Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Distribution to Meridian Speakers with Control4 and HDAnywhere

I am not sure if this is the right place, so please move to the appropriate subforum if needed. I know the following is a bit confusing, but that's because I don't have a clear direction what needs to be done at the moment. So, any pointers would be much appreciated.

I am currently wiring for the new house at the moment, and would like to prewire every room for Meridian speakers and Analog speakers.

We will be using Control4 for automation and HDAnywhere with HDBaseT box in each room.

We will be wiring Cat6 back to the comms room.

Is the best way to use distributor3 to convert audio signals to SL signals that feeds back to the speakers? Or it is better to assign each set of speakers an Audio Controller?

Hi Sparoz,
I'll try and help with your questions by asking you a few of my own
How many rooms are you looking at having audio/video in?
How many rooms will be two channel and how many multichannel?
Are you going to put all of the audio equipment in one plant/comms room and just run cables to each room, or are you going to keep some of the equipment local to the room i.e. cinema has the 861 in it?
Thanks,
Peter

Hi Peter

Many thanks for your help:

Lounge: 2.0
Family: 5.2.1 (in built speakers - non Meridian)
Chill room: 5.1 utilising 5200 fronts, and 3200 rears with DSW -wired to 861
Guest room: 2.1
Master Bedroom: 2.1
Bedroom 2: 2.1 (prewire)
Bedroom 3: 2.1 (prewire)

We have a comms room setup, and I am hoping most gear will be in the comms room if possible.

Many thanks for your help!

Steve

Hi Steve,
Thanks for your response, I think that I'm getting closer to understanding what you'd like from the system. I will go through this slowly if that's ok - mainly to ensure that I know exactly what you'd like the system to do and then start answering the questions

Can you correct any of the following if I've misunderstood any of it?:

Video
-Each of the rooms will have a TV (you have 7 rooms)
-Where possible, the video sources will in the comms room.
Your video sources are:

• Apple TV 1
• Apple TV 2
• Oppo BluRay player
• TV Pad 2

-Other video sources will be kept local to their rooms for convenience

• PS3

-TV sources are to be provided by the HDAnywhere video matrix.
-The matrix will be an 8x8 similar to this one or the 4k version:
HDAnywhere Matrix
-Control over the TVs will be via Control4. I assume that you have a company dealing with this side for you?

Audio
-The sound from the TV will come through the speakers in the relevant room.
-TV volume will be via Control4
-Roon/Sooloos will be available in each room
-Roon/Sooloos control will be via the iPad
-With the exception of the lounge, all rooms will have a sub. The sub may or may not be Meridian.

Room Details
Sorry, I've moved your rooms around:

Chill room: 5.1 utilising 5200 fronts, and 3200 rears with DSW -wired to 861
Video matrix balun goes into HD621 for video
Audio through ID41
No additional components needed

Master Bedroom: 2.1
Video matrix balun goes into Krell for video
Audio through MS600
No additional components needed

Family: 5.2.1 (in built speakers - non Meridian)
Surround sound processor with HDMI feed from video matrix for video audio.
New MS200 to act as Sooloos/Roon Endpoint for audio


The remaining rooms are a little bit harder, depending upon how you want to get the audio back from the TV into the speakers.
If my reading of the HDanywhere video matrix manual is correct, an audio matrix is needed to breakout the audio if the audio is not going directly to the TV via HDMI.
This audio matrix could then be used to send the video audio into the Distributor3 or AC200.

An alternative would be to use an audio over data balun to return the sound out from the TV optical connection to the comms room and then feed this into the Distributor3.

One point to note, as far as I know, the distributor3 is not a Sooloos endpoint, so you'd need an MS200 or similar per room to get Roon/Sooloos into the room. The AC200 can be used as an endpoint.

The bit I'm not 100% sure about is how to get the subwoofer signal out of the Distributor3/AC200. 2.0 is fine, but 2.1 is where I need to check with Meridian HQ on how to do this. I'm assuming that you may or may not use Meridian speakers in the Lounge, Guest Room and Bedrooms 2 & 3 which is why you're wiring in speaker cable and Cat 6?

I'll contact HQ tomorrow to get a bit more info for you.

Thanks,
Peter

Hi Steve,
Further to my message yesterday.
I thought that I'd respond to this via my new account
I've just spoken to HQ and with both the AC200 and the Distributor3, it is possible to connect in a DSW in with the normal DSP speakers. With the AC200, you can set the DSW up in the config. For the Distributor3, you can set the DSW up by sending it commands via the RS232 control. In theory, you can use your Control 4 system to send these RS232 commands.

I hope that this helps....

Thanks,
Peter

Hi Peter

Many thanks for your reply. It will take me a couple of days to digest the information. . I do have someone to help with the Control4 but he is not familiar with Meridian setup.

Thanks for your help!

Steve

Hi Steve,
No problem

In my experience Control4 and Meridian generally play well together. Meridian is a bit easier to setup in Control4 compared to other systems. When you get to that stage, I can go through it with you or your installer.

At a basic level, get everything setup on the Meridian side and then use the Control 4 system to do the equivalent of pressing the different source buttons on the remote.

Things like endpoints are less important with Meridian as providing the Control4 sends out the correct command to start off with, the Meridian kit will sort itself out
Let me know when you have further questions too

Thanks,
Peter