Video & Audio matrixing for conference / sports room

[TomHoward]

We have a sports / conference room that we are needing to sort out the AV switching for.

 

At the moment there's an Onkyo AV receiver, domestic amp with HDMI switching installed at the moment which is doing HDMI switching and amplification to 4x low impedance speakers in the space.

Problems they are having are:

 

No mic input / mixing facility - if we need to put a mic in we can put a receiver in the analogue CD input for the amp, put the receiver output right up and it just about works.

However this can't be used if any other audio source is needed, eg a laptop presentation with audio, as obviously domestic amp only supports one input.

Audio tied to video - so if laptop is needed on projector screen, you can't use a mic or the audio from a different input.

No matrixing - there are 4 outputs (3 TVs and one projector across 2 rooms) and we could do with separate output for at least 3 of these. (two of the TVs can be grouped together)

What I suspect are HDCP problems - I'm not sure how the amp is doing the switching, but if the HDMI inputs are switched live or after power up, the projector doesn't find the source and everything needs to be powered down and reconnected. (eg starts on freeview / analogue input and is changed to laptop input, projector doesn't respond)

 

Video Inputs are:

Freeview box in rack

HDMI from laptop connection in room (via HDBaseT)

HDMI from Apple TV for audio streaming

HDMI from signage player (used for TVs)

 

Audio inputs are:

All of above, plus 1 analogue audio input and 1 mic input, needed to be mixed with the AV audio

 

Outputs:

Audio to 4x speakers

HDMI to 1x projector (1 zone)

HDMI to 1x TV in separate room (2nd zone, no audio)

HDMI to 2x tvs in same room as projector

 

 

My thoughts are, install a 4x4 HDMI matrix with all the inputs, and 4 HDMI outputs - 3 for the video zones, and the 4th output used to switch AV audio (feed to an HDMI box and strip the audio)

Install a 2nd mixer amp / similar and use this to mix the AV audio with another analogue input and mic input from room

 

So I think need an amp with 2x stereo line inputs and 1x mic input, which can be mixed, possibly from a remote plate.

 

Problems I have are:

 

Are there any reputable 4x4 HDMI matrixes other than Kramer, in terms of cost being the issue?

Mixer / amp selection - the Cloud mixer amps are what I'd usually go to, but they only only line source selection, and not mixing. They'll allow 1x mic input but that's all, may not be enough. Also they are mostly mono.

 

Is there a better way of going about the overall system?

[Stuart91]

Are there any reputable 4x4 HDMI matrixes other than Kramer, in terms of cost being the issue?

 

We've used this unit from Lindy quite successfully. It's less expensive than anything equivalent from Kramer.

 

My only caveat is that I've not tried it with long cable runs - we've usually got everything sitting in a rack with inputs nearby and outputs feeding CAT 5/6 adaptors.