Multi Room Audio
Types of Multi Room Audio
The basic principle behind a multi-room audio system is the ability to choose the soundtrack for your lifestyle. Systems come in various different categories from a basic single source system to a multi-source system that can control your music, TV, lighting, heating and many more services throughout your property. When choosing a multi-room audio system all you need to do is decide what sources you want to listen to. Commonly these include a CD and/or an MP3 server which can hold many hundreds of CDs digitally and stream different tracks to each room simultaneously. Radio tuners can be added so that you can listen to your favourite station in any room. iPod® interfaces enable your family and guests to listen to their personal music collection without the restriction of earphones. Access to audio from your satellite or digital TV system, or any other sources you desire, perhaps a turntable for playing your cherished LP collection, or even your piano to listen to the children practice while your prepare dinner in the kitchen are all possibilities.
Once you have chosen your sources you simply decide in which rooms you wish to listen to the music, this will normally include living rooms, bedrooms and bath rooms as well as perhaps the gym and even the garden. It is possible to include garden rooms or summer houses located away from the main property in multi-room audio systems. Most solutions offer a fixed number of sources (inputs) and rooms (outputs). However, multi-room solutions can be expanded to suit the number of rooms you wish to have the music available in and to use as many sources as you desire. The whole system can be controlled from either flush wall mounted controls or wireless handsets, with many systems offering both options to allow you mix and match as required. The more advanced systems are also able to display information about the sources such as album art from your CD / MP3 collection and information about your favourite radio station. In addition it is possible to add seamless control of intelligent lighting systems, temperature controls, curtains or blinds and multi-room video distribution systems. CCTV and access control systems, which allow you to see who is ringing the door bell and open the front door or gates remotely, can also be added.
Another great feature of multi-room systems in general is that room clutter and visible cabling is vastly reduced. This allows you more flexibility with your interior design, as you don’t need to house a Hi-Fi, etc in each room that you want to enjoy them.
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