How do I…

Connect devices into a zone

Join compatible devices, such as speakers, lighting or door hardware, on the same sheet.

Where to find it: select a device › Properties › its connect button, or ⌘-click the other device

1. Select the first device.
2. Hold ⌘ (Ctrl on Windows) and click a compatible device on the same sheet. Or press the connect button in the Properties header, then click the device; its tooltip names what it connects, such as Connect lighting devices or Connect to a door. Done puts the button down without connecting.
3. The first device stays selected, so ⌘-click, or press the button again, for each other member. Clicking a device that is already connected to it disconnects the two.

It also works while you are still placing: the device you have just put down keeps the round blue plus grip beside it, and dragging that onto a compatible device joins the two without disarming the palette, so the next one goes down straight afterwards. On a tablet, with no ⌘ to hold, use this grip or the connect button.

The devices now form a zone. Surround devices show positions such as FL and SW1 in place of numbers. A speaker joining a surround system takes a role by where it stands — SL or SR at the sides, SBL or SBR further back — so the system's name counts it, and the roles it gave are sorted again as each speaker joins. A role you choose in Surround is never changed for you, and Unassigned hands the speaker back; choose it in Surround, in the speaker's Placement, which also has the front wides (FWL, FWR) and top middles (TML, TMR). A subwoofer joining takes SW, then SW1, SW2 as more join, and only a subwoofer takes SW. A 70V speaker cannot join a surround, and 70V and 8Ω speakers do not share a zone — an 8Ω subwoofer may, and goes on the zone's line; see set a speaker to powered or 70V and build a 70V or 100V line. Lighting and door groups are listed together in Equipment, and connections never change quantities.

Two surround systems can share one screen: connect the screen of the first to the center of the second. It joins that system too, and the two stay apart, each with its own number and roles; a system without a soundbar takes its sides from the screen. Connecting the screen to a system's center again takes it out of that system only. At most one soundbar sits under a screen, so a second system shares it through a center speaker; a second soundbar is refused with the reason. Once shared, add speakers through their system's center rather than the screen.

To place a whole surround system at once, speakers, displays and wiring together, use the surround builder. To rough a surround system in before the products are chosen, place placeholders by position from Surround Sound in the palette — L, C, R, FWL, SL and the rest. Subwoofers come from Speakers and take SW when they join. Replace…, the swap button at the top of its Properties (it is in the ⋯ too), later turns each placeholder into the real speaker, keeping its position.

Connection lines are thin, faded dashes, each system in its own colour: Surround 1, Surround 2, then the sheet's other zones in the order they were started; a shared screen has a line in each system's colour. The dotted-line button in the Surround Sound, Speakers, Lighting, Lighting control or Access Control heading of Equipment, or beside each system in a view, hides or shows them without disconnecting anything.

To remove a link, select the connection line and choose Remove connection.