multi room installation

[citylite]

Been lurking on here for a while guys, this is a great site. Im an electrician with some experience in home theater.

Im installing a system for my buddy, he has (2)speakers in each of 3 rooms (6 total) pre wired and a 5.1 harmon kardon avr 154 receiver. He wants to install (2) additional speakers in the living room for a total of (4) plus the sub. there are no volume controls in the apartment so i am planning on getting the harmony 1100 (with RF extender) which will also control 4 tv's, dvr, 2 cable boxes, blu ray player in the apartment.

My question is, will i need a separate multi zone amp so that he can play music in only 1 of the three rooms, will the avr 5.1 receiver control any additional zones besides the 4 speakers and sub int he living room. He is open to buying a better receiver and more equipment to get the place set up properly.

the previous owner had a system and all the wiring terminates in the closet.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[citylite]

Hey guys i regrouped my thoughts, basically i need a receiver to control 3 audio zones and 4 tv's at the same time.

Also the 4 tv's should be able to play different channels at the same time(will have 2 cable boxes, blu ray player)

The 3 rooms of music should be able to play separate music from different sources at the same time.

 

[adk highlander]

Hi citylite and welcome to the forum.

What is the budget for this project?

Do the 4 TV's need to be a high def feed?

There is no consumer model receiver that will have the ability to do what you are asking. You will probably want a receiver for the room that will have surround sound and at least 1 maybe more matrix switches to handle the sources and feed the signals to the amps and TV's.

Also you are going to need some kind of control system so you can track what sources are being used in each zone so if someone turns off the theater system it does not shut off the sources that are being used in another zone.

I have a system setup that is very similar to what you are trying to do here. I am using a Marantz prepro in my theater then a Integra MZA-4.7 to handle the audio zones and non-hd zones and finally a component matrix switch and zone amps to handle the HD zones. To control it all I am using URC products.

I did the install and programming myself and many of the products where purchased off from ebay to keep costs down but I am still well over $7000 in gear to get where I am at now.

 

[citylite]

adk- thanks for responding, only living rm and bedroom should be a HD feed for TV.

the budget is flexible 5000-7000 max, also he is not looking for a spectacular system, just basic sound in the bedroom, bathroom and a decent surround in the living room.

I called Yamaha and spoke to a tech about the rx a3010, what i got from the conversation is that it will provide separate audio for 3 zones at the same time, so i think that would cover the audio.

also yamaha has an iphone/droid app to control the receiver which sounds awesome and would eliminate the need for a wireless control.

Im trying to look for video switches now, the rxa3010 has 2 mirrored hdmi outputs but that means the 2 tv's on those outputs will be playing the same thing, though it does have a component video out also which can control another TV.

the wiring from the closet where the equipment is going to the 4 tv locations in the apt:

living rm
2 component video cable
2 hdmi
2 cat6
1 coax

bedroom
1 hdmi
2 18-4 conductor
(video cables may be missing)

man room
1 cat6
1 component video cable

bathroom
1 coax
1 cat6

If I have to run some wiring in the apartment i will, any more input from you guys would be great.