Daniel J SaitSystemline, part of Armour Home, is claiming an industry first with the latest addition to its range of multi-room audio products, designed specifically for the installation market. The S7 Netlink, created by the company’s UK development team, is the only product in the world to deliver a simple and seamless integration between whole house audio systems and home cinema across major AV receiver brands, says the maker.
S7 Netlink addresses the issues of playing a multi-room audio system through a surround sound amplifier which can result in installers wiring separate stereo speakers for music to avoid integration issues, only to be faced with customers questioning why the music is not playing through their main speakers and sub-woofer.
Armour says that until now the only alternative has been to connect the multi-room system as a source that utilises the speakers, but this in turn can create complicated control issues.
The new product solves this problem with a feature allowing it to directly take control of an AVR via a smart two-way interface (via RS232 or TCP/IP) meaning it is able to switch the receiver on, select the right input and control the volume, which is then correctly displayed on the S7 app.
The user can then select the music or radio station they want using the S7 app in the same way they would in any other room connected to S7.
Its creator says the S7 Netlink is the only product in the world to support control of major brand AVRs from Arcam, Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Yamaha & NAD. The installer simply selects the brand, the input used and the control method from a simple web page setup.
Paul Hilditch, brand manager at Systemline, says, “Integrating a whole house audio system and home cinema has always been a challenge for installers, but the launch of S7 Netlink is a game changer as it is simple to install and use.”
Netlink is also a Hi-Fi streamer in its own right and will play digital music files up to 24bit, 192 kHz resolution.
The machine features up-sampling of all source material to the same maximum resolution and offers front panel controls including one-touch selection of any stored favourite, be it radio station, album or playlist.
A variety of inputs and outputs are included for added flexibility.