Danny Mavromatis shared results of his project to build a bridge between Russound RNET and Sonos multi-room audio systems. The bridge is based on small ARM board Arduino and currently supports only based operations such play, stop, pause etc. But Danny promised to expand the bridge features and keep us updating with the progress of his project.
See the demo video after break.
Read more »
Russound Collage is a media system which uses powerline to transmit media content. It’ll be a good choice in case of an embedded multiroom music system for retrofit house. The system includes two components – a Collage Media Manager and Amplified Keypad. The Collage Media Manager is connected to the LAN via Ethernet port to get media content from the network shares and online services. Its power cord provides both power to the unit, as well as a connection to Powerline Carrier network.
The Amplified Keypad sports color LCD display and navigation buttons. Additionally it has built-in FM tuner. So, you’ll able to listen you favourite FM stations as well. Thanks to built-in amplifier the keypad can be directly connected with speakers. Also using built-in microphone two or more keypads can be used as intercoms. The navigation looks very similar to iPod. But it isn’t bad.
Installation of Collage is simple and DIY oriented. But the price is higher then ordinary DIY system. The Collage Media Manager is $549.99 and the Amplified Keypad – $849.00. Russound is planning to produce iPod dock and Source Bridge which will allow to connect external media source such CD changer or CCTV video cameras. In that case the Amplified Keypad will be also used for video monitoring.
Using powerline devices you can avoid additional wires to connect two devices in the different rooms. For example, it’s so popular powerline adapters to organize home LAN. You may know that whole-house music system needs additional wiring. But Russound – well-known producer Hi-End A/V distribution systems, offers another way to bring music in all rooms of your home. Its new system Avenue distributes high-quality music to multiple rooms using HomePlug technology. The system contains two pieces: the Avenue Hub and Avenue Points. The Hub is placed in the equipment room with Russound’s CAV 6.6 music distribution system. Each line output from the CAV plugs into a port on the Hub, which plugs into a standard AC outlet. The Avenue supports up to six different zones. The powerline also provides a return path for control signals from the keypads, touchscreens or any other interface that uses Russound’s RNET protocol.
Each music zone is supplied by its Avenue Point that plugs into the powerline to communicate with the Hub and delivers music to the speakers (thanks to built-in amp) and RNET control signals to and from the keypad or touchscreen.
The price of Avenue is not finalized but it might cont about $4000 including one hub with three points of audio.
[via CePro]
