i have a client that heard about the Elan Z600 Communications controller and he really wants it bad. the guy already has 2 Russound CAV6.6 controllers running his system with UNO S2 pads through out the house. just wondering if anyone has ever integrated these two products together. I have never worked with any ELAN stuff so i am not to familiar with it

He should have bought an ELAN System in the first place. One thing my ELAN Rep always talks about is the attacment rate. You can sell any ELAN controller and attach multiple other pieces and make the system much more robust. That is what I like about ELAN, and it makes for such an easy sell.

The Z600 does have an accomodation for stand-alone installs. It has a line-level input and loop-out which is designed to interupt the music when a page or doorbell is initiated. It then passes either the doorchime or speech. Assuming you have an amplifier in the system, you could hang the Z600 on one zone.

The Two are technically compatible with each other. I have stated that because I sell both, but have never placed the two together.

The Control jack on the Z600 can produce 12volts that is usually triggering the overide in the Elan Volume controls. This 12v output will go to the page input on the Cav6.6(s) and in programming, you assign which zones respond to the page. The Page/DB output Rca connector will go to the PAge RCa connector on the Russound.

Mark65, IT will work on ALL zones, given the correct programming.

I can send you the PDF of the Z600if your email can accept a large file.

I've never seen a russound piece so wasn't sure if it had that abililty.

The Z-600 (or Z-601 with the rackmount face) are great add ons, and you can use them with any distributed audio system that has a configurable page trigger and a page input... the doorbell tones and all of that are generated in the Elan comm box and the page override input on the Russound, Niles, etc. doesn't care if it is breaking in to play the doorbell chimes from te Elan Z-600 or your voice asking the kids to come to dinner.

The real issue is whether it will be compatible with their phones.

Remember that the comm controller can only be connected to one incoming line. If they have multiple lines this may be a problem.

If the lines are awitched through a "real" phone system with a KSU, you can program one of the CO's to go directly to the line that the Elan box is connected to, and teach them to selelct that CO, then enter the tones to enact paging and door station use.

With some systems, you will have to dial the KSU tones to open the switch to get out to the correct line where the Elan box can hear the handset tones, then dial the Elan tones to enact the page mode, then talk into the handset... I only saw that on one system, and it was an old Merlin system that I hope nobody else ever has to be forced to deal with.

KSU-less multi-line systems are easier, because they can be programmed to give to a specific incloming line from a specific CO selection.

Plain old multi-line phones are the best, one line takes you to the Elan controller and the others do not, choose the correct line and your ready to go...

Have a frank discussion now about their phone usage and future plans before you specify an Elan comm controller.

thanks rick and everyone else
the customers is just gonna have a POTS so it sounds like it will all work out