New House - Suggestions Needed

Hi all,

We're building a house and will integrate C-Bus. Current plans are something along the following, and would love your thoughts.

- Wiser with several ipads
- dimmable LED lights
- MRA matrix switchers x 2
- 10W audio amplifiers
- Krix 5" 100W speakers
- a few DLTs to control MRA
- HomeSafe security
- front door lock
- garage doors control
- IP cameras (feed stream into ipads / wiser app)
- voice intercom
- integration into aircon

Couple of questions:
- are the 10W amplifiers adequate enough to power 2 of the Krix 100W speakers?
- can we integrate c-bus into our home theatre room e.g. projector, av receiver etc (so far all we've got c-bus wise in there is a couple lights :| )? My understanding is IR is something that could be used, but don't really follow how it works / what's needed...
- is there any other major things I'm missing in terms of integration / functionality?


Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

To go beyond the lighting system (for your theatre) you may want to look at an automation package to tie it all together.

Things like Projectors and AV receivers often have serial and/or ethernet and allow control via these interconenctions.

I dont know how you would get C-Bus to say turn on an Integra amp via ethernet and change the input to the selected source.

I do know that there are some very good ways to do it in other packages though. Crestron, AMX, Control 4 and CQC are the four that I know that have C-Bus connectivity and can tie all these component together. There are more if you look around.

If you are a DIY'er, then look at CQC. Homeseer I thing is another DIY package, but I suspect it does not have a C-bus driver.

As an example, I have all my movie cover art on the iPad, I select a movie to watch, the amp turns on, the TV turns on, amp changes to the correct input and sets the volume and the lights dim down. If the temp is too far out of comfort zone, the A/C will warm/cool the room as well. Its all flexable when you have it all tied back to one supervisory system.

Most of these will allow the use of an iPad as well (I use mine with CQC for Lighting, A/C, theater, alarm system ..... ).

You indicated integration into aircon. You will need to sort these details out before you purchase a system, otherwise you will find that you have no control options at all. Its all in the planning.

IR for A/C is difficult at best and often skipped (please correct me if I am wrong). IR is normally the domain of split systems. A fully ducted system will have a wall controller and if you select the right system you may get the C-bus thermostat working with it. Most systems are getting very smart these days and I dont know how well the C-Bus stuff works on the upper end systems. Again, do your research and planning before committing.

Hopefully this will get you thinking a bit.

Mick

 

Thanks for the info Mick, very helpful.

The functionality you're talking about re. playing a movie sounds exactly what I'd love to have!

Does it integrate into the Wiser ipad app, or do you run another for that?

What do I need from the c-bus side of things to have something like Crestron talking to it?

In terms of say Crestron, is it just a Control System that I would need, connected to the network via ethernet, each of the devices (proj, av receiver etc) connected via IR / serial / ethernet and connected to c-bus via some method - to achieve a fully functioning system, or am I missing something?

The name of the ducted aircon we're looking at escapes me, but from memory I think it's level of c-bus integration goes as far as on/off, but as you say, the system has a lot of inbuilt smarts so it's probably manageable to that extent.

Cheers.

 

Also are the likes of the Crestrons controllable via DLT?

 

I have no experience with Wiser yet, but I will say no, most packages will run their own ipad/iphone app for a consistent appearance for all devices.

Either a PC running C-Gate, a CNI or PCI. I only have real experience with CQC and it uses a PCI or C-Gate. I believe Crestron uses a PCI as well but gettinghold of the "driver" for crestron to talk to C-Bus can be a little difficult. It has been menioned here before in the forum.

There are two parts to the control system, the hardware and the software. SOmetimes they are combined into a single unit to look like one. The hardware is what has the real work physical connections (Serial, Ethernet, USB) and the software does the managing of all the data toa nd from teh connected devices.
Each device will have a unique connection to the control system. Some will be serial, some ethernet and some IR.

As an example using CQC [cause thats what I know well],
C-Bus has a serial connection to the server running CQC
The TV has a serial conneciton
The alarm has an ethernet connection
the Global Cache IR blaster has an ethernet connection
The USBUIRT IR learner/blaster has an USB connection.

The control system acts as a bridge an allows all these devices to "talk " to each other so you can do some really neat things like pressing play on the DVD player will turn on the TV and amp, ramp the lights off, arm the alarm in stay, turn on teh A/C... whatever you can think of.

Thats pretty typical to only have on off control. In this day and age where more and more people are looking to smarter systems A/C manufacturers seems to be dragging the chain with allowing the ability to have their systems communicate with other systems.

Are the systems controllable via DLT - yes. Having the control system act as a bridge you can do anything [almost]. I have a C-Bus switch that opens and closes my garage door that is connected to my alarm system. Another C-bus switch turns on the A/C in the bedroom zone and sets the temp to a pre-determined setpoint. Conversly, a PIR on the alarm can turn on a light, as does opening the garage door (reed switch on the door). The smoke detectors will not only sound, but send me a text message if the alarm is armed, turn on all outside lights and light a path to the front door.
As you can see, you are really only limited by your imagination [and budget :-(]

Mick