We are working with a dance studio to make it a bit easier on the instructors.
Currently they have their various music burned onto cd’s and loaded
into a Sony 5 disk changer.

As you can imagine, while the class is there an instructor has to walk
over to the audio setup, cue up the song after locating it on the
desired cd and the desired track, and walk back and work with the
students.  If necessary to pause or stop the music, it’s another trip
over to the audio gear, pause it, shout over to the students (or walk
back) then start the music again.

My desire is to convert their music over to mp3 and have a reasonably
sized touch panel at the edge of the dance floor.
They have computers in the office with the music on them which I can
wire to any point (the audio stack or the touch panel, or both).

So my question is a call for suggestions for the remote panel, and
what would deliver to it.  Is it necessary to have Media Center on a
computer to deliver?

In a nut shell, here is what we have around the rectangular dance
floor.  Audio gear in one corner, office with computers with music on
hard drive in diagonal corner, desired control point for instructor
half way between.

Thanks in advance
>

You didn’t say what brands you have access to

mistercee - 03 August 2008 09:02 PM

You didn’t say what brands you have access to

Pretty much anything that’s made.  We are an integration company.

Dirk

Dirk, I’ll give you the first two things that come to mind - everything after that comes with a consuting fee.

But first a question/point - what’s the budget?  You mention having a touchpanel in the wall - that sounds like Crestron/AMX.  Must be some dance studio!

Ok, now my ideas.

1)  Touch panel PC.  It controls the music files and whatever is streaming to the amplifier.  The instructor can walk around with the thing. Wireless baby. Yoiu could go Dell - or find something with the technology that isn’t as main stream like Acer.

2)  Sonos.  This is worth looking into for simple wireless distributed audio control with a remote that has meta-data.

And guess what - no media center required.

Or - you could do this with an iPhone our iTouch… there’s a thread about this… can’t seem to find it.
Or - check this article out: http://www.cepro.com/article/nuvo_debuts_browser_interface_for_multiroom_audio/

Wait - after 2 I was going to start charging… invoice is on the way.  And for any readers, we’ll be sure to create a duplicate bill for the intelectual property.  Or you can just sign the attached non-compete.

Happy Posting,
and proposing,
and estimating,
and contracting,
enough… morgan

Dude!  You need to cut back on the coffee! 

I like the Nuvo unit, although possibly too complex.  Sonos, and Squeezbox are on the list as well.

Thanks for the input, and will await the invoice.  But wait.  I just dispensed medical advice above.  Perhaps we could work something out. 

Dirk.

TheTechSource - 04 August 2008 09:38 PM

Dirk, I’ll give you the first two things that come to mind - everything after that comes with a consuting fee.

But first a question/point - what’s the budget?  You mention having a touchpanel in the wall - that sounds like Crestron/AMX.  Must be some dance studio!

Ok, now my ideas.

1)  Touch panel PC.  It controls the music files and whatever is streaming to the amplifier.  The instructor can walk around with the thing. Wireless baby. Yoiu could go Dell - or find something with the technology that isn’t as main stream like Acer.

2)  Sonos.  This is worth looking into for simple wireless distributed audio control with a remote that has meta-data.

And guess what - no media center required.

Or - you could do this with an iPhone our iTouch… there’s a thread about this… can’t seem to find it.
Or - check this article out: http://www.cepro.com/article/nuvo_debuts_browser_interface_for_multiroom_audio/

Wait - after 2 I was going to start charging… invoice is on the way.  And for any readers, we’ll be sure to create a duplicate bill for the intelectual property.  Or you can just sign the attached non-compete.

Happy Posting,
and proposing,
and estimating,
and contracting,
enough… morgan

forgive my candor, but this seems like a pretty simple problem for someone calling themselves a “integration company”. if you are selling these folks touchpanels, you should have your tax license revoked. unless there is more to the story, you are precicesly why we (true integrators) get a bad rap. You are not balancing the customer need with the appropriate solution.

Burn the necessary songs onto one cd (i cant imagine they need 20 songs for one class). get a remote control for the CD player and bingo - problem solved!  or move up to a logitech squeezebox duet for more complete control.

CHS. - 01 August 2008 08:47 AM

We are working with a dance studio to make it a bit easier on the instructors.
Currently they have their various music burned onto cd’s and loaded
into a Sony 5 disk changer.

As you can imagine, while the class is there an instructor has to walk
over to the audio setup, cue up the song after locating it on the
desired cd and the desired track, and walk back and work with the
students.  If necessary to pause or stop the music, it’s another trip
over to the audio gear, pause it, shout over to the students (or walk
back) then start the music again.

My desire is to convert their music over to mp3 and have a reasonably
sized touch panel at the edge of the dance floor.
They have computers in the office with the music on them which I can
wire to any point (the audio stack or the touch panel, or both).

So my question is a call for suggestions for the remote panel, and
what would deliver to it.  Is it necessary to have Media Center on a
computer to deliver?

In a nut shell, here is what we have around the rectangular dance
floor.  Audio gear in one corner, office with computers with music on
hard drive in diagonal corner, desired control point for instructor
half way between.

Thanks in advance
>

I would offer them control4 with a HC300 comes with a remote, setup a network share to the main pc to access all the mp3’s and they can then add and create their own playlist and install either a 3button or 6 button keypad. Now the keypads can be programmed in a number of ways but lets just say if button 1 is pushed play the playlist and button 2 is volume up and button 3 is volume down.
if they have more then 1 instructor go with the 6 button keypad it is the same price as they 3 button. Now you can assing a button to each instructor and colour code each button for them so that they know pink is mary’s blue is jane’s ect ... and setup each button push to skip to the next track So if mary pushes the pink button once it is going to play the nutcracker, if the pink button is pushed twice it is going to play footlose ect, and do this for each instructor.

Try an Escient Fireball. There are many servers to choose from, they work well, and can be suprisingly affordable; not to mention they are extremely easy to use. You can use either an RTI in wall controller or handheld. A philips pronto would also be a good choice because of the two way communication with the fireball. That way they would have the ability to carry around with them if they so choose.

If they have an iPod you could also sell them a Keyspan iPod dock with two-way RF remote… we’ve put them in for a kid’s gym/dance studio.  All the instructors have to do is dock the iPod and then pick up the small palm-sized remote and walk around with it.  It’s the cheapest solution by far of what has been posted and would seem to give them what they need.  Otherwise, you’ve already been given plenty of good ideas and products.

Your coolest option in my opinion would be a RTI K-4 for in wall, T3-V, or T-4 for mobility. You can add autonomic controls for easy integration of iTunes or Windows Media files to be controlled directly from the remote with a nice GUI. Keep in mind you need to be a dealer for both platforms, and have proper programming experience. You can also acheive this with URC, AMX, Crestron, and many others.