Integration with Asterisk/Trixbox.

I am looking at integration a C-bus/starserve environment with an Asterisk/trixbox (an OpenSource PABX Application). Has anyone tried this before?

 

Hi MisterQ,
I'm aware of Asterisk, I've used it before. How exactly are you looking at or wanting to integrate it into a C-Bus/Starserve environment?

What is it exactly that you are trying to achieve?

Darpa

 

Darpa, I am helping some friends in the design of a Multi-million dollar house, that is being built. They have committed to C-bus, but the immediate thing that struck me, was that the "installer", was going "bare minimum" and when you are spending that sort of money on a house, you want more

It is a 4 floor house, with it's own Elevator, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 offices (3 laundries - don't quite understand that one.) Expanding past just having some LIghting controls, I have suggested that the "wiring" be expanded 1. For internet delivery all over the house. For Video delivery all over the house (they have a media room as well as siz other TV's planned). S

They hadn't touched on Phones, and intercoms, and also Video "surveillance".

At the moment the installer is looking at RG59 for video feeds around the house, including some "back runs" from the media centre in the media room. (We are also looking at 2 or 3 Foxtel feeds). I am considering whether using HDMI over Cat5 adaptors may make more sense...

They will have 3-4 incoming phone lines, and potentially 8-10 "extensions". The extensions will of course double as intercoms for each of the major locations. IN addition, because the front door/gate is not visible from the master control (kitchen area) or the master bedroom, a video intercom/remote release for front door/gate seems appropriate. OBviously integration of that into the "starserve" is one issue, but also the ability to "remote" into the house, to "set scenes", enable security, activate aircon etc, etc, is appropriate.

I have done several Asterisk implementations myself, including my own place, and the latest versions support Videophones, which means that it's a simpler way of video intercoming with the front door/gate.

I guess, some questions that come to mind, are a) integration with Star Serve. I have started reading on this, and it's not clear whether starserve serves as a patch panel, a hub, or a switch in the traditional computer sense.

We are already looking at having a cbus "panel" on each floor, with relays and dimmers, the next question is do we star-serve on each floor as well.

 

As far as sending normal Free-To-Air aerial signals around the house, the clipsal starserve equipment is good quality, and worth a look. However, when it comes to IP/ethernet networks, its seriously lacking. I would strongly suggest getting a standard 19" rack, the same type that is used in Data Centres, etc.
Go buy a good quality 24 Port 10/100 network switch (or two), and mount that in the rack with all the other AV and computer gear for the house.
Starserve isnt very good in its design in handling that amount of cabling you're looking at, so look at the more serious/professional solutions around.
The reason I'm recommending 10/100Mbps switches over the newer "Gigabit" ones, is that the price of the gigabit ones with that many ports is still rather high, but if your client is willing to consider the extra cost, then definately go gigabit for future expansion. Also, dont let the installer use RG59, its outdated and not worth buying. A 305m roll of RG6 Quad Shield is not that expensive these days, and no serious installer would even think about using RG59 unless they had a ton of it in their back shed and they were trying to flog it off to some sucker.
Also, I would suggest using Cat6 over Cat5e, again for reasons of future upgradability. It costs on average maybe 20-30% more, but its worth it if you want to run a gigabit network at any time. Cat5e will run it, but its not recommended, and I would strongly suggest running Cat6 now, even if you're only going to use 10/100 switches.
DEFINATELY use the HDMI over Cat6 converters instead of running coax. (But also run one or two RG6 feeds next to the HDMI over Cat6 feeds for expandability). You can run Standard definition video over the coax no worries, but it wont handle any kind of High definition except free-to-air.

Will write some later tonight, but will leave it at that for now just to get you thinking.

Darpa

 

Maybe Darpa has used some 'quality' re-branded Starserve equipment???

But for what it's worth, I would not put it in my house.

Brands like GME are far better quality and will give you less headaches in the long run, trust me.

 

Admittedly, I am only talking about the Clipsal 8073/8VHPIR splitters, I found the individual gain adjustments on them quite handy.

But I digress, brands like GME/Kingray are by far the more reliable and well-known amongst professionals.

