How to get multi-room audio on a budget
Inspired by the National Broadband Network, Adam Turner decided to crawl about in the roof as part of his own cable rollout.
KRudd's $900 stimulus was burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided to put it towards extending my multi-room audio system to get music in the bedrooms.
If Big Kev's handout had an extra zero on the end I might have sunk it into the awesome Sonos Digital Music System, but in these interesting financial times I'm trying to do more with less.
I've found that Apple's AirTunes is a great way to pump audio from iTunes on a Mac or PC to an Airport Express ($179) with attached speakers. I've had an Airport Express in the lounge room and another in the dining room for about six months - each hooked up to a set of Harmon Kardon Soundstick IIs. The advantage of using the same speakers is that the characteristics of the sound remains consistent as you walk from one room to another.
Since I moved house last year my 802.11g network has struggled with local interference, encouraging me to buy an Apple Time Capsule to run an 802.11n network for my MacBook and for streaming audio around the house. I've had to keep my g network, running off my Billion router/modem, to support non-n devices - but it struggles to reach the three bedrooms upstairs.
Trialing the new dual-band Time Capsule solved this problem by offering a stronger g signal, but rather than replace my existing Time Capsule I thought I'd try a more creative solution.
As luck would have it, the master bedroom's walk-in wardrobe contains a power point. I have a third Airport Express which floats around the house as required, so I put it in the wardrobe, accompanied by an old Billion wireless router connected to the Airport Express' Ethernet port.
Now the Billion is providing a second 802.11g network for the bedrooms upstairs, while hooking into the house's 802.11n backbone via the Airport Express. I found I had to keep them about two feet apart to stop them interfering with each other, even though they're running at different frequencies.
My initial idea was to hang an FM transmitter off the Airport Express' audio jack and then just put a radio in all three bedrooms. The idea worked well enough once I used an audio extension cable to get the transmitter away from the Airport Express and other gear. The audio was acceptable, but when the transmitter switched off each room was filled with static and squealing due to the local interference.
I tried a lot of different frequencies with the same result. I just knew that if I left it like that, one day the transmitter would cut out while the kids were in their rooms and they'd be upset by the noise - putting a serious dint in my WAF.
As luck would have it, the walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom also contains the manhole for getting up into the roof space. Even better, there's a double power point up there in the roof, providing juice to the booster for the aerial (now I've found the booster, I might think about upgrading it to improve my digital TV reception, but that's a blog post for another day).
My new idea was to run the audio from the Airport Express up into the roof space to an audio splitter, then run cables to the two other bedrooms and drop them down into the top of the built-in wardrobes where I could put speakers.
The plan was starting to sound complicated and expensive, but it seemed far more reliable than an FM radio solution and far cheaper than putting a wired or wireless IP music player in each room.
After a little research I found the perfect audio splitter for the job - a DOSS AV486 6 way Distribution Amplifier which was only $59 at Radio Parts. While I was there I picked up a 3.5mm jack to 2xRCA audio cable (for connecting the amplifier to the Airport Express), two 5-metre 2xRCA audio extension cables, a power board and two 5-metre power extension cables.
Now I made a small hole in the ceiling of the three wardrobes (where they can't be seen, to keep the Lady of the House happy), fed up the power and audio cables into the holes and the crawled through the roof space and dragged the cables back from the two kids' bedrooms to the amplifier next to the manhole. This was the hardest bit of the process, as I took me 30 minutes to crawl to and from one of the bedrooms because of all the beams, aircon pipes and insulation in the way.
I emerged looking like a bruised and battered chimney sweep - but now I had power and audio running to each wardrobe, hooked up to an amplifier in the ceiling, connected to the Airport Express in the master bedroom's walk-in wardrobe, connected to the house's 802.11n backbone running off my Time Capsule, connected to my DSL modem. Not quite as grand as the NBN, but impresive none the less.
All I needed now was speakers in each bedroom. I didn't fancy spending a lot, so I picked up three Logitech LS-21 2.1 desktop speaker systems from Officeworks for $39 each. I also got three 2xRCA to 3.5mm socket adaptors from Dick Smith, so I could connect the speakers to the ends of the 2xRCA audio cables running from the amplifier.
The final step was to screw brackets above the wardrobe doors on which I mounted the speakers. I then drilled a hole behind one speaker so I could feed the cable back into the top of the wardrobe where it plugged into the tiny sub-woofer/amplifier, which in turn connected to the audio and power cables dropping down from the ceiling inside the wardrobe.
The Logitech LS-21s are obviously no match for my Harmon Kardon Soundsticks, but they're satisfactory for the bedrooms. One of the things I really liked about the Logitech LS-21 speakers is that they have a breakout box containing the power and volume switches, so it's easy to turn the speakers on and off without having to reach up high and get at the back of the sub-woofer/amplifier - another WAF booster.
Now when I fire up iTunes (on the computer or via my iPhone) I see an extra speaker option; Upstairs. I can send music to this Airport Express and the switch the speakers in each bedroom on or off as required. If I want to later, I can add an extra Aiport Express so I can have different audio in different bedrooms.
I can also easily upgrade the speakers, although once again using the same speakers means the characteristics of the sound is consistent when you stand in the hallway outside the bedrooms.
If you include the cost of the Airport Express and the wireless router (both of which I already owned), the whole project came in at around $500 - still leaving $400 of KRudd's handout to spend on other projects.
Other Blog Entries written by Adam Turner:
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