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Whole House Audio
House audio is the distribution of music throughout the home from one central location. Generally house audio is a differant source than what may be playing in a family room or surround room. As an example you may be watching a DVD in the family room or theater, while listening to a cd in the master bedroom. Many multi room audio systems are broke into zones. With the whole house playing the same thing or the ability to play differant things in each area of the home at the same time. As an example: a cd in the Master bed, an mp3 player in the Master Bathroom, cable or satillite radio on the patio, and a turntable playing in the office. This example would be a 4 zone houe audio system. Once you have established how many rooms in your home you would like to have music in, the next step is to figure out how to control it. Below are a few examples of control options for your house audio.
 
VOLUME CONTROLS
Knob style volume controls are the most popular and cost effective, giving control of the volume level in a room or zone, however they do not allow easy change of sources.
This volume control has the same operation as the knob style, but with a button style control and LEDs on the side to show the volume setting. These are very asteticly pleasing, and are great when used next to or around a lighting system. This Volume Control also has a built in mute button for quick silence (great when the phone rings). With a built in infared reciever this volume control can also be controled by remote control.
Touchpads
Touchpads are a step up from a standard volume control, giving home owners expanded control of the source used in a zone. The touchpad shown here has the ability to chose from 6-12 sources as well as basic control of the devices it can choose from. It also has a "built in" volume control for the source that it is controling. Also this touchpad has a "party" mode that can set the whole house to a preset source and even a preset volume at the push of one button. The "favorite" button can be programed for each zone to play your favorite source and / or favorite station. While the button layout of this pad does not change, the sources in the center do, to allow a very easy to use source selection area and will give the user feedback info on the selected source (example what radio station you are on).
Touchpanels
For the ultimate control of house audio, touchpanels give an enhanced ability to select differant sources for differant zones from one extremely easy to use interface. Generally touchpanels allow for more than just the abillity to select what music you would like to play but also control of lights, view of cameras, even web acces to allow you to check the temperature or check traffic before you even get into your car for work. To learn more about the abilitys of touchpanels please see our automation page.