ha ha, I have the crestron software and it looks ok to use. I was going to wait for a series 2 processor to come up on ebay, but then this AMX deal came up, got the axcent 3, touchpanel, wireless gateway, volume controller, stand, rackmounts and the guy's just made good on his software for 150gbp... it's new or so it says and is all boxed. Thought that was a good deal...

In any case the software turns up in the next day or so, as does the psu I was missing (15gbp on ebay!), so thought I'd try it.

Looking at the advice above, the pronto TSU9600 and the rs232 bit looks like it would have been an easier start, but again a lot more money. Besides I was always led to believe that amx / crestron were the best and most customisable, so I thought I'd take a look. Time will tell :)