As the title says. We are fortunate enough to have a water front lake house and just had the pier/dock redone after Hurricane Matthew decided to remove a good portion of it last fall. As such, I want to go in and add an audio solution that is easy to use BUT can be locked out for NO usage (or a max volume set up) when we have renters. Here are some crude schematics and guiding principles:
Guiding Principles
- My parents are older and not very tech savvy. As such, they need to be able to easily connect cell phones or iPods to play music. Both have android devices. They also love the local beach music and oldies stations (and they do play jam after jam, so I can't even be mad!)
- This system will be somewhat "shielded" but also completely outdoors. See schematics to understand opportunities for tucking the speakers and other hardware to help with elements.
- We rent the house, and would either prefer that we have a way to lock the system out, not to be used by renters or buy a receiver that supports a maximum volume setting. We don't want to piss off the neighbors and allow the renters to have a house party (or destroy the system).
- A remote mounted receiver setup is an option (like having the receiver in the house and just doing a signal run and then distribution device out to the pier/dock) but you have to be able to control volume, input, or at least device/channel from the pier. This to me defeats the purpose of remote mounting the receiver.
Schematic:
So the above is a top down schematic of what we are working with. Nothing is to scale or even close to scale, it was more to depict listening areas and understand the different "wants" that the system could fill. So let me walk through the areas.
The teal areas are the desired listening zones, with the number behind them representing the importance in terms of the system we are discussing in this thread. If I can find a good solution for just the actual covered pier and sun area (designated as 1) then I am a happy camper.
The two area 1s are a covered area and an open area. This is the primary listening zone. The roof area is open right now through the rafters and has a plug or two for a power supply. I could easily drop a shelf/floor between the rafters to place my receiver or any distribution hardware up there. I would also look to tuck at least two speakers into this area, pointing down. Two small outdoor bookshelves would more than fill the space, it's probably 14x14 max. The sun area is another 10 or 12 foot deck off the end for lounging that would also easily be covered by maybe two small outdoor bookshelves. The right speaker setup under the covered area may be enough, but I'd rather have a second set firing out over the sun deck so we can keep volumes lower but still have good coverage.
The screened porch area (designated 2) currently has its own setup that is both old and a pain in the butt. I'd love to have it connected as my Zone 2 such that it could be playing a different source. This could also be the location for the entire system's receiver if need be, but again it is a screened porch and as such, has rain blown in all the time.
Area 3 is an open sun deck that will probably get less usage now that the "end" of the pier is completed and the Sun Area is available. there is no overhead coverage here so a speaker would either literally have to hang off the side and project back towards the area (not a bad idea) or be hidden under the deck and hope you can hear the sound well through the decking (which is composite the full length). Either solution would be a problem if the water level rose or a high wind storm caused some serious waves. Not a priority area at all.
Area 4 is generally able to be heard from the screened porch, but the way the deck and such runs you could easily run some wires under ground or back from the pier, run them up a tree, and attach a speaker or two to a tree. Not a terrible idea and I may look to do that just so we can keep the volume level overall lower between the screen porch and the overwater deck while still hearing the music.
So this is where I am at. Looking for any and all solutions as well as hardware recommendations. I'd love to be into this entire system for under $1,000 including 6 outdoor speakers and the receiver. I have a lot of speaker wire or have no problem buying long runs from monoprice or somewhere. Also not opposed to running the wire in PVC if necessary.
Thank you all for any and all help!
