^^^
This

I think the question that has to be learned 1st is: How did the electrician wire it?
Because if it is anything like the electrician's around here, there will be only 1 option = 70V amp.
Because the idiots would have wired from speaker to speaker, in series, for 60 speakers.

That would suck so much, but yeah I’ve seen dumb wiring like this by Electrican’s

"30 Zones of music, budget minded customer"???? Another one of those guys? Somehow 30 zones of music and budget minded don't really go together. lol

Definitely avoid the Sonos nightmare that project would certainly be.

Do it right, sell him an 8 stack of these...

[Link: usa.yamaha.com]

Thanks, sorry for the delay in responding.
As I did not have anything to do with the design, speaker placement etc, I can only work with what I have been given.
Initially, without documents, I was told that there were around 20 zones of music.
It is a very large home, but as many have pointed out, it does not need to be able to play 20 different things in 20 different rooms. This is more about being able to select from maybe 6 or 8 sources (His, Hers, kids, Guest, Patio... whatever. I will have to figure out naming with the client) and turn on, control volume in 20 - now 30 areas of the house. As we have no option of grouping areas and just adding volume controls, we are dealing with 30 "zones" There are at least 41 or 42 pairs of speakers throughout.
Initially, my thought was to use 20 Sonos Amps and call it a day. Not for the purpose of having something different playing everywhere, but for just the ease of set up and use.
When the client walked through with us and we discovered we were up to 30 zones, and an extra $10K was not really in the budget, I figured there would be another way to do this. I also saw a few comments about using Sonos closer to it's limits can start to have problems.

I like the idea of Yamaha as there is an RTI driver, and there are two Surround systems that I could use Yamaha AVR's in and have music cast in those areas too.
Problem,I was first told was Yamaha does not work well past 10 zones, although the Yamaha pieces mentioned above do say up to 32 zones.

I have done Clare Controls once a number of years ago with previous employer, not sure if I am comfortable with their product, really do not hear much about it.

So looking at matrix Audio switching / amplification and something I can reliably control through RTI became the search.
Matrix audio, there are lots of choices, I have used many over the years.

RTI AD8x, can use 4 of them, and add more amplification for the couple of areas that would need it. Then it just becomes the music streaming device that is the real question.

Lots of people poo poo on Fusion, I used it in the past, had a couple of systems that worked fine and a couple that became service calls regularly. They are claiming to be using new software, and have in house RTI driver. Plus if I have read correctly, can use Spotify from the RTI app, not have to go to your phone to play.
I have only ever used Autonomics in Savant systems, so no idea if it works well in RTI land, and clients did not have Spotify in those systems.

Bluesound is also very nice but no Sirius radio, which I think with so many people having it in their cars, they would want it in their homes too.

Any RTI guru's out there that can tell me which streaming music box works great in RTI land?

I have done a few bigger Sonos systems but he one that was about 18 zones had similar issues with a similar level of network.

Putting the Sonos on its own vlan made it work pretty reliably.

But honestly most of the larger house audio jobs I have done have been Crestron/Sonnex. XM tuner, dedicated sat/cable box, Sonos Connect or 3.
Doing it this way also allows the house video sources to be available in each room's in wall/in ceiling speakers.

Find out who set the budget and their criteria. Be careful. Don't meet the budget while failing to meet expectations. I think that you'll need to "manage" this potential customer.

I would avoid integrating Sonos with any control system if at all possible. Their last update broke integration with Savant and most likely others. Sonos on its own for audio is fine.

What streaming services do they use? Autonomics with your flavor of amps would be a solid solution using as many streamers as they need. We lean towards single zone streamers so they can have as many unique accounts as they need, 5 different Spotify accounts for example.

As for budget its hard to sympathize with someone that has 30 zones of audio they are out of money. Don't let the budget dictate you into a less than optimal system as you will pay for this for years to come. Give him 20 zones of audio and add the last 10 when they come up with more cash. ;)

RTI does have a great driver for all of our ProAudio models. A ProAudio 16X32 would give you 40 inputs and 32 outputs with 12 additional 12V triggers which should meet your budget. Good luck on the project.

It's slim pickins on the available services, but the Nuvo streamer is near flawless with RTI. A dozen or so out in the field with little to no trouble after updates including my own home.

In fact, I'd take a hard look at a Zektor Proaudio w/ competent amps, XP6 and a Nuvo streamer. You won't find better reliability + flexibility.

Re: MusicCast zones, the new products can handle the number you're looking at. Older products, not so much.

The quad streaming amps are darned cool and are designed to pretty much do what you're looking to do... factor in RTI, some sources like turntables, CD players, theatre receivers and you should be sweet.

this can be done with RTI and Sonos Connects. We have done houses with 19 zones, with the same setup.
(4) AD8x and 8 Sonos Connects. To save on there "budget" you can drop down to 3 AD8 and less sonos connects and always add more later. If they need more connects then its a different ball game with the "budget". CLient needs to understand that.

For the outdoor zones just add a crown or some other powerful amp to get more power.

The most important question is how are you with RTI programming? If you are new or don't have experience programming these big systems you can have issues and client will think the system sucks if its not working right.

Regarding what streamer works best with RTI. They are a ton out there but some missing other things then other, like searching inside RTI, etc
We stick with sonos and make the client select there Favs from ANY service and it shows on our RTI interface. Very Simple and clients love it.
Yea they (sonos) broke integration with RTI but RTI released a fix under 24hours. That was only time integration was broke where it effected RTI.

If you need help programming or want to sub out the programming DM me.

Have been doing RTI for a long time (T1 and T2c remotes were popular back then), so no worry's about that.
Still have reservations about Sonos and RTI (or any control system)
As mentioned, Audio switching is easy, lots of options, I actually have an AD8x sitting around somewhere, so three more of those and adding a couple of bigger amps for areas where needed takes care of that part.
I recall previous company did a Nuvo system for a client and did have a couple of little quirks.
So I think at this point I will look at Autonomics or Fusion. Have to compare as I see they both have new streamers since the last time I dealt with either.

I think any issues with Yamaha would involve network setup more than anything else but I could be wrong, since I haven't used that many in one system.

I wouldn't make any decisions or recommendations until I got everything in writing. Sounds like too many people are involved for this to be an easy "I would do this" and get an "OK, go ahead". I think I would sit with the homeowner and explain that you need more detail in the requirements list. Find out how many sources they really need and that will tell you a lot. You may only need a four input matrix, or you may be able to use one amplifier for more than one zone.

This would be a good time to recommend that amplifier manufacturers add IR/IP control to their products. Wouldn't be a terrible thing if separate volume controls had it, but their time isn't long, IMO.

Watch your Sonos update...

[Link: en.community.sonos.com]