Workin' in the basement

Been slammed trying to finish this large [for us] job. No brain power left at the end of the day. I will definitely be posting pics as it's my first "real" rack job. I'm not counting the first couple that weren't designed by me (or anyone else for that matter) and everything was just slammed into place and turned on. No no, no more of that nonsense. Here's what we've got. If the design sounds funky it's because it is. We went through 10 revisions of our proposal and each one pulled more stuff out. I had to dumb down the functionality but refused to step down in quality. So here it is.

First Floor:
Marantz SR5003

• Main Zone feeding a 52" Sony XBR and two cabinet style Sonance S623C speakers
  
• Zone 2 feeds Sherbourn TST 200-4 amp in basement rack which feeds 7 pairs of Sonance S623R's... through in-wall volume controls... ugh... :)
  

Sources are AM/FM/XM from the AVR, Escient FP-1 iPod dock/server, HD Fios box



Basement:
Marantz SR5003

• Main Zone feeding a 60" Pioneer Elite and two speakers TBD
  
• SR5003 Zone 2 feeds a 2nd Sherbourn TST 200-4 in basement rack which feeds 5 pairs of Sonance 623R speakers (and more volume controls...)
  

Sources are AM/FM/XM from the AVR, Escient FP-1 iPod dock/server, HD Fios box, and this guy from Game Cabinets, Inc.




We didn't provide it, but it's pretty cool. It's essentially a Windows XP machine with a 15" touchscreen control and 8" display monitor. We had him order the model without the amp since we already had amplifiers figured in for the house. I'm setting it up on an auto sensing line level switch with the Zone 2 outputs from the basement AVR. I tied it in right at the amp, so whether or not Zone 2 is playing it will override the line level out from the AVR and pass the audio on to the amplifier. Then the amp will sense the audio and will power on. Just like that. Hit play on the touchscreen and the basement speakers will play - no intervention with a remote or in-wall control to figure out (which is lucky, because we don't have one down there!)

The line level audio switcher outputs 12v which I'm feeding into our XP-8. The XP-8 will sense the audio trigger, then I can either have it do nothing or I can cause it to send its own 12v trigger to another line level audio switcher that responds to 12v. He wanted the jukebox to come on in the basement automatically but also wanted the option of playing it upstairs. So I can give him a button on the remote that sends a 12v trigger to the switcher and overrides the first floor audio, OR I could just program a Sense Event macro that automatically trips the first floor at the same time as the basement if he decides he wants it to go that way instead. I like having the flexibility to go either way.

Theater
Marantz AV8003 Preamp
Sherbourn 7/110 Amplifier
Velodyne SC-1250 Amplifier
Velodyne SC-15 (x2)
Sonance Cinema Ultra II LCR (x3)
Sonance Cinema Ultra II SUR (x4)
(and a LOT of 12/2 speaker wire - with the passive subs that is 9 speaker runs there)
Sim2 D80E Projector
Ethereal HDMI-CAT5 baluns (x2, AVR to projector, local Blu-Ray to AVR)
Blu-Ray player TBD; we had a Marantz BD8002 in there at one point, but it was pulled out. I think he may end up with a Panny DMP-80 or whatever that model number is.

Adds:
So all of our mini-coax distributed video wiring got pulled out a looong time ago. Now he wants to centralize 8 of his 10 Fios boxes. Luckily, ok luck had nothing to do with it, we have a quad (2 Cat5 + 2 RG-6) at every TV location and throughout the house; 23 in all. And he didn't want a matrix switch - we tried to explain the benefits but it ended up sounding more complicated than it is. He had ordered the 10 Fios boxes before I was done figuring out how I could sell him on a matrix. So now I get to put this together:

Another ERK-4425-AV rack
OCAP-3 shelves (x8)
Proficient IR Plasma sensors (x12)
Xantech 795-20 4 zone IR hub
Xantech 796-20 6 zone IR hub
Audio Authority DuoDrive component Send baluns (x4)
Audio Authority 9880(?) receive baluns (x8)
Audio Authority AVP-11 send & receive balun kit (x3)
(That's 4 boxes split to 8 TVs and 3 boxes straight to 3 TVs. The 8th box in the rack will be plugged directly into the Theater AVR sitting next to it)

That's a LOT of jumpers in there. Not to mention the Cat5's from the rooms land in a structured wiring can that is probably 10' away from the rack. So I'll be pulling around 25 Cat5 jumpers from the can to the rack, then I have to plug in 5 RCA component video and audio AND power for the baluns. Should be fun.
I decided not to do custom AV cables in the "cable box rack" because it would be too time consuming. I figured since I essentially have 8 of the same thing repeated over and over, I'll just use a bunch of pre-made 1m 5RCA jumpers from Ethereal. I think we ordered 18. Geez.


And I'm done...
I'm excited to get this theater finished. Carpet isn't in yet, and I just found out I have to drop the projector another 6" to clear a bulkhead that was added. I'd say we're a Mid-Fi house, but I think we're pushing our way up a bit with this job.

Sorry for the boring post! I'm tired and am a bad writer on a good day. I promise some pics to come!