What are these Audio ports?

[jotade11]

Hello all,

I know this is not a Mac specific question, but I figured that someone might well be able to answer my question. Anyways, I just moved into a new home, and in the basement is a wall that has several outlets, where the previous owner's TV was. The entire basement is wired for speakers and the other room in the basement has built-ins in the ceiling, but the previous owners took their home theater system out of the TV room itself. There is one control panel in the basement for the sources (and a play/pause button), but supposedly it controls whatever equipment is connected to several different outlets (links to pictures below).

1.) www.jotadev.com/IMG_2349.jpg
The entire TV wall, with what is clearly a Cable wire in the center. I was told that the center audio socket is the input, and the two 'outlets' on the sides (identical to one another) carrying the same signal to two components of the audio system.

2.) http://www.jotadev.com/IMG_2350.jpg
One of the side outlets.

3.) http://www.jotadev.com/IMG_2351.jpg
The center "inlet" socket.

4.) http://www.jotadev.com/IMG_2352.jpg
The other side "outlet".

So, my question is: how would I go about setting up a sound system? Currently, neither the aforementioned control panel nor the built in speakers function, but I was told that once input was hooked up they would. What cables will I need, and if I want to put several speakers in the TV room, what sort of central "brain" box will I need to purchase?

I know it may be impossible to tell how the wires run, as a.) they are behind a wall, and b.) you are limited by my poor description of the situation, but any info, tips, advice, etc. would be very much appreciated!

Thanks so much for reading to here!

-J.D.

 

[Viremia]

The jacks with the red or black bands are just speaker jacks. You'd hook them up to your speakers with regular old speaker wire. The RCA jacks (white centers for #2 and #4 pics) may be for subwoofers. You don't need to use both. You'd need to pull off the plates and see that they're actually connected to wire that leads into and behind the wall.

The input would be a surround sound receiver. I'm not sure about the control panel. It's hard to tell from the description. You might want to have a home theater technician come out to your home and sort it out.

In my media room, I have the speaker jacks on the back wall for my surrounds and then on the front wall. I hook the rear surrounds to the back wall jacks and then run speaker wire from the jacks on the front wall to my receiver which is sitting in a TV stand. That way, I don't have speaker wire all over the room. The front and center are directly connected to the receiver.

Because you've got what looks like speaker jacks for fronts and center, the previous owner may have had their surround sound receiver in another room. Or at least not right next to the TV. Again, a technician should be able to help you troubleshoot how everything is wired.

 

[jotade11]

Thanks so much! Good to know about the subwoofers! I'll definitely get a technician out here, as clearly this is over my head . Thanks again!