Audio Woes

[malelan]

Hey guys,

I have some audio questions and hopefully someone can shed light.

To start things off, here is what i'm using

Control4 Audio Matrix

Control4 8 Zone Amp

Various sources (sonos/hc300's/bluetooth receiver/audio backfeed from tv's)

additionally i'm using an hdmi matrix for video/audio.

Here is a basic run through of my wiring.

- Hdmi matrix connected to all tv's, this is delivering audio/video to each tv, this works fine.

- TV's each have the backfeed or monitor output port wired back to the audio matrix. (this port listens to whatever audio is on the tv screen at the time)

Most tv's use the tv speakers for their audio, however some of the rooms have in ceiling speakers. so the idea was to have the 'backfeed' that goes to the matrix->amp->speakers so that i could hear what was on the tv, on the in-ceiling speakers.

this actually worked fine for a test (one room, one set of speakers one tv, etc)

at this point, my wife had requested a headphone jack, tied into the system specifically for the treadmill. not a problem, ran wires from an output on the audio matrix to a headphone jack. this was great because she could select any of the sources, and get audio into the treadmill headphone jack. everyone is happy.

we add a tv to the treadmill area. wired, complete with backfeed. added to the hdmi matrix, the idea here is you can view any video source, and the primary audio output is the headphone jack, so whatever you are watching will come out through headphones at treadmill. great plan.

i jump on treadmill, hit my video source (directv1) my tv pops up, i heard it through the headphones. i find out later that, when i did this. control4 decided to turn on a tv in another room in my house, and pull the backfeed audio from THAT tv, instead of the treadmill one. everything worked fine , when i turned off the treadmill room, it also turned off my tv in the other room too, if my wife didnt specifically tell me this happened, i wouldnt have even known.

my question is, whats broken in my programming that is making this happen? or is this simply control4, is there a way to fix this? i can't imagine this isn't a common wiring config. here is what i think *might* be happening, but i'm not sure.

=Control4 sees i want audio for directv1 when i select my source, it looks at the path to figure out how best to deliver audio for directv1 to my output (headphone jack)

=it determines (for some reason, based on pathing and the hdmi matrix, that random_tv_1_output is capable of delivering audio for this device (directv1) and it routes it accordingly, while additionally turning on this random tv.

=When i'm done and i room off, it turns everything it needed off.

Am i correct in diagnosing this? is this whats happening? if so, i can probably fix this by programming on the matrix level, but in order to prevent control4 from doing this, i'd actually need to unbind my whole matrix and do everything in programming, so i wanted to check with you guys first.

i'd be interested in hearing any input, and can provide more info if required.

-Jon

[Cyknight]

Your problem is using the TV feedback audio. Yes this is an uncommon setup to use for ALL sources. If possible, it's best to just run source stereo direct to the matrix - this would be considered proper set-up for a centralized rack at least.

You're assessment on why it's turning that tv on is fairly accurate. And I'm not so sure you can truly prevent this from happening using programming. Best you could do is force it to change the matrix switch to the proper input after the fact and turn off the TV, but be careful to use the built in TV off option, not sending the code or the system won't keep track.

It's also a lot of programming as it could potentially take ANY TV to feed the audio.

You could try making the video/audio endpoints the TV itself - this should force the system to only use the TV for the room, using endpoint 2 as the matrix for other sources. This may work alright combined with programming to force the proper audio matrix out to the proper matrix in, leaving volume control on the amplifier.

It's quirky however - stereo from source to matrix is the right way to go.

In a way what you created is a matrix feeding a matrix (hdmi switch to audio matrix via the TVs) which is is a big no-no within C4 systems (due to how it creates and tracks audio and video paths.

[malelan]

ok, i hear you, so analog sound from my sources directly to my audio matrix. i think most/all my sources should support this, but i doubt that they will output analog sound here, and digital sound on hdmi at the same time, which is gonna cause major problems as not every room has speakers.

as i mentioned above, i'm pretty sure i can fix this in programming, and yeah it would be alot of programming, the issue here is that i have to basically unbind everything from audio matrix/amp, because if i don't the system is going to execute my programming and still turn the other tv on.

[Cyknight]

Most if not all devices WILL output stereo and HDMI (and optical etc) audio at the same time, what COULD happen is that it will default all (or needs to be defaulted to) outputs at PCM stereo. This is generally only on blu-ray players and their like, but even then not all (PS3 for instance can be set to output on multiple outs, most cable/sat boxes will push out audio on all connections).

If you have devices that don't have stereo outs, there are fairly inexpensive digital audio converters out there (at least if stereo PCM isnt an issue for you - it gets more expensive fast if you want surround sound conversion to stereo).

[malelan]

ok, i should have all the wiring/hardware i need to test this configuration out, so i'll give it a shot first.

it kinda makes it seem silly that i ran rca to every tv for backfeed, but that work is already done and my fault in the end, so i'm not too worried about it.

[Cyknight]

On occasion a tv feedback can be used this way, in particular for local sources or a feed to a single zone amp (or receiver), but it can create odd situations in a setup as you have. It isn't wrong as such, just not recommended in combination with what you have in addition.