Taken the plunge and bought the BS5/BM5 based around a fantastic pre-price rise trade-in deal I've negotiated. Should be fitted in the next couple of weeks.

However, I'm confused about the linking of the products to existing kit. I understand how the BS5 links to the BM5; that's clear. What's confusing me is this:

I want the BS5 in my TV room to connect to both my BV7 and BL9s. I guess that isn't a problem.

I want to access the contents of the BM5 through my BS4, upstairs, in my office. Could that be acheived through the wireless link system? If so, how would you select/find a track?

As well as linking to the BV7/BL9s, I also want to connect the BM5 to my BC2/BL9s in the sitting room. ie. two connections. I want to be able to play audio via two separate rooms. Possible?

Welcome to the club of BeoSound 5 owners, Moxxey! You're not going to regret your purchase. The BS5 must be connected to the BM5 via 3 cables. You can request 4-meter cables to allow for more flexibility of placement. You can access and control the n.music and n.radio via your BS4; however, you will still feel "blind" controlling it just as we have been with the Beoport. 

Actually, you're very lucky living on "your side of the pond" because you have the option of having video link. In the U.S., we don't have video link. :-(

Video link is not enabled on the BM5 yet, but it will be soon. Probably later this summer. When that happens, you could have better navigation in a link room that has a tv.

While waiting for your new purchase to be installed, you might want to spend this time preparing by re-ripping whatever music you want to be lossless and by cleaning up your digital music tags and replacing poor resolution cover art with high resolution cover art. This is a very time-consuming process. The first two days after you install your BM5/BS5, the system will be working it's processing power very hard analyzing the music. Those two days will not be the ideal time to be cleaning up tags and replacing cover art.

beojeff:

Welcome to the club of BeoSound 5 owners, Moxxey! You're not going to regret your purchase. The BS5 must be connected..

Thanks for the reply Jeff, but could you re-read the questions? I know how it's connected to the BM5. I know how it connects to the TV. I need to know how it connects to my other kit in other rooms! See above :)

Moxxey,

The BS5 becomes a part of your masterlink network just like any other source - via ML cable or ML wireless. As I mentioned, the link access is very much like that of the Beoport. You use N.Music on your Beo4/Beo5 in a link room to access the digital music stored on it. You use N.Radio to access the internet radio stations on it. You can use the up/down buttons to skip tracks. The color buttons access stored playlists. The problem using (non-video) link in a link room is just like that of the Beoport. I.e., you are very limited in doing much more than skipping tracks and accessing favorite playlists. The video link will provide much broader access once it's available.

One thing that occurred to me is that your link room is your den. Therefore, if your computer is in that room you have total control via the computer using Beoplayer. The computer is connected to the BM5/BS5 via ethernet or wireless network. The music does not need to be stored on the computer. Beoplayer will still access and control the music that is stored on the BM5. The interface is similar to that of the BeoMedia5 interface.

I don't own one, but have been doing a lot of research as I'm trying to decide (and please, anybody, correct me if I'm wrong)...  It is my understanding that you connect the BS5/BM5 system to your others via MasterLink.  You can do this via the later versions of the wireless link product (if I recall correctly, the early wireless only distributed sound).  I'm told the control from link rooms is minimal.  Basically, you select N.Radio or N.Music to select that last played internet radio station or song, you can control the volume and skip forward and back in the song queue with the arrows.  *Maybe* the Beo4 color buttons can select the colored favorites queue - but I could not get this to work when I was trying it at the dealers.  The manual can be downloaded from this site.

Stan

Ah, I see. That makes things a little more clear. Thanks.

One more question - if you had another BS5, in another room (ie. two BS5s), could they both connect to the one central BM5?

Surely it would make more sense if the BS5 was able to connect and control the BM5 wirelessly? So you didn't need to cable-up between a remote BS5 on another floor and a central BM5, as Jeff says, in the 'den'?

As I stated in the first post, you do have to connect the BM5 to the BS5 physically with the 3 cables (up to 4 meters). However, you can access and control the music on the BM5 wirelessly using the BeoPlayer program on your PC in another room.

I agree with where your logic is headed: if a Windows computer can access and control the BM5/BS5 on a wireless network and if the BS5 is essentially a Windows computer, shouldn't we be able to have mutiple BS5 units connect to and control the BM5 on a wireless network? Currently that is not possible. But it makes total sense that B&O could introduce such linkroom panels in the future.

Correct Jeff. Would be ideal. I could then replace my BS4, BC2 etc with more BS5s, all connected to the same master BM5!

Maybe that's another question for the UK CEO...

Moxxey,

I also offer my congrats on the purchase. Hopefully your transition will go smoothly. I've addressed a few of your points below:

Multiple BeoSound 5s This isn't (and won't be) possible. It'll make sense once you have the boxes in your house, but essentially the head unit talks directly to the BeoMaster 5 (where the PowerLink ports, etc. are located). It should really be thought of as a single unit.

However! We will soon see talk of a peripheral product for just such an application. These devices will have full GUIs and controls that will eliminate the need for "blind" operation in link rooms. They will be like replacements for ML IR receivers and have been described to me as "mini BeoSound 5s." They will also be a much more cost effective solution for second rooms, as the BeoSound 5 is about 60% of the overall cost of the system.

Second Room Operation Obviously this will change with the product discussed above, but today you would be navigating in "Play Mode." This is when you move the toggle to the extreme top or bottom of the search arc and the display changes to the enlarged album cover & song info. In this mode you have the ability to move forward and backwards as though the playlist you've built is one giant CD. You can also tap into your 4 playlists and navigate them the same way, and even your "seeds" (or the 99 favorites you can store) if you're using a Beo 5. 

In the next software revision you will also have Fast Forward and Rewind capability.

Connection To The Network This may not be totally correct as I'm not clear on what's wired and what's wireless, but it sounds like you have 3 zones, each with a "master" in it.

1. A BeoVision 7 & BeoLab 9s (where the BeoSound 5 will go)  

2. A BeoCenter 2 & BeoLab 9s

3. A BeoSound 4 + BeoLab ?s

In this setup, you probably have one of your CD players set as a master (Audio Option 1 or 2) and one as a client (Audio Option 6). So in the office, you can press CD and play the CD you're in front of, or LINK / CD and listen to the one in the sitting room BeoCenter 2. 

In order to retain access to CDs from every room, you'll keep it as the master and set the BeoSound 5 to AM : NO, that it will register as a client to one system or the other. Probably the BeoCenter 2, as it sounds like it may be the main listening environment. That will yield this result:

1. TV Room: CD/RADIO accesses the BeoCenter 2, N.MUSIC/N.RADIO accesses BeoSound 5, LINK CD accesses the BeoSound 4

2. Sitting Room: CD/RADIO accesses the BeoCenter 2, N.MUSIC/N.RADIO accesses BeoSound 5, LINK CD accesses the BeoSound 4

3. Office: CD/RADIO accesses the BeoSound 4, N.MUSIC/N.RADIO accesses BeoSound 5, LINK CD accesses the BeoCenter 2. 

Hope that helps.

-T

TripEnglish:

1. A BeoVision 7 & BeoLab 9s (where the BeoSound 5 will go)  - TV room

2. A BeoCenter 2 & BeoLab 9s - dining/kitchen

3. A BeoSound 4 + BeoLab 3s - office

Yep :)

Thanks for the update Trip, much appreciated. I don't think the BS5 will be here for a couple of weeks though. I'll let you know once it's installed.