Need 7.1 Help with Preamp Selection

[MNCowboy]

I'm putting together a sound and video system for our church celebration center. It's a large room 200'x160' and I'm planning on setting it up for multi-use. We're going to have 8 speakers that will be used in different configuration depending on what we are doing, DVD (7.1), band, computer presentation.... I want to set up separate amps for each speaker, then feed them according to the layout that I'm using at the moment. The piece that I haven't been able to find, is a 7.1 decoder that will take a dvd output (audio only, not switching video) and break it out so that I have a pre-out level for each channel, that way I can route the sound to the amp based on the event. We use different ends of the room for different events, concerts are on the east end, video projection on the west, so the speaker layout will change depending on what we are using it for. It doesn't have to be a commerical grade component, but decent quality.

Any suggestions as to where to look for this piece of equipment.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Steve

 

[mazersteven]

I don't know what your looking for, but try here

www.behringer.com

www.nilesaudio.com

 

[cbraver]

I'm a little lost too.

http://www.dbxpro.com/

Look at the ZonePRO equipment, which you could connect a home theater pre-amp into.

For practical purposes it's probably best to have concerts and movies from the same stage. Have a pull down or electric screen, which you can retract for concerts. You could use a standard home theater pre-amp for the 7.1 (the dbx zonepro equipment has transformers so you can run RCA's into it without a bunch of noise problems), but one with balanced outputs would be ideal, we could recommend some for you.

You are going to need a designer to make a system like that work in your space. Choosing PA speakers, amps, signal processing equipment, cabling, lighting, screens, etc. is a big task and will be largely specific to your room.