So let me paint a slightly broader picture...
I'm setting up a
meeting room in an NFP context.
In it's normal state it will be setup to deal with sound from laptops, BluRay,
etc.
What we also want to provision for is to be able to
plug an external
mixer in (from our
portable system to be bought still) and when that's connected, it feeds the amp and speakers in the room.
So it needs to be something that is dead simple for a volunteer who visits the building once or twice a year to get working. I'm not interested in getting a phone
call every week for someone who either can't find the
switch to
enable the external
mixer or find the
switch when the other guy forgot to
switch it back.
Hence I wanted a simple, if it's plugged in, it's switched through, if it's unplugged it's not.
There will likely to some functionality setup in
Crestron land to lock out local control and override everything when one or 2 "
power users" are in the building and stretching the
system to its limits and beyond.
Yes I could very well just
wire the inputs with 5 or 6 pin XLRs and short contacts for switching, but I can see those special cables getting lost amongst the general purpose XLR3 cables in the
portable system or at any rate, the room also has operable walls and so I need to be able to run a
line in from another room twice a year and I don't want to deal with special cabling there either.
There are numerous advantages to having a
stock standard XLR3 as the input...