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Whole House Audio

The Whole House Entertainment Network (W.H.E.N.) from Audio Access, a Harmon International company, is installed in the main house and guesthouse. This system provides

  • a 7.1 receiver (70W x 7 plus subwoofer) surround sound for the home theatre
  • distributed digital audio from up to eight sources to eight zones (50W/channel) in the house
  • intercom between keypads
  • room monitoring
  • door (gate) bell
  • wake up alarms

The system is configured as a hub system with eight zones as illustrated in Figure 21 on page 42 of the manual.

Sources: The receiver installed in the home theatre room cabinet allows up to eight separate inputs. Currently an iPod docking station and an FM antennae in the attic are connected. There are two more RG6 Quad cables to the attic for additional AM/FM antennae, HD antennae, or satellite dishes. Additional CD/DVD changers, video recorders, DVR devices, Internet radio, etc. could be added as sources in the home theatre cabinet.

Home Theatre: A Harmon/Kardon HKTS-18 7.1 speaker system is connected to the receiver for the home theatre surround sound. The receiver was tuned for these speakers and the room acoustics to provide the best movie listening experience.

Audio Distribution: Eight keypads are installed in rooms throughout the house to control in eight separate listening zones. The keypads allow you to choose a music source, page other keypads as an intercom, monitor sound in other zones, and open the front gate.
Cat6 cabling carries the digital audio signal from the distribution hub to the keypads. Fourteen gauge romex wires carry the power for the keypad amplifiers (50W/channel). These amplifiers convert the digital audio into an analog signal that is directed to the speakers.

Zones: Forty four dedicated speakers are installed in the ceilings and walls to serve the eight zones. Single room zones have two speakers (left and right) for stereo sound. Zones in larger areas are connected to eight speakers wired in series and parallel to maintain eight ohms resistance and the correct left-right stereo experience.

  1. The Main Floor Master Bedroom has four speakers in the ceiling, three speakers in the master bathroom, and one speaker in the closet.
  2. The Family Room has two ceiling speakers in the kitchen, four in the informal dining area, and two in the family room.
  3. The Living Room has four ceiling speakers in the living room, two ceiling speakers in the formal dining room, and two wall speakers in the dining room.
  4. The Office East (#1) has two ceiling speakers in opposite corners and a local input wallplate.
  5. The Office West (#2) has two ceiling speakers in opposite corners and a local input wallplate.
  6. The Upstairs Master Bedroom has two ceiling speakers each in the dressing room, bedroom, and bathroom, as well as one speaker each in the closet and balcony.
  7. The Downstairs Playroom has two wall surface-mount speakers on the shear wall.
  8. The Guesthouse has four ceiling speakers in the main room, three in the bedroom, and one in the bathroom; as well as local input in the main room.

The Automatic Gate is connected to the system through the doorbell module. When a visitor presses the button on the Channel Vision door station at the street, a chime is heard on all the speakers in each zone. Then you can open the gate from the nearest keypad.

The W.H.E.N. system is also capable of analog video distribution. However, it is not HDTV-level quality, so separate HDMI wiring is installed for video distribution.