Multi-Room Audio: Is it Right for You?

Once upon a time, the whole family would gather around a large console radio that was as big as any piece of furniture in the house. The programming was limited, the signal was full of static, and the audio reproduction capabilities of the system were quite primitive. Since that day, electronics and home entertainment have both come a long way.

Today's televisions, for example, come in a variety of sizes to fit unobtrusively into almost every room in the modern house or apartment. The advancement of technology and the availability of a much broader variety of available programming have made it both advantageous and feasible for the average homeowner to have a home equipped with multi-room, or distributed audio and video.

While working in new product development for two major US audio brands, I saw the growth of multi-room explode as customers became more focused on constant access to content and customizable A/V experiences.

What is Multi-room?

Multi-room, also called home distribution, is the means by which any audio or video source can be accessed from any room in the home. The children can watch the Disney Channel in their bedroom, while the parents watch the latest episode of Hell's Kitchen, or a baseball game, in different rooms of the house. When working around the house, home-owners can easily take their television shows or their favorite music with them from room to room and never miss a minute of their favorite shows.

Home Distribution of Audio for Parties

Similarly, multi-room audio distribution allows different music in different portions of the home. However, for those who frequently entertain guests in the home, multi-room audio also allows the option of playing the same background music throughout the house to enhance the ambience of the gathering. With such a system, it is no longer necessary to turn up the stereo two rooms away in an effort to provide music throughout the house. Instead, the volume can be adjusted in each room individually, and a level that permits easy conversation can be maintained throughout the home and even in the garden.

Multi-room Provides Security

With home security systems and multi-room video, the days of fumbling for a robe to investigate some unexplained noise from another part of the house in the middle of the night are over. CCTV systems capture any intrusion and can be monitored from any location in the house where a television set is on hand. Home distribution combined with a CCTV security system allows the homeowner to spot any trouble on their premises and ring the police straight-away from the safety of a separate room, instead of risking a confrontation with the intruder. For new parents, such a system lets them keep a watchful eye on the nursery as well.

Designers and Decorators Prefer Multi-room

With home distribution, source electronics can be closeted away out of sight and controlled from any number of locations throughout the home with a home distribution system. Multi-room owners can watch and listen to the programming they want, without having to look at a rack of electronics equipment that detracts from the room's desired décor.

Professional and amateur home decorators alike have much more freedom to style a room when a home distribution system is used to segregate unattractive electronics equipment from the living space. Instead of speakers sitting on the floor or hanging off the walls, surface-mount loudspeakers are built into the wall or ceiling and sit flush with the wall's surface and can even be painted to match the wall color.

The Importance of Professional Multi-room Installers

Professional multi-room audio and video installers have the experience and expertise to customize a home distribution system to meet the needs of any customer. In addition to helping a homeowner understand home distribution, professional installers will have access to a wide variety of components and accessories to make the system work just the way the customer wants it. As important as equipment, and perhaps even more so, is the professional's ability to connect a house full of equipment without turning the home into a spider's web of visible cables. Wires and connections between rooms can be completely hidden by qualified home distribution professionals.

Tying it all Together

Of course, the best home distribution system in the world is of little value if no one in the home can use it. A properly programmed remote control for each room, or each user, is another essential service provided by professional installation companies. In the earliest days of multi-room, it was often necessary to keep a small basket full of remote controls to properly operate all the components of the system.

Today, however, equipment manufacturers have solved this problem with programmable universal remotes. Modern remotes can be programmed with a complete list of the home's equipment and can be set-up with macro control sequences which address each separate component in pre-set combinations with the push of a single button. Instead of powering on the DVD player, television, and audio systems, in turn, and then changing the television channel and adjusting the audio system's volume, all of these operations can be done automatically with a properly customized remote control. The multi-room installer may spend hours programming the remote as part of the home distribution installation, so the customer never has to worry about learning to control all the separate pieces of the system.

What Kinds of Multi-room Systems are Available?

Multi-room systems are completely scalable from installations as small as a two-room flat to palatial estates, and everything in between. Commercial buildings with video surveillance or televisions for patrons will also benefit from multi-room installations. While wireless systems can be designed for those in rental units, multi-room audio systems are generally designed for those that own their own home since most will involve some amount of wiring and audio equipment to be installed within the walls and ceilings of the home.

One of the most common and simplest installations is simply adding outdoor speakers and control capability that allows the homeowner to choose and enjoy music from their indoor music library while engaged in outdoor activities around the yard. More complex systems tie in all the security, video, intercoms, and individual room A/V components mentioned earlier.