Audio/Video Receivers

Introduction

Calaos drives home cinema receivers connected to the network: switching them on and off, setting the volume, changing the source. The receiver becomes a device like any other, usable in your rules and scenarios.

This is what lets a “Cinema” scenario switch the receiver on to the right input at the same time as it dims the lights and closes the shutters.

Supported brands

BrandIdentifier
Denondenon
Marantzmarantz
Onkyoonkyo
Pioneerpioneer
Yamahayamaha
HiFi Rosehifirose

These manufacturers all expose a network control protocol, which Calaos uses directly. No gateway or extra box is needed.

Prerequisites

The receiver must be connected to the network, preferably over Ethernet, and reachable from the Calaos server.

Give it a fixed IP address, or reserve one on your router. A receiver that changes address after an outage becomes unreachable, and the symptom — “commands no longer get through” — does not naturally point at the network.

Also check in the device settings that network control is enabled. Many receivers disable it by default, or cut it in standby to save power: in the latter case, Calaos will not be able to switch them back on.

Parameters

NameDescription
hostIP address or name of the receiver on the network
modelBrand of the device, from the list above
outputOutput zone of the receiver, for multi-zone models

The zone parameter

Many receivers drive several zones: the main room and one or two secondary zones feeding other rooms.

Each zone is declared separately in Calaos, with the same address but a different output. You then get independent control of the living room and the terrace, from the same device.

Using it in rules

Once declared, the receiver is used like any IO:

  • in a scenario — “Cinema” switches the receiver on to the projector input;
  • as a rule action — switch the receiver off when the “Leaving” scenario triggers;
  • as a condition — only switch the living room lights off if the receiver is running.

See Create rules and Scenario.

Diagnosis

If the receiver does not answer:

  1. does it answer a ping from the Calaos server?
  2. is network control enabled in its settings?
  3. does it stay active in standby? If not, the receiver can never be switched back on remotely.
  4. has its address changed since it was configured?

See Logs for communication errors.

See also

For multi-room music playback, see Music zones.