Final Design Question

[hehateme]

I found these forums by accidents and I made good use of it. This forum is one of the reason why I will choose Control 4 over Crestron Adagio. I have a final design question. Once I get an answer to this question I will hire a dealer and contribute some money to the economy

I live in a 2 story house. I will have 7 zones to start in my initial install.

I do plan to add lighting, security and temperature control next year.

I have 2 home theaters in my home in main level family room and upper level Master bedroom

The multichannel amp and tuner will go into the basement.

Two the proposal by dealers suggested that I put HC500 in the family room and HC300 in the Master bedroom.

One of the proposals suggested that I should have HC500 in the basement. He said that if I don't do this then he will have to use balun's over cat5 to connect the HC500 in the family room to the multi channel amp. HC200 is only $499 I don't mind having a controller at each level of my house even though my basement is unfinished at this time.

Based on what you know what would you recommend

1. HC500(basement), HC300(family room) and HC200(master bedroom)

2. HC500(family room), HC300 Master bedroom

Thanks

[RyanE]

I would recommend option 1, mainly because if your audio zones, etc. are in the basement, you're going to want a controller there with audio outputs to be able to stream to all the rooms.

Running line-level audio from the family room to the basement location of the amplifier is a pain, and isn't nearly as neat and clean of an installation (line-level audio is much more susceptible to picking up a hum, etc. than speaker-level, and would be better by the amp). I'd imagine that's why the dealer says if you put the controller in the family room, he'd want to use baluns to hook up the audio. That's the only smart way to do the line level.

I would also pick the 500 for the basement if you're doing a 500, mainly because it has 3 audio outputs, instead of the 2 with the HC300, and 1 with the HC200.

Probably the best would be if you had the 500 in the basement (and if it's not serving an on-screen display anywhere, shut off the Navigator on it) as the server, 300 and 200 providing local on-screen displays and control of local devices. The 300 in the family room likely because you'll have more things to control (Cable box, DVD changer, DVD/VCR, TV, etc.). The 200 in the master bedroom, because you likely don't have as many things to control.

And then you also have 3 zigbee servers, so all your lights, thermostats, and especially remote controls are nice and zippy.

That's pretty close to my setup, actually, except I have all my lighting, etc. in and more audio zones.

RyanE