 

Definately run a decent number of Cat5/6 and RG6Q runs to each room (as appropriate). The possibilities are endless, and you're looking on the right track. Distributing things like MATV (Free-to-air TV), TV from the media room, foxtel, phone, computer network, security (including surveillance), etc.
Alot of things are slowly moving over to IP-based (Internet Protocol) devices, you can even distribute MATV over a normal IP network these days (have a look HERE for an exmaple).
I would suggest running as many Cat6 runs as is feasible, and at least 2 RG6Q runs as well to each room that is likely to have any need for TV/Phone/Computer.
For example, to a bedroom, it would pay to run at least 3 or 4 Cat6 runs, and 2 or 3 RG6Q runs. This will enable the wiring to accommodate TV, Phone, Computer, Intercom, etc.
And dont forget the bathrooms, alot of upmarket homes have waterproof TV's in the shower or bath now, so have a look at that possibility.
As far as security cameras are concerned, you have two main choices. Either use IP cameras that can be viewed by a computer or Media Centre connected to a TV, or use traditional composite cameras, and then use modulators to distribute their video over the normal TV system, to be viewed on any TV in the home.

Dont even bother with RG59 these days, use RG6 Quad-shield, or "RG6Q".
The fact that you have a media room, makes me think that it would be best if you had a cupboard either in the room, or next door to it, that had all of the media room's equipment in it, plus all of your data networking, MATV distribution, etc in it. If you run all of your Cat6 and RG6Q back to this one cupboard, then you can distribute whatever you like wherever you like. Dont bother putting a starserve or similar cabinet per floor, it may cost you more in cable, but it will cost you less in enclosures, network switches, signal degradation, and system complexity.
One thing to note with foxtel, if you have the feed coming in from the street (underground or overhead urban feed), then you can run all your coax back to this cabinet or cupboard, and then "split" the foxtel feed off from there to wherever in the house you want it. However, if you need to use a satellite with a multi-head LNB, then you will need to run the coax directly from the rooms that you want it in, straight up to the satellite, so it would pay to talk to foxtel and work that one out now, before you start planning anything.
And like I said before, if you want a HD picture distributed from the media room to the other TVs in the house, then definately go HDMI over Cat6 instead of trying to distribute an SD composite signal over coax.

There are a few options you have here, but firstly, I would suggest that if you build a decent network of Cat6 throughout the house, then you can run pretty much any damn thing you like over it. Cat6 can handle the obvious data networks, but it can also be used for security systems & cameras, phones, video distribution, etc.
If you put in a good network, then you can definately use it with asterisk, however when it comes to the front gate, it might possibly be easier to get a proper unit for the front gate off the shelf and integrate that with the rest of the system, rather than trying to put a camera, and seperate intercom out there. That way, you can use the camera in the intercom, and distribute the video over the MATV system or IP network, and (possibly, but I'm no expert on it at all) display the image from the gate on a Color C-Touch. You could then use a C-Bus input unit, whether it be a normal "button" such as a Neo or Saturn, or alternatively, the C-Touch, to then open the gate remotely.
As far as being to remotely connect into the house, I would skip using a normal PSTN line for remote connection to the C-Bus system, as if you want to be able to remotely monitor security cameras, etc, then you're better off to set up a broadband line for it all, use a CNI to connect C-Bus to it, and just make sure that the router is set up to only allow access to authorised people into the network, that way your clients would be able to get on a computer at work, or wherever, and view what was going on with the security cameras (if you use IP ones), control the house's lighting and anything else connected to C-Bus (through Homegate or something similar), and would also be able to access any other computers turned on in the house.

As far as starserve goes, I wouldn't bother with putting an enclosure on each floor. I would just put a standard 19" rack-mount cabinet inside a cupboard in or next to the media room, and run all your distributed services out from that central point.
If you put some shelves into the cabinet as well, you can put all the devices for the media room into the rack as well, meaning you have everything in the one place, patch panels, network switches, servers, etc, and you can just re-patch anything you want to go wherever you want.

Starserve is basically just a design principle, in that you have en enclosure, a small patch panel, and a couple of "active" units that "split" the TV, Data, and Phone out, so you can patch it out to the outlets. However, in an installation of the size and complexity you're talking, starserve is out of its depth.

Also, to follow on from what I said before about the type of network switch to buy, if you put in a couple of 24 port 10/100Mb network switches, that should be enough to handle everything, but if you need more capacity (in a network speed sense) to a few outlets, such as for Video over IP, or anything else that consumes large amounts of data, you can easily buy cheap 8-port gigabit switches on ebay these days, just plug the more data-hungry devices into that, and then run a network cable from it to each of the other 10/100 switches. (You can also get very high-quality, brand-name rackmount 24 port switches on ebay that are usually ex-corporate ones, so even though they are second hand, with a bit of a clean up, they will last forever).

Hope that helps you get a better idea of where you are headed, if you want to know more about anything in particular, let us know

Darpa