Introduction
Although CasaTunes has developed several control module for most popular AV Receivers that support RS-232 and IP, there are a large number of devices that only support Infra-red control, and that
homeowners would like to use with CasaTunes that are not currently
supported.
To provide a more comprehensive solution to this problem, the
company has partnered with BitWise Controls. The combined solution offers
seamless integration of third party music equipment, and integration of stand alone
home theaters and receivers in to a unique whole house music experience.
Integrating Home Theater/Surround Sound setups with CasaTunes
In this tutorial we will walk you through step-by-step to show you how to integrate
an IR controlled AV Receiver that is setup in the Living Room so that is can participate in the
whole music experience, and be seamlessly controlled within CasaTunes.
- In this example, we will assume the Living Room is to be connected as Zone
1.
- Connect Zone 1, the pre-amp output on the CasaTunes music server, to the
CD Input on the A/V Receiver.
- Connect your BC4, or similar BitWise control device, to the network and to the devices to be controlled
- Co-locate your BC4 next to your AV Receiver, and
connect an IR emitter from your IR2 port on the BC4X1 device to your
AV Receiver IR window. Connect your network cable and power
to the BC4X1 device.
- Add your AV Receiver as an IR Device via Project Editor
- Create macros. These macros will be invoked by CasaTunes when the power is turned
on for the Living Room, power is turned off, etc.
- Create the following BitWise Macros with the following actions for your AV
Receiver:
- Power On – turns receiver on and switches receiver to CD
input
- Power Off – turns the receiver off
- Volume Up – turns volume up
- Volume Down – turns volume down
- Mute On – turns mute on
- Mute Off – turns mute off
- Upload the BitWise Macros to your BC4
- Upload your IRDEVICES and BC4MACROS to your BC4. Right click on
your BC4 and select “Upload this BC4”
- Configuring the Living Room to use BitWise Controls:
- Start CasaTunes Setup
- Select Rooms in CasaSetup
- Select the room (Zone 1 in this example)
- Click on Advanced Settings
- Select Configure BitWise Control macros for room events
- For each CasaTunes event, optionally configure the BitWise Controller, Macro and optionally any Variables to execute in response to the CasaTunes Event
Note 1: You must enable BitWise Controls in the CasaTunesSvc.exe.config. Contact CasaTunes Technical Support for more information. Once enabled and CasaTunes is restarted, CasaTunes will automatically discover your BitWise Controllers in your network. You should always restart CasaTunes after you have changed the BitWise Controller configuration, in order for CasaTunes to re-discover and re-load the latest BitWise Controller information
Note 2: CasaTunes automatically discovers the macros programmed for each BitWise controller, however due to the length of time it can take to check all the available macro slots, CasaTunes stops the macro discovery process, when it detects the first empty macro slot, so you must be careful to ensure that all your macros are consecutively listed.