What does whole-home audio look like in a University Place home?

What does whole-home audio do?

It lets the music follow you, or lets every room play something different, from one system you run with a knob, a keypad or your phone. Walk from the kitchen to the covered patio in University Place and the playlist continues. Send jazz to the dining room and the game to the garage. Fade the whole house at the end of the night with one press. Rivas Technology Group designs these systems around three products, the Tyba Muse streamer, Genelec Smart IP speakers and SoundTube PoE speakers, and the reasons are below.

What is the Tyba Muse?

The source at the heart of the system: a music streamer built for multi-room audio and IP control. Muse streams natively from the major services, and plays to every zone in sync or to each zone separately. It integrates with Control4, so the same app that runs the lights runs the music. It has a touch screen and a phone app, and a high-quality DAC for the rooms where you sit and listen. Because it is IP-based, it does not need a rack of source components; one Muse in the closet feeds the whole house.

What does the Tyba Turn2 add?

A knob on the wall. The Turn2 is a small tactile controller: twist for volume, tap to change source or select a scene. It is finished to sit on a wall next to a light keypad rather than look like a gadget.

Its distinguishing feature is native integration with Genelec Smart IP speakers. The Turn2 talks straight to the speakers over the network without a separate processor or DSP in between. Power, control and audio all flow over Ethernet, so the install is one cable per speaker. The system grows from a few rooms to a whole property by adding speakers to the switch.

Why Genelec speakers?

Because they are studio monitors, built for accuracy, and refined enough for a living room. Genelec speakers are used in recording studios worldwide, and the Smart IP series brings the same design to a home. That means compact cabinets, built-in amplification and DSP, and room calibration through Genelec's Smart IP Manager that adjusts each speaker to where it sits. They come in wall, ceiling and freestanding versions. For a listening room or a main floor where sound quality is the point, this is the speaker we recommend, and one cable does the whole job.

Where do SoundTube PoE speakers fit?

In the zones where coverage matters more than critical listening: hallways, patios, offices, a shop. SoundTube PoE speakers are powered and fed over a single network cable, so there is no amplifier, no speaker wire and no volume control in the wall. A new zone is a cable to the nearest PoE switch. That flexibility suits large homes and the commercial spaces we also serve; a covered patio in University Place and a restaurant dining room use the same approach.

How is it designed for your house?

Zone by zone, from a walk-through. We map the rooms and outdoor areas you actually use, then pick the speaker for each. Genelec goes where you listen, SoundTube where you want coverage, and architectural in-ceiling speakers where the room should stay clean. Then we plan the cable routes and the rack, and tune each zone in the room after install. A network that carries audio, cameras and automation is designed at the same time. We put audio on its own VLAN with traffic priority so a camera upload never stalls the music. See Wi-Fi and networking.

What drives the cost?

Zone count, the speaker grade per zone, and how much cable has to travel through finished walls. A main floor with four zones and a patio is a different job from a whole house with a listening room and outdoor audio in the garden. We do not publish per-zone prices; the instant quote gives you a figure in minutes and the walk-through turns it into a fixed proposal.

Need it installed?

Rivas Technology Group designs and installs whole-home audio and home theater in University Place from our office in Kent, about 30 minutes away. See the University Place page, or book a walk-through and we will map the zones with you.