Author Topic: Using VC in multiple rooms (Read 3911 times)

Vangelis · « **on:** September 13, 2013, 08:02:31 AM »

Hi there - First Post, so here goes...

Been looking at VC for a bit after seeing Mr Wolfs demo on YouTube.

What I am thinking of is using VC in multiple rooms in the house, all run from a central PC. The setup would be along the following lines, however I am open to suggestions...

1..Each room having Speaker, Mic and PIR (PIR will be used to detect room occupancy and enable Mic/Speaker)
2..All Mic's will route back to PC running VC with some kind of multiplexed input card (not decided how to do this yet)
3..Will use a multi-channel Amp to supply speakers (Output from PC sound card)
4..PIR will need to have some kind of timed lockout so as to hold Mic/Speaker open in the event that the room is occupied and another room is entered by another person

At the moment this is just for Audio i.e iTunes so not looking past that - Just need to research if this is doable in the first place and how much hardware I would need, and what niggles I would encounter (Speaker 'pops' when enabling speaker in an occupied room)

Anyone done anything similar with VC? I don't want to go down the route of SmartPhone being used as Mic as planning on use by the family (via Profiles)

Vangelis

nime5ter · « **Reply #1 on:** September 13, 2013, 10:05:18 AM »

Until someone with relevant knowledge chimes in, you might want to take a look at this thread regarding multiple microphones in different rooms using one instance of VC: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=591.msg4529#msg4529.

Kalle · « **Reply #2 on:** September 13, 2013, 10:37:09 AM »

Hi Vangelis and welcome in VC forum. In theory it is possible, but in practice there are many pitfalls

As example: a lot of traffic in your rooms (kids, pets ...), so the mics pick each voice from several room at the same time - but this can be solved when you run multiple instances of VC for each room on your computer.

You can take also a look here http://james.lipsit.com/home.htm this guy has build a good solution and there also a part-list available.

The parts-list for mic stuff: http://james.lipsit.com/whole.htm

Vangelis · « **Reply #3 on:** September 16, 2013, 05:22:16 AM »

Thanks Guys...

Funnily enough I had come across James' site when looking for something else - seems a good resource however (albeit now somewhat dated)

The multi-thread streamer looks interesting also. I guess I just need to decide which direction to take. Will keep you all informed on how I get on, I am sure I will have lots of questions

Vangelis

mdsh · « **Reply #4 on:** September 17, 2013, 04:58:03 AM »

Hi Vangelis.. not sure if this has come up as the potential next step for you but seeing as you are talking about multiple rooms you might want to have a look at this post in the forum re multi XBMC as well.

http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=988.0

Some good tips in that as well.

PS - welcome to the VC forums

nate · « **Reply #5 on:** November 13, 2013, 05:13:19 PM »

Hi, complete noob here but have been playing with VC for about a week and am getting ready to buy it. I do have a question along the same lines as the OP. If I want to run multiple tablets, all mounted to the wall, in each room; would it be possible to achieve a whole house setup? I am playing around with VoxWav and Mumble on the tablets to see which would be the best, but I do want an always on solution and the VC listening for its start command. Thanks.

Nate

jitterjames · « **Reply #6 on:** November 13, 2013, 07:01:46 PM »

In theory this can be done with VoxWav pro. The beta version of VoxWav pro supports "always on" but I don't really know how practical it is in a long term situation. For $5, I'd say start by getting VoxWav pro and playing with the beta. You must join the VoxCommando google group to get access to the beta.

Ooops, gotta go. I may have more to say on this topic later...