

Seth

[sharamok]

Thank for your answer. I have some additional questions.

When you play the same music at more then one MD, does it sound synchronous?
Can I control Russound CAV6.6 (media commutation devise with RS232 control interface or maybe exist bater device) using my PC with LMCE? Is it easy? Or I need special procedure for control interface  adjustment?

Thanks.

[1audio]

Get a Squeezebox for each room. They are fully integrated into LMCE access the same music library syncronize or run independently, are managed through orbiter like a media director, have local volume controls, etc. Cheaper than an MD for music and sound better as well.

[bulek]

I think LMCE can be a candidate. I use this for playing the same song in all rooms, or different songs in different rooms.
All that would be required is to have a Media Director (MD) in each of the rooms you wish to have sound. These can be connected to TV's or to stereo systems. LMCE controls things through pipes. You set these up in the connection manager. In my home I have a core/hybrid in the living room or theater room. I also have a MD in the family room, and in each of the bedrooms. Now the core system, runs it all. Every other computer in the house is hooked up to a TV. To play movies/videos in the living room, it naturally uses my AV Theater receiver. In each of the other rooms, it uses the TV speakers.

Now because of the pipes I have set up, the theater room volume is controlled via the AV receiver. In each of the other rooms the sound volume is controlled by the TV speakers. This will most likely be the default setting, but by using the connection manager (example of my living room here http://dataless.jeromenet.org/lmce-stuff/connmangr.PNG my video output from the lmce is connected to the TV, the audio output from the lmce is connected to the AV Receiver.

Unlike my MD's which have both the video and audio output of the lmce connected to the TV's.

If you decide to use computer speakers or whatever for your other rooms, a pipe will need to be connected to the amplifier if you use a stereo system, however if you use PC speakers, no pipe is required. LMCE will automatically control the PC sound.

In my situation, I can fire off the same music to all MD's at once, or individually. But each room has its own volume control, so it can be adjusted locally.

I hope this helps a bit. I know LMCE can handle multi-room audio, and video, and a host of other things. Most of the individual controls can be configured with the connection manager, however, using an orbiter on any of the MD's or the main system, or your phone or laptop, you can from a single location control the volume in any room. This helps when my daughter is blasting her audio in her bedroom, and I don't want to hear it in the other parts of the house, I just call up her room on any orbiter, and turn it down myself

You will find that LMCE is the most advanced, and heck, the coolest system you will every install, and although daunting at first, can be configured quite easily.

Regards,

Seth

Hi Seth,

I'd kindly ask if you can post more info about your setup on Wiki.... I'm particularly interested how you managed pipes. I have certain problems in implementing connections from devices like MD or Squeezebox to rs232 controlled amplifier, cause when you connect whole MD, then volume commands get properly to amplifier over pipe, but when you stop music, then amplifier receives On command (instead of Off), cause Orbiter is switched on at that moment - which is quite opposite to what amplifier needs (Off)....

How do you cope with such problems ? (I've pretty much described them here: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=4701.0

Thanks in advance,

regards,

Bulek